Take The Power Back

my favorite part would be the "The teacher stands in front of the class But the lesson plan he can't recall The student's eyes don't perceive the lies Bouning off every fucking wall His composure is well kept I guess he fears playing the fool The complacent students sit and listen to some of that Bullshit that he learned in school"

first of all history class is a joke, when we got to people like malcolm x and the black panthers, we spent less than 15 minutes on them we spent a month or so on organized crime and proabition, but only a couple weeks on the genocide of indians, and less than a week on civil rights i usually dont like to talk politics with my teachers since i have to spend so much time with them, which is why i keep my composure, but one day my teacher yelled at me for not standing for the pledge (after a whole semester he finaly said something) thats when i lost my shit in front of the whole class not a good day but teachers i swear feel like they have all the power over students

"i wanna see a bumper sticker that says ... "we are the proud parents of a child who has resisted their teachers attempts to break his spirit and bend them to the will of their corporate masters"" -george carlin

I'm seriously thinking about buying a page in my high school year book next year (when I'm a senior) and posting these lyrics, or the lyrics to another Rage song, probably either Calm Like a Bomb, Sleep Now in the Fire, or Bullet in the Head. Maybe throw in an upside-down American flag just for some color... any thoughts about my idea?

There's a good chance the school wouldn't let me though... censorship and all that... my school's run by fascists.

Its about having a revolution in America. All we learn about is us and Europe and wars? We learn nothing about africa, the shit they try to teach about egypt and mayans is a joke the teachers barely understand it. We are in a circle of mindlessness that will continue because it is the "popular idea". The education is "the power" obviously. the weathermen in the lrics is capatilized so obviously it's not a joke.

Basically Rage would be our version of the clash. .. much more violent. . .but what the clash said is most true "white people don't throw bricks because they are afraid of jail."

somebody here wrote rage's message is always the same, not specific, and vague, or something like that.. I definitely have to dissagre with that. At least in my case, I've learned a lot from zack's lyrics man.. for example, reading into the battle of los angeles lyrics I got into george orwell, just read some of his books and you'll get the message! you have to know your history, you have to educate your self, that's the first step! listening to this album (ratm 1992) I started researching and learned about manifest destiny, malcolm x, marthing luther king, the zapatistas, and there are a lot of other things to get to know about, you just have to be interested in learning more about what their lyrics actually talk about.. And also, learning about US history inspired me to learn about the history of my own country (I´m from Paraguay) cause here they teach us only lies in school.

saludos desde el tercer mundo greetings from the third wolrd!

I think this song is trying to comment on the fact that in conservative education system we are only taught one side of the story that has been sanitised. Like here in Australia for example we did not learn anything at all in the education system about the Aboriginals. We now learn more but still don't really cover the period during the first settlement, nor do we learn about the resistance to the European settlement.

AWSOME BASS!!!!!!!!!!!!! My initial reading if these lyrics made me believe its about the fucked up education system in the US. I feel exactly the same way.

This song is words to live by. Mielonka: The Europ rope thing is basically saying he's not a fan of European culture even though our nation clings to it and how our culture will never reach it's potential until we fully open ourselves to other influence. Eurocentric (see Wikpedia definition below)...is referring to how our government, media, and schools(which are stongly controlled by our govt. on what and how they teach) is feeding us in a Eurocentric manner. Eurocentrism is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European (and, generally, Western) concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. Eurocentrism is an instance of ethnocentrism, perhaps especially relevant because of its alignment with current and past real power structures in the world. Eurocentrism often involved claiming cultures that were not white or European as being such, or denying their existence at all.

The source of a cultural tradition can be seen in the balance of emphasis given to various thinkers and ideas in discussing a subject. In the 1960s a reaction against the priority given to a canon of "Dead White European Males" provided a slogan which neatly sums up the charge of eurocentrism (alongside other important -centrisms).

RWB disguise is our govt. pretending we are unique and diverse.

Ahh, if only we could live in a land of the open-minded from across the globe where everyone thinks free and is influenced by all good things.

Totally agree with the comment made in 2002 about Tom's solo producing an orgasm or "audio-gasm". This album never gets old :-)

This is about the people taking the power back from the government and becoming a truly democratic society.

"Like the motherfuckin' Weathermen"

The Weathermen were a militant sub-group in the late-1960's politically-focused Students for a Democratic Society. The Weathermen were known for bombing buildings at various college campuses and similar activities to illustrate their point. SDS distanced themselves from the Weathermen after the bombings started.