Tom Morello: Fight The Power

"I think your only responsibility is to be honest in the things you write." Awesome article, thank you jambase.

"There is no party that is for peace. There is no party that is going to guarantee universal heath care. There is no party that will vigorously fight poverty. We don't have that party on the ticket. Until we do, I'm going to stand on the other side of the barbed wire fence and continue to fight for social justice."

Well Tom, that might be true that neither of the mainstream political parties are running on that ticket, but Nader seems to fit what you want perfectly. I would also argue that the libertarian party fits his beliefs well... they just don't think that the government should be offering health care and solutions for poverty, but it should be the non-profit charities. Good job criticizing our two party homogenized to one party system, but you should at least offer a solution so people don't just blow us off as total hacks.

And Nader and representatives of the Libertarian party are on nearly every state's ticket.

I always find that alot of protest dudes are always so vague in their views. I mean everyone agrees with "Peace", "No Poverty", "No War", No Bad Things, etc.. I mean that's a pretty easy stand to take. Isn't the real argument about what method/system you believe will solve these problems?

Ah...hes an anarchist turned socialist. Yikes. Credit for being a legendary riff machine though.

this is just a story i red in a John Frusciante interview, but i don't think frusciante has any reason to lie... anyway once rolling stone was shooting a photo for the cover of their best guitarists of all time or whatever. they wanted john frusciante to stand next to jimmy page, and apparently morello tried to cut in front of him or somethin' so that he could stand next to jimmy page... i dunno i'm indifferent on morello and i LOVE rage and i'm cool with audioslave, but that just seems kinda scummy. frusciante was real gentlemanly about it though he didn't bash tom or anything, just told the story.

seriously... what does tom morello know about politics? shut the fuck up and play your damn guitar. actually listen to rage's lyrics and really see how much they know about the world of politics. poverty? people on the streets? why don't you give them some of your money, tom, cause you're a millionare too. i understand that circumstances sometimes do force people to the streets, but as long as you have a healthy mind and body, you can easily get a job. this article is just tom morello spouting propoganda as usual.

I didn't know this was a "jamband" guy. I guess anyone can be a jambase band now.

for real calicheezer. there's been like four stories on this guy in like a month, which makes it even worse.

yea, what does morello know about ploitics...he only has a degree in political science from harvard

If all you want is "jamband guys" check out jambands.com, although they do mention righteous women from time to time. Not to sure I agree with your analysis on the current job market there Jefffromknox, but maybe there are hella jobs down in Tennessee.

i have a great deal of respect for tom morello as a musician, i'm just tired of seeing him all over jambase every day. i'll admit that there aren't very many great jobs down here, but it sounds like morello wants to reward panhandlers to me. oh well. maybe now that the election's over, jambase will end this political crap. hail to the new chief!

Does anybody think that after a whole bag of Cheetos Puffs that maybe Original Cheetos Crunchy was the way to go?

i think tom morello comes off arrogant as hell in this , i mean hes good but i can think of plenty of guitarists who can shred circles around him and with a hell of a lot more "feeling" in their sound. and i do agree that jambase is giving this guy too much coverage , i mean hes getting coverage worldwide and from very popular outlets at that , how about some love for i dunno, JAM musicians

thanks mm fried frog,,, Look you can find Madonna in Jambase. . . Thats my point. . . Tnx also Jeffrom Knox

jr2037

I always find that alot of protest dudes are always so vague in their views. I mean everyone agrees with "Peace", "No Poverty", "No War", No Bad Things, etc.. I mean that's a pretty easy stand to take. Isn't the real argument about what method/system you believe will solve these problems?

Morello is right when he says the system is broken. Why do we always look to another SYSTEM to run our lives? Every person on this planet needs to be willing to take some responsibility for their lives and realize that we are all giving away our power to people who don't care about our wellbeing. Just look at where the money is...90% of the world has 10% of the money and 90% of the money is in less than 10% of the hands. You can't screw up any worse than that without people catching on to the game. The system (which is virtually the same worldwide) is designed to appear like it cares about us, and that it just has some "unavoidable" problems that it can't get around. It's all a lie. But until we willing accept that we are giving away our own power over our lives to others people, the crooked people will always spend all their time trying to take advantage of the power we are giving away. Crooked people who egotrip on power are willing to spend all their time scheming and manipulating themselves into positions of authority because that is all they care about. A real good loving person doesn't waste all their time trying to get into positions of power so they might theoretically have a chance to do some good, they just DO good. They don't waste their time jumping through hoops for fatcats. The system on the other hand, always tries to just "prevent" bad things from happening. Why don't they instead spend the money on ACTUALLY making something positive happen...because you can't fake your way out of it by saying "we were going to do some good next...but this unexpected thing/war/issue came up" Since they don't really care about good things anyways (since that doesn't feed their control trip ego with power and money), all that ends up happening is we lose more of our rights and they take more of our money so they can pretend they are just trying so hard to help when in reality they don't care about helping at all, just lining their egos and pockets. It's sick, and it's sad that this is the way it is and has been and will always be until we all stand up and agree to take some responsibility. Peace, war, poverty are very simple to get rid. There is LITERALLY enough money in circulation on the planet to make every last man, woman, and child A MILLIONAIRE! FACT. But if we are kept too busy hating each other, and being afraid of each other all the time, and struggling like crazy just to scrap by we will never have the time to stop and see what is really going down. It's all a big illusion to keep you from the truth. If you stop defending what you are programmed to believe and just think and just look at the results of what happens in the world without being distracted by the big "movie" they are showing you and telling you it becomes sooo obvious how fake it all is. We are told that ending poverty and war is impossible, but that's just because the people on the top don't want the people on the bottom to catch on to how we are distracted by hating and being jealous of each other. Because right now they are on top only because we are holding them up by agreeing to keep ourselves down on the bottom. If we all come together and are free from the weight of supporting a system that doesn't support us they are completely screwed and they know it. The time is now people, the system isn't even real anyways, it is our energy and power that is REAL and we are wasting it by playing the game. So yea, sorry to go on a rant here and if I offended you sorry you feel that way, but the truth is scary to deal with sometimes but it is never as hard as dealing with the repercussions of allowing tyranny have control of your life. I am thankful that there is people and musicians out there like Tom who are trying to help wake people up. So thanks for the great article jambase.

homerbret you couldn't be more right ... the question is can we be organized enough to make something happen and can we inform enough people so that enough wake up and do somethings ... but as a start i highly recommend www.zeitgeistmovie.com its a documentary that makes everything you said a little more clear

That might be true about everybody being a millionare and all, the question is, however, does everybody really deserve to be a millionare? That's a rather idealistic comment to make, seeing how not everybody puts in the same amount of effort in pulling their weight. Rich people aren't the only ones who are bringing down the system, in fact many wealthy people actually WORKED for their material gains believe it or not. However, this whole econonomic breakdown is primarily due to rich people not putting enough money into the economy. They're just holding on to it. I also blame the people who do nothing except wait for their welfare check. As much as I hate poverty, you have to admit that our poorer people have it better here than any other places on earth. Where else can poverty stricken people still afford cable and beer?

wow, that paragraph was a mess. you guys get the point.

great human being

Jeffofromknox--- spoken like a true citizen of a red state. It is true that some entrepeneurs have worked hard and taken risk and been rewarded with wealth (well riches actually). Wealth is usually held by people who have been involved in our country's financial/governmental sector since our colonial days. The Bush's and most presidents over the last 2 and half centuries can trace their ancestory back to colonial aristocracy, so they were rich then and still are. Our country has been through a dozen wars, countless financial crisises, not to mention a myriad of huge social stuggles. So the only thing that has remained constant in this country is the concentration of wealth and power to a small group of individuals. People think that the constitution was set up by these mythical god like creatures who had everyones best interest in mind, not to mention hundreds of years of implied foresight. But, in actually, these guys said slavery was A. Okay when the rest of the world had condemned it, Alexander hamilton the founding father and first secretary of the treasury wrote "the masses are a beast that need to be controlled and taught to submit to the will of wellborn men." those are his words, and these are the guys who set up this great democracy. That being said, that is what makes now so exciting. People are starting to wake up, there is too much knowledge out there now and the powers that be are shaking in their boots. but dont think for one second that power in any form has ever been given up willingly. It must be fought for, tooth and nail, whether we are talking about revolution, the right to vote, the right to unionize, the right to do anything that is going to affect another person or groups relative power. So next time you want to be a champion of trickle down economics go post on the drudge report or write an e-mail to fox-news, please don't get on here and talk about how easy poor people have it in this country.

As the previous poster quoted him as saying, "the masses are a beast that need to be controlled and taught to submit to the will of the wellborn men".

Is that what he thought a democracy was?

That quote sounds like a future Apple elitist ad campaign headline.

chummer- i voted for Obama, unlike the majority of my state. it is true that a small minority owns most of the wealth in this country, but other than that, it seems like you're a proponent for a welfare state in this country. i'd rather take care of myself than have "Big Brother" constantly looking over my shoulder. and you cannot deny that our poverty stricken classes do have it so much better than any third world country in the world. and they still have the means to better their situation if they choose to. go to school, make good grades, get a scholarship, get a degree. it's not that hard, no matter who you are. Obama is a testament to this, because twenty years ago no black man with a single mom could have ever thought of being president. you can continue to spout Marxist social equality ideals, but let's face it, every attempt at communism has failed because human nature always has always exploited the working class. the soviet union, cuba, n. korea, venezuela, china, etc... all had a small percentage of wealth dominating over the people, just like capitalist america.

and you're kinda taking the Hamilton quote out of context as well. what he meant, if you'll allow me to explain, is that the mass public is usually not informed well enough to govern the nation. that's why we VOTE for people who we feel best represent our interests. believe it or not, we ARE in charge of this country. this last election proves this. maybe if you actually read the federalist papers in their entirety instead of relying on some loose quote, you'd realize this.