Dead Before You Hit The Ground

On the plane back from Edmonton (crazy show! I’ll post some performance footage soon) I was watching an flick about situation in Ireland in the late 80’s and early 90’s related to IRA. In the film, there was a quote that said something like “in war, truth is always the first casualty, and information is as dangerous and bullets.”


Folks always talk about being well informed. I’ve even heard folks replace the idea of “seeing things our way” with “they haven’t been truly informed yet”, like disagreeing with someone probably means you don’t understand them, and they just need to hammer their point 9 more times into your head for you to understand, which invariably means in this case, you agree with them.


The information that reaches the masses is related to the interests at stake. Pretty son generations won’t know that KFC stands for Kentucky Friend Chicken, because the stakeholders (mainly KFC) need to do anything to divert attention away from the fact that you’re eating greasy friend chicken.


History has shown that anyone who begins to build momentum with the people, and begins to inform them with ideas that serve interest outside those of the powers that be, ends up dead. Freedom of speech only exists, as long as you’re not saying something worth hearing. Therefore the success of a revolutionary message isn’t measured in its popularity, but in the unfortunate premature demise of the messenger.


Revolutionaries Emcee’s Dead Prez are constantly harassed by the police, and even won a lawsuit after one of their video shoots was interrupted by the cops, they were assaulted. Dudley George, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King should all be reminders of what freedom of speech is really about.


While I doubt I’ll be in the sniper scopes anytime soon, movements are cut off at the head quickly once they gain momentum. So when we see civil rights leaders running around free, jumping on the latest bandwagon, let the continuity of their existence be the measure of their real commitment to the people and resolve to fight the oppressors, who would have merked them years ago, if they really posed a threat.


Just a random ramble as always.
I pronounce "benevolence", benelovent in this track, how embarrassing