Imagine you’re Tom Morello, guitarist of well-known rock troupe Rage Against The Machine. Suppose you’ve spent almost your entire artistic career rallying against suppressive politics, militarism and war – and all of a sudden you realize some guy in your own government has been using your music to torture people! Wouldn’t you be p*ssed?
Well, according to this article on the Huffington Post, Morello obviously is:
“Guantanamo may be Dick Cheney’s idea of America, but it’s not mine. The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me — we need to end torture and close Guantanamo now.”
And he’s not the only one: Among the group now addressing an FOIA request at the National Security Archives are such illustrious names as Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails), R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, and the Roots.
“We have spent the past 30 years supporting causes related to peace and justice,” read a statement from REM, “to now learn that some of our friends’ music may have been used as part of the torture tactics without their consent or knowledge, is horrific. It’s anti-American, period.”
Music Stars Demand Records On Bush Administration’s Use Of Music For Torture @ The Huffington Post
Tags: guantanamo, music, protest
I am always happy to see anyone fighting for human rights. But Tom Morello and Rage Against The Machine have often times supported “suppressive politics, militarism and war” far worse than anything Bush ever did. Just to give one example: in the video for “Bombtrack” they glorify the peruvian sendero luminoso (shining path), a maoist terror organisation, which killed many completely innocent people in one one the most cruel terror campaigns of the 20th century.
They are not fighting for human rights, but for violent socialist revolution.