You Can't Be Neutral On a Moving Train

[Intro: Howard Zinn] Governments lie all the time Well, not just the American government, it's just in the nature of governments Well, they have to lie. And since they don't represent the people, and so since they act against the interest of the people The only way they can hold power is if they lie to the people (You don't know what I know, you can't see the spreading state Of deception, I am cruel to myself, things will never be the same) If they told people the truth they wouldn't last very long (I will hold my silence like a weapon in my hand If I used it I would murder myself You could never understand) [Verse 1: Vinnie Paz] Columbus came ashore greeted with nothing but niceness Sailing west in attempt to find gold and spices Dominated by the popes in frenzy for ices The Catholic church expelled Jews and claimed it was righteous The first man to see land would get a reward And get a yearly pension for life clearly from God A young sailor saw land said, "We isn't far" Columbus lied, said he saw it the evening before They touched ground, they were greeted by the Arawak Columbus had them locked up as prisoners in an hour flat He wanted to find their source of gold and that was that And when they thought that wasn't fair then he stabbed their back When there was no more gold he took slaves instead And left a quarter million Indians in Haiti dead The men died in mines, the women died at work The children died from lack of milk and they died in the dirt They were just taking advantage of a passive people They were just being the savages of massive evil That's the church work, that's the path of massive ego That's the blood of Abraham being stabbed by the steeple [2nd beat] In 1619 they were patiently waiting For a ship that carried slaves that was changing the nation The white man was a cannibal praying to Satan Hatred contempt a pity of patronization That's the corner stone everything racism based in The African had a more advanced civilization Black was slave, master was white, rationalization 50 million dead, that's Western civilization At first they appeared in the North And they were helpless in the face of superior force And all of them were chained together, they really was lost Racism isn't natural it's merely divorce Before the slave trade black was considered distasteful By the Oxford dictionary, I find it disgraceful It's not a natural tendency to be bitter and hateful It's the natural enemy of the critical staple Slavery grew as the plantation system grew The reason for that's kinda easily traceable Society of helpless dependence was capable Of saying, "Fuck a slave master, you're in slavery too" [3rd beat] Seven slaves were put to death for murdering master Fear of slave revolt had them developing faster You a cataline killer, ineloquent bastard I would burn the white man while smelling the ashes From time to time white man was part of the resistance White indentured servants wanted no part of the system King Philip's War showed that if people would listen That they can maybe break the complex chain of oppression Tyranny is tyranny, but that's a concession But the women they was treated like that of possessions Black women had it worse cause they was abused That's the white justification of Aryan blues The next move was to dominate the Mexicans James Polk dominated them like they was next of kin He sent Colonel Cross to lie to them and let them in 11 days later, his skull was crushed, so message sent "We take nothing by conquest," that was the mantra The military wasn't human, they was just monsters Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his taxes Denounced the Mexican War and got locked in shackles [4th beat] The twentieth century opened, anger reemerged Reality of ordinary life was being heard Anarchists and feminists came from factory work Communism, socialism seemed to be re-birthed “War is the health of the state” is what Bourne said And if you was born around that time you was born dead The Espionage Act had people confused Cause it was double talk and they didn’t know how it’d be used Supposedly it was an act against spying Dubois knew that that was bullshit and they was lying Charles Schenck was arrested in Philadelphia For printing and distributing leaflets cause they was helping ya He was indicted, tried and then found guilty And spent six months in jail, don’t that sound silly? Had his freedom taken away by his own nation But there’s a lesson, do not submit to intimidation The act still exists today and this shit is real Supposedly Kennedy tried to have that shit appealed Eugene Debs did ten years for no purpose He obstructed the recruiting and enlistment service [5th and last beat] The post office started taking mail privileges Of magazines who printed anti-war sentiments A Socialist named Fairchild had it right He said that “they can shoot me, but they can’t make me fight" They sentenced him to a year in jail and that was reckless 65,000 men, conscientious objectors They were sent to army bases to work there They were treated sadistically and were hurt there They were strangled with the hemp rope til they collapsed And officers punched they stomach and they lower back A garden hose was placed on they face with a nozzle About six inches from them so they couldn’t swallow The war ended in nineteen hundred and eighteen (1918) The government was just trying to wipe the slate clean Hemingway wrote Farewell to Arms Dalton Trumbo wrote Johnny Got His Gun The war was over but they didn’t learn they lesson Twin tactics of control, reform and repression The patriotic fervor of war had been invoked That’s why the country that you live in is a FUCKING JOKE! [Outro: Vinnie Paz] You cannot be neutral on a moving train This is a story about the lies that your teacher told you This is real actual factual No lies in the whole record If you don’t believe me look it up I’m trying to share the shit that I learned with y'all Do the knowledge Your government does not care about you The people in power do not care about you Understand that Power to the people