Lest We Forget
CONCLUSION & PRAYER
My friend Sergio is depressed and doesn’t see any hope at the end of the tunnel. I was waiting to call Serg when I had good news. So don’t give up on getting your leg back. We grow u a leg on the back of a pig and “VOILA” u can walk again. All I can say is blame Ariana Rockefeller & her Medical Mafioso.
Dona eis Crus Agnes Dei
et aeterno ambulo
Amen
“The reason I’m not apologizing is because neither I nor the video are anti-semitic. I can’t be sorry for something I’m being falsely accused of. The video represents Young Money as a generic totalitarian regime, which takes images and symbols from several countries and time periods, one of which is Nazism. As an artist I have two voids to fill. First, meeting the demands of the client and two, creatively applying my own voice where I can. The Young Money team came to me with a set of parameters in which they exactly stated — something black and white, dark, ominous, with hints of imagery like Sin City or Metalocalypse.
As far as applying Nazi imagery, 100% me. Whether it was interpreted that way to their team, I have no idea. Not once did we ever sit in the same room, nor did they ask if I applied a deeper hidden meaning. I simply send them the video and they reject, approve, or ask for changes.
I made this creative decision to show the juxtaposition of the most iconic form of totalitarianism and ways it still exists today, specifically in politics, the military-industrial complex, censorship, and intense monitoring and tracking of our citizens. It has nothing to do with glorifying Hitler or the Holocaust. People think it’s trivializing the Holocaust because the song talks about sex, but I have no control over the lyrical content. I had an opportunity and an outlet, which I knew would reach millions of people, and wanted to make a statement. The term New World Order isn’t just an edgy pop culture reference. It is very real and was a term used by president George H.W. Bush, ironically 10 years to the day before 9/11.
We have a government that tracks us, monitors us, has programs dedicated to controlling our minds and testing diseases on us, and no one asks any questions. People aren’t privy to things like MK Ultra, the School of the Americas, the fact that the Bush family owned Securacom, which was in charge of security for the World Trade Center, Dulles Airport, and United Airlines. The fact that in every recent war, the opposition leader has worked for the CIA. I’m not saying I know all the facts, but do people really think there isn’t more to the story? Look up from your smartphone and smell the fuckin’ roses, I’m trying to help you! People vilify artists for using this type of imagery in their work as if they’re part of the 1% club. Believe me, any artist who has brain cells know they’re not in the club. In my opinion it’s not glorification, it’s a subliminal warning because you can’t openly say these kinds of things. Me? I don’t give a shit. I have no corporate interests, PR team, or image to maintain.
My comment about the First Amendment was in regard to people demanding the video be removed, not their interpretation of the video, which I welcome openly, whether positive or negative, because that’s the point of art.”
I sometimes feel like an alien creature
for which there is no earthly explanation
Sure I have human form
walking erect and opposing digits,
but my mind is upside down.
I feel like a run-on sentence
in a punctuation crazy world.
and I see the world around me
like a mad collective dream.
An endless stream of people
move like ants from the freeway
cell phones, pc’s, and digital displays
“In Money We Trust,”
we’ll find happiness
the prevailing attitude;
like a genetically modified irradiated Big Mac
is somehow symbolic of food.
Morality is legislated
prisons over-populated
religion is incorporated
the profit-motive has permeated all activity
we pay our government to let us park on the street
And war is the biggest money-maker of all
we all know missile envy only comes from being small.
Politicians and prostitutes
are comfortable together
I wonder if they talk about the strange change in the weather.
This government was founded by, of, and for the people
but everybody feels it
like a giant open sore
they don’t represent us anymore
And blaming the President for the country’s woes
is like yelling at a puppet
for the way it sings
Who’s the man behind the curtain pulling the strings?
A billion people sitting watching their TV
in the room that they call living
but as for me
I see living as loving
and since there is no loving room
I sit on the grass under a tree
dreaming of the way things used to be
Pre-Industrial Revolution
which of course is before the rivers and oceans, and skies were polluted
before Parkinson’s, and mad cows
and all the convoluted cacophony of bad ideas
like skyscrapers, and tree paper, and earth rapers
like Monsanto and Dupont had their way
as they continue to today.
This was Pre-us
back when the buffalo roamed
and the Indian’s home
was the forest, and God was nature
and heaven was here and now
Can you imagine clean water, food, and air
living in community with animals and people who care?
Do you dare to feel responsible for every dollar you lay down
are you going to make the rich man richer
or are you going to stand your ground
You say you want a revolution
a communal evolution
to be a part of the solution
maybe I’ll be seeing you around.
~ Woody Harrelson