Rage Against the Machine - Testify

The music video, directed by Michael Moore, features a number of clips showing the two presidential candidates at the time (George W. Bush and Al Gore for the 2000 US Presidential Election) stating the same policies and views on important issues, and the movie aims to highlight the lack of choice in the US electoral system. This is spoofed in the video as the images of Bush and Gore are morphed together, thereby creating a "mutant" that "appears as two but speaks as one."

Other key themes in the video focus on America's reliance on oil, with several clips of the Gulf War, and lines at gas pumps accompanied by the lines "Mass graves for the pump and the price is set." Other clips display modern industrialization and the military industrial complex, juxtaposed against images of third world nations.

Other organizations, topics, and individuals displayed in the video include: Exxon, same sex relationships, Richard Nixon, Kenneth Starr, Bill Clinton, Oliver North, Monica Lewinsky, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Pope John Paul II, General Norman Schwarzkopf, the Christian Coalition, monster truck rallys, the Republican Revolution, and the corporate donations that each candidate has received.

The similarities between the two candidates are displayed through soundbites of their speeches. Among the topics that George W. Bush and Al Gore agree on, as shown in the video: support of the death penalty, prosperity through free trade, investing in the future, support of clean air, and a ban on soft money. Each candidate concludes by stating "God Bless America."

The video ends with a quote from Ralph Nader: "If you're not turned onto politics, politics will turn on you."

The song's sequence of "Who controls the past now controls the future/Who controls the present now controls the past/Who controls the past now controls the future/Who controls the present now?" Is based on a series of thoughts by Winston, the main character in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, about the fact that the Big Brother controls the past and therefore controls the present and future. Others have interpreted these lyrics as a statement against revisionist history, and how the secrets that politicians keep from the public can greatly affect the future.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Rage
• Against
• the
• Machine
• Testify

[zibbitzapzoo]

tom morello kicks ass and you know it

[0613162k]

Ralph Nader 2008

[DocJerky]

This is the only video that has that clip of Nader that I could find.

[ChickWhoAteTheApple]

"Mass graves for the pump and the price is set."

Lordy, with the war going on right now, it's hard to keep in mind that the oil dependency is a old problem. at least for someone under 20 like myself. wonder what these guys think of occupy?

[sdro1]

best: from 2:08 to 2.09 lol for bush..ahahah

[peteonthefarm]

Thank you, Ralph, for giving the election to George W Bush!!

[daortolano]

Orwell's 1984 who controls the past now controls the future......great!



[ronkerjake]

@FORZAMILANALE wow youre insane, there arent any conspiricies to rob the populations of their shit dude. And yeah im patriotic but i hate everything related to politics.

[FORZAMILANALE]

@ronkerjake really how would you know that ? Im sure you are one of those true patriotic militants. But the problem is that the people in the highest ranks wether it be in work, the military or a Corporation always keep SECRECTS.......... Evidence is never needed...open up your third eye man, ask your superiors( only superior in work class) questions and such, dont be subserviant brother

[ronkerjake]

@FORZAMILANALE So what if it is? Its not out to rape your kids or some shit. Im in the military and I work for some crazy shit and theres no evidence of the govt "comin to getcha".