Mario Savio Speech - Bodies Upon The Gears

Sproul Hall Steps, December 2, 1964

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Mario
• Savio
• Political
• Politics
• Hero
• Legend
• Free
• Speech
• Activist
• VanPiorsing
• Van
• Piorsing
• Bodies
• Upon
• The
• Gears
• Freedom
• Liberty

[wwweirdo]

LOL, Fear Factory used this speech in Timelessness back then in 1998, Linkin Park just stole their idea.

[VanPiorsing]

@wwweirdo I totally agree on Fear Factory, using this sample in 1998 on "Obsolete" album.

[hogwashsentinel]

Forget Linkin Park and Fear Factory. Thumbs up if you're hear because you give a shit about what he's saying...

[Lifeisironicreject]

All you people who think of Savio's speech as nothing more than some flippant attachment to Linkin Park's, Wrectches & Kings, are a disgrace. This is a speech about the fallbility of the system. The very speech that acted as a catalyst for the Free Speech movement and Civil Right movement. Savio's admirable speech acted as a deflection towards racial segregation.

[Kansutachi]

@lxs48 lol thanks!

[lxs48]

@Kansutachi @Lifeisironicreject The internet needs more people like you guys.

[Lifeisironicreject]

@hogwashsentinel This guy^

[Lifeisironicreject]

@Kansutachi No problem =)

[Kansutachi]

@Lifeisironicreject Oh definitely i totally agree. I wouldnt be surprised if you had to read some severely annoying comments from narrow-minded linkin park fans. Your comment seemed harsh but i guess thats why its the top comment, you wanted to make a point just as i wanted to. Thanks for the feedback ^_^

[Lifeisironicreject]

@kansutachi Actually, that's a fair point you made. It just personally annoys me if people think of Mario Savio as "the guy who was on Linkin Park's Wretches and Kings" (But it's as you said. I'm sure Linking Park noted the Historical significance that Mario Savio had to have artfully included him in a song about "rebellion against the machine". It was indeed, quite clever because challenging authority/social norms is an idea suitable for every historical period ^_^)

[Kansutachi]

@Lifeisironicreject So then you can say "thumbs up if research or some shit like that brought you here"

you think you're any different?

People who heard it from the Linkin park song looked up the speech because it touched them just as it has touched you. I personally love this speech and i didnt know about it until I heard Wretches & Kings... and i'm sure Linkin Park's band members love it too or else they wouldnt have put it in the fucking song.

[Kleepified]

@House3272 Think of it as the thing that commands you what to and not to do. Now there are people just use this as an excuse to fight the law. But every now and then when authority abuses the power we give them, it is justifiable to fight 'The Man'. I think his speech could be a metaphor for governing bodies as a whole; the machine (local authority) is constantly taking orders by the people who run it (government), and when they use it to attack something unethical, "you've got to make it stop".

[Kleepified]

@7887477 I completely agree

[tapeti100]

LP good choice for your song