Know Your Enemy

I have read so many hateful comments on here. Either you like the song or you don't. I find it hard to stomach the extensive use of the words "fag' and 'queer", nasty derogative words for the gay community. Being gay is not a crime. If those people want to object to what they feel is gay , then perhaps they should find the sites that cater to their hatreds. I also believe there is a huge difference between anti religion to being anti god. In the context of the albumn Christian is a name not the religion. To me the song is about finding personal empowerment. Standing up against the things that oppress you personally. It's "rally up the demons of YOUR soul". Silence is the enemy of everyone who has ever been abused or oppressed. Domestic violence, sexual abuse, whatever your oppression is, you have to stand up and say "No more". To me that is what this song is about.It s not about breaking shop windows in protest, it's about standing up and saying "I am a valid person and your stupid lies no longer control me."

I don't think that the song is about any particular political situation (Iraq, anti-Bushism, et al.) but more about the general need for noncompliance in the face of anyone believing that you're going to just fall in line and do what you're told. I think the most powerful line is "Revolt against the honor to obey." In other words, don't simply comply with whatever you're being told as being the truth, question and take the fight to the system and principalities that oppress you. Lyrically, reminds me more of Warning (secretly the best Green Day album) than American Idiot.

^^^ Hell yeah to what this guy said ^^^

I agree with davidecoyote, this song is mainly a call to action. I will agree that the song is repetitive, but that is the way they are trying to convey their message, and it is crystal clear and indisputable what they are trying to say. I think instead of making a complex song that people will sit around disputing and pontificating its meaning, they kept it simple and said basically: whom you think to be the enemy really isn't. I am currently listening to the album and every song seems to fit in the album, as a puzzle piece would in a puzzle;thus, making it apparent that they didn't just compose individual songs like everything before AI, they composed the entire album as one epic piece of art work. Bravo!

Vive! La révolution!

I'm pumped for the release of the single tomorrow! :D

haha you guys are gunna hate me for saying this... BUT I HATE THIS SONG! its just stupid lol like its pointless for some reason just listening to it pisses me off

This song sucks THE biggest dick on earth. Green Day have never been a great band, but they've hit rock bottom if this is honestly the hit single off their new album. Rather than, I don't making, focusing on making good music, they rely on what someone must have at one point thought was a catchy chorus (were they high or just retarded?) repeated a billion times throughout the song. The lyrics are the same as all their other songs and they suck as well. From a musical standpoint, this song is terrible, yet it will still appeal to the lowest-common-denominator people, the same ones who think Blink 182 and Fallout Boy are gods when they're barely even decent at their best.

And that, my friends, is why the music industry today has turned to shit. Thanks Green Day, you untalented make-up wearing queers.

It's the rally song for the REVOLUTION!

Okay, so it's very repetitious and a weird choice for a radio single. But Green Day doesn't compose songs anymore, they compose albums. When listened to in context, Song of the Century and 21st Century Breakdown create enough variety for it to fit into place nicely.

It makes me think of the Rage Against the Machine song of the same title which is superior: "Yes I know my enemies, they're the teachers that told me to fight me; compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite. All of which are American dreams..."

That last line still gives me goosebumps.

Anyways, I am one who finds great romance in the word "revolution," and so (in that light) this fits into what Green Day should be producing now.

Well I'm a massive Green Day fan, and I don't care what anyone else thinks, this song is awesome. It gives me goosebumps. And sure, Billie Joe's constant political views these days get a little boring, but he writes what he believes in, bares his soul to the world and earns millions doing it. This whole album is amazing. I don't get how people think it's terrible, but whatever. Like Green Day need them.

haha you guys are gunna hate me for saying this... BUT I HATE THIS SONG! its just stupid lol like its pointless for some reason just listening to it pisses me off