Without talking about Medgar Evers, the KKK, I'll talk about this song! The song is really about all the pain and hatred people felt towards Byron Beckwith, the a**hole who killed him. People wanted to rip his head off! BUT Dylan was saying, Byron was just a pawn in the middle of something bigger. Dylan was trying to say... look... the politicians and governors and sheriffs all get paid to deal with the outcry of upset citizens over things like higher taxes and unemployment, but as long as they can blame somebody else for our problems (ie: in this case, the blacks), people will never put their hatred towards the places where it belongs, authority, and authority escapes cleanly and continues to hurt us. It prevents authority from doing their job, they aren't held accountable. Dylan talks about how people are taught to shot and hate and blame others for their problems, as long as they don't blame the person whose teaching them their ways, for they may be the "real" problem for what they don't have.
Without talking about Medgar Evers, the KKK, I'll talk about this song! The song is really about all the pain and hatred people felt towards Byron Beckwith, the a**hole who killed him. People wanted to rip his head off! BUT Dylan was saying, Byron was just a pawn in the middle of something bigger. Dylan was trying to say... look... the politicians and governors and sheriffs all get paid to deal with the outcry of upset citizens over things like higher taxes and unemployment, but as long as they can blame somebody else for our problems (ie: in this case, the blacks), people will never put their hatred towards the places where it belongs, authority, and authority escapes cleanly and continues to hurt us. It prevents authority from doing their job, they aren't held accountable. Dylan talks about how people are taught to shot and hate and blame others for their problems, as long as they don't blame the person whose teaching them their ways, for they may be the "real" problem for what they don't have.