Allow me to intersect for a moment, if I may, this entire song is about his failing faith in his government. He's brought up by his father to love and abide by the country and do what they tell you to do. If the country is so fucking free, then he should have the freedom to make the right or wrong choices, without feeling obligated to live by the systems' sanctions and disobedience.
Dissection:
"My father told me son it's futile to resist, you can topple ideology, but no the army's they enlist. I questioned the intentions of the boy scouts chanting 'war!', that's the sound of freedom, son, he said, free to say no more" -
This ENTIRE opening line is his father telling him that, sure, you have the right and duty to question and sterilize your government, but there is no way in hell that you can topple over the military and the mighty brute-force that has been established by large and resistant government. The United States is the definite pun here. With the boyscouts he's merely attempting to explain that at a young age, we are brainwashing CHILDREN that the need for war brings about 'happy' changes; bullshit. This is similar to the Nazi movement in Germany, and definetely is brought up on their later album Potemkin City Limits, song "Die Jugend Marschiert", or the chant for the German children, meaning "Youth on the March".
The line "I can burn your fucking flag wherever I damn well please" is simply there to infuriate anyone, but as a badass 'stick it to you' to gain attention to the severity of what is being expressed. You have the right to burn the flag, but why are you ridiculed for doing so? Sure, we've been brought up to believe that it's wrong, but dammit, if the country is so free, then things that are no detrimentle to the survival of our citizen's should NOT be sawed-off and destroyed. Burning the flag is an insult, but you have the freedom to do it.
Fuck the troops to hell - This line created a lot of controversey, because some state that it's not the troops fault they are doing what they are doing. Some of them just have nowhere else to go when the system lets them down, middle-class and lower-class are often enlisting in the military to provide themselves with a better life, for a system that hates them. Well, it's the fact that acts of war commit 'murder', and Chris feels that a person killing another person is a murderer, that's why he says "tie a yellow ribbon 'round the oak tree my friend". Why should you tie a yellow ribbon around a tree for someone who murdered thousands of people before he, himself, was destroyed? That's their question, and I'm not touching it.
Allow me to intersect for a moment, if I may, this entire song is about his failing faith in his government. He's brought up by his father to love and abide by the country and do what they tell you to do. If the country is so fucking free, then he should have the freedom to make the right or wrong choices, without feeling obligated to live by the systems' sanctions and disobedience.
Dissection: "My father told me son it's futile to resist, you can topple ideology, but no the army's they enlist. I questioned the intentions of the boy scouts chanting 'war!', that's the sound of freedom, son, he said, free to say no more" -
This ENTIRE opening line is his father telling him that, sure, you have the right and duty to question and sterilize your government, but there is no way in hell that you can topple over the military and the mighty brute-force that has been established by large and resistant government. The United States is the definite pun here. With the boyscouts he's merely attempting to explain that at a young age, we are brainwashing CHILDREN that the need for war brings about 'happy' changes; bullshit. This is similar to the Nazi movement in Germany, and definetely is brought up on their later album Potemkin City Limits, song "Die Jugend Marschiert", or the chant for the German children, meaning "Youth on the March".
The line "I can burn your fucking flag wherever I damn well please" is simply there to infuriate anyone, but as a badass 'stick it to you' to gain attention to the severity of what is being expressed. You have the right to burn the flag, but why are you ridiculed for doing so? Sure, we've been brought up to believe that it's wrong, but dammit, if the country is so free, then things that are no detrimentle to the survival of our citizen's should NOT be sawed-off and destroyed. Burning the flag is an insult, but you have the freedom to do it.
Fuck the troops to hell - This line created a lot of controversey, because some state that it's not the troops fault they are doing what they are doing. Some of them just have nowhere else to go when the system lets them down, middle-class and lower-class are often enlisting in the military to provide themselves with a better life, for a system that hates them. Well, it's the fact that acts of war commit 'murder', and Chris feels that a person killing another person is a murderer, that's why he says "tie a yellow ribbon 'round the oak tree my friend". Why should you tie a yellow ribbon around a tree for someone who murdered thousands of people before he, himself, was destroyed? That's their question, and I'm not touching it.
Anyways, GREAT SONG! LOVE PROPAGANDHI!