Lyric discussion by menace13 

Cover art for Sleep Now In The Fire lyrics by Rage Against the Machine

It's the Imperialistic white man talking to the rest of the world. Using democracy and christianity to endoctrinate them. Telling them try whatever you want, you cannot resist me. Either conform or die. With the line " i'm deep inside your chidlren, they'll betray you in my name" he's saying the white man will use consumerism, christianity and democracy to brain wash your people from generation to generation, destroying your original culture until you no longer accept it. Instead you'll fight to protect the white mans imposed culture.

Song Meaning

this is close, but they don't really use the true principles of democracy, our "democracy" is a puppet as you can see the puppet politicians toward the end of the video, so the whole system is a lie. But yes they have been manipulating our minds for hundreds of years so we stay on our hamster wheels focusing on the pursuit of money for our survival and therefore we fit nice and tight into their compacted little puzzle of evil while they piss and shit on us while laughing like a retarded satanic 8 year old snorting lines of cocaine...

@menace13 I would say it is about America in general. They are known for their political views that are pretty much always anti government. Not to mention that they seem to list a lot of the more negative things the government has done. If you look at the chorus it is all negative things that have happened in the past starting with coming to american in general. The Nina the pita and the Santa Maria are the ships that brought Columbus to north America, the noose and the rapist seems to me to be a reference to the way that...

@menace13 Yeah, greed and injustice didn't exist prior to the white man.