Most lyrics and explanations are complete. The rest should be up fairly soon.
Structures Of Power 7" EP lyrics. All lyrics and explanations by Nina and Erik.
Social Control
Statist schemes
Self-serving agenda
Destructive policies
Social control
Police force
National Guard
Prison system
Social control
Employ tactics
Intimidation
Threat of violence
Social control
Control, status, wealth, and power: The ruling elite time and time again will employ any means necessary to secure these. The laws they pass and the policies they implement along with law enforcement and the threat of state violence are to protect their political and financial interests. Repression is a means to maintain social control. The implementation of the PATRIOT Act, the expansion of police and other law enforcement agencies' powers, and the restriction of civil rights in the interest of "security" will no doubt only aid in these goals.
Restricting Intellectual Freedom
Restricting the right to hold,
receive, and disseminate ideas
censoring the objectionable
Banning expressive reading materials
Content filtering the Internet,
Removing controversial materials
violating confidentiality
F.B.I. monitoring of reading habits
The restriction of intellectual freedom is merely another method of mass control. Through censorship and limiting the ability to receive and disseminate ideas, literature, and art, the ruling elite are more easily able to control and regulate the information the public receives and, therefore, the attitudes and opinions of the public. Controlling what information the public has access to is an integral component in retaining the ruling class' power structure. The mass media/propaganda systems and the educational system aid and promote this process as those at the helm carefully select what information is released to the general public so as to ensure the status quo remains.
State sponsored thought control through the suppression of information that the State deems objectionable or threatening to their power is nothing new. Historically, intellectual freedom has been jeopardized through book burning, persecution, and repression by religious institutions. Today's methods aim to achieve the same goal but are far more advanced. They encompass a wide array of modern tactics including the censorship, banning, and filtering of objectionable material, the elimination of privacy and confidentiality of research, F.B.I. access to your library and e-mail records, and the outsourcing and privatization of libraries.
Merchants Of Death
Military-industrial complex
Arms producing megafirms
Defense contracting conglomerates
Subsidized by government
Merchants of death - Manipulating legislators
Merchants of death - Cultivating war
Merchants of death - Distorting expenditures
Merchants of death
Collecting favors from politicians
Creating kickbacks for lawmakers
Lobbying and campaign contributions
Buy congressional votes
Merchants of death - Manipulating legislators
Merchants of death - Cultivating war
Merchants of death - Distorting expenditures
Merchants of death
The Pentagon's revolving door
Conflicts of interest,
Payoffs, and mergers
Shaping policy to produce profits
Merchants of death - manipulating legislators
Merchants of death - cultivating war
Merchants of death - distorting expenditures
Merchants of death
The Military-Industrial Complex refers to the relationship, which exists between the major corporations that produce weapons products, and the U.S. government. Weapons corporations, the Pentagon, and the legislature form a triangle of power where conflict of interest is rampant; influence is bought, sold and traded; and the purse strings are held tightly from within. They function with a "revolving door" employment policy, sharing employees and executives.
The Pentagon has provided funds to help cover the costs for several important weapons industry mergers. The result of these mergers has been the concentration of economic power and political sway in the hands of a select few corporations. The "Big Three" companies in the defense industry today are Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon. These mergers served the interests of all involved parties. Weapons manufacturers gained greater influence because competition for contracts in the industry was eliminated. With their newly found leverage, these megafirms have become more successful in their lobbying efforts. They coerce influential legislators to send more federal dollars toward the Pentagon budget. The Pentagon then benefits because as their budget increases, their relative influence increases, as does their ability to create a more ferocious war machine (which ultimately exists to protect and expand U.S. power across the globe). The Pentagon then rewards the corporations by sending them contracts to build more weapons. Legislators go along with this because they receive tremendous amounts of money in campaign contributions from the corporations, and also are able take credit for bringing job-producing weapons projects into their districts.
Ultimately, this process distorts spending patterns, taking federal dollars and depositing them in the arms stores of the Pentagon, and the pockets of weapons company executives. The military-industrial complex is an illustration of the ease with which the ruling class is able to retain and expand their power. These powerful groups of legislators, executives, and The Pentagon profit from the buildup and sale of instruments of war, death and destruction. These are The Merchants of Death.
Systematic Indoctrination
Systematic indoctrination
Requisite curriculum
Preparation for production
Fundamental social control
[Teaching] Obedience
Adherence
Subservience
Investment in human capital
Institutionalized servility
The assertion of state power is
The retention of state power
[Teaching] Obedience
Adherence
Subservience
The educational system is structured to teach obedience and the acceptance of authority. It homogenizes students by stripping away creativity, critical independent thought, and the right to question or challenge what they are taught. Students are conditioned to believe in the superiority of the established American way of life, model of government, and economic system. This conditioning happens for a reason: To prepare students to perform their designated future roles in society as productive, law-abiding consumers. The educational system is a social institution designed to manufacture subordinate future workers in order to perpetuate the capitalist system. This allows those in power, the beneficiaries of the laboring class, to retain their power. By monopolizing young minds, schools discourage dissent before it can begin and create a complacent workforce.
"Rulers have always taken care to control the education of the people. They know their power is based almost entirely on the school and they insist on retaining their monopoly. The school is an instrument of domination in the hands of the ruling class." (Francisco Ferrer, Spanish Anarchist)
Means To Attack
Multilateral arms agreements
Maintain military superiority
Retain strategic advantage
False mitigation of proliferation
Mechanism of escalation
Mechanism of control
A facade of non-aggression
Stockpiling an arsenal
Supervise the viable threat
Disregard black market hazard
Weapons of mass destruction
Safeguarding the means to attack
Mechanism of escalation
Mechanism of control
A facade of non-aggression
Stockpiling an arsenal
April 2003 Demo lyrics
Negative Externalities
Clear cutting and deforestation
Air pollution and water contamination
Topsoil erosion and ozone layer depletion
Contributions to environmental destruction
The meat industry
Negatively impacts the environment
Through careless practices
Irreversible damage
The meat industry is responsible for some of the most harmful damage to the earth's ecosystem and is the number one polluter of our water supply. Environmental impacts such as those created from growing feed for animals include decreased biodiversity through habitat loss and ecosystem damage, soil erosion, reduction in the availability of irrigation and water, Greenhouse gas production (carbon dioxide), aquifer depletion, and nitrogen, phosphorus, and pesticide contamination of water through runoff from fields.
Problems are also created from livestock manure including the contamination of surface waters, Greenhouse gas production (nitrous oxide and methane), and soil contamination with heavy metals. Ammonia emissions from animal waste and agricultural fertilizers contribute to acid rain, killing aquatic and plant life. Livestock emit one-fourth of the methane that contributes to global warming, and agricultural water pollution from manure, pesticides, and run-off of soil is greater than all municipal and industrial sources of pollution combined. These factors make the meat industry one of the largest contributors to global warming and environmental destruction today.
"The way that we breed animals for food is a threat to the planet. It pollutes our environment while consuming huge amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs. The results are disasterous." –David Brubaker, PhD, Center for a Living Future, John Hopkins University
For more information, contact:
Vegan Outreach
211 Indian Dr.
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
http://www.vegliving.org/
Patriotic Provisions
Homeland Security and the Patriot Act
Countless provisions to counteract
Terrorism on our homefront
By eroding away our civil liberties
Uninhibited - Power
Infringed - Rights
Unbridled - Authority
Broadening the rights of the government
on surveillance and information obtainment
Expanding the powers of Law Enforcement
And extending the scope of Intelligence
Uninhibited - Power
Infringed - Rights
Unbridled - Authority
Secret courts and supreme judicial powers
Placed with no checks and balances
Due process waived for non-citizens
And criminalization of political dissent
Uninhibited - Power
Infringed - Rights
Unbridled - Authority
Under the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, government and law enforcement agencies are granted stark expansions of powers with virtually no checks and balances. Top government officials and the Bush administration pushed for these powers stating a need for "increased security". However, the implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act also means a sharp decrease in civil rights.
Sweeping powers given to the FBI now allows them almost uninhibited access in searching the personal records of the public. The FBI now has the power to search your home without informing you that a warrant was issued and take pictures and seize items for an indefinite period of time.
The books you read, the topics you study, the purchases you make, and your medical history are also now accessible by law enforcement agencies along with financial, gun, library, educational, and other types of records - all without probable cause. The USA PATRIOT Act also prohibits the holders of this information, such as librarians, from disclosing that they have produced such records, under threat of imprisonment. The court orders are issued by a secret intelligence court in Washington with supreme judicial powers.
Your web surfing habits, your e-mails, and other online activities are also subject to possible monitoring without probable cause under the USA PATRIOT Act.
Could this be 1984? Have McCarthy style purges really passed?
Stop Circumcision
Foreskin circumcision is male genital mutilation,
Penial deformation - an unnecessary operation
No anesthesia inducing unbearable pain
While medical mishaps leave infants maimed
Provides protection - Stop circumcision
Prevents infection - Stop circumcision
Increases (sexual) stimulation - Stop circumcision
Stop Circumcision - Stop circumcision
To curb promiscuity and discourage masturbation,
It gained mainstream implementation
Sexual repression based on Christian principles
Ignore all the myths, and end this practice
Provides protection - Stop circumcision
Prevents infection - Stop circumcision
Increases (sexual) stimulation - Stop circumcision
Stop Circumcision - Stop circumcision
The genital surgery known as circumcision predates recorded history. While anthropologists disagree as to where or why the practice was started, one of the most common theories is that religious zealots and demagogues who viewed engaging in sexual activity for pleasure as dirty or impure used circumcision to "purify" and to inhibit men from having sex. This was done by greatly reducing the amount of pleasure they experience during sexual behavior by cutting off the foreskin. Circumcision was also used to curb promiscuity by making sexual behavior less appealing to males. Another theory states circumcision was asserted as a means of social control by the Church to demonstrate it's control over men's sexuality and right to reproduce. As always, it was a way for the elite and powerful within society to retain their power and control through repression (sexual). Today, the churches of varying religions still condone the practice.
Circumcision continues to be a routine operation. However, there are also moral and medical reasons to stop the practice. It is an excruciating procedure to endure for an infant as well as an adult, and for newborn infants and sometimes for adults, anesthesia is not used. The process is so painful in fact that infants withdraw into a state of neuronic shock (coma), due to sudden massive pain. Some psychologists have also noted that the surgery can cause psychological damage to the infant "by encoding violence on the brain" (Macris/Milos, 1992) due to the fact that "child-maternal bonding is interrupted and a sense of betrayal is instilled in the infant." (Ibid.)
Also, common myths that it is cleaner, healthier, safer, or can decrease the chances of cancer of the penis are completely untrue. Health costs of circumcised males are five times greater than those left uncut. Circumcision is not safer either, and in fact, complications stemming from circumcision can result in cutting the foreskin too short, abnormality of the penis, cauterizing of the entire penis, and in rare cases, even death. All of these reasons have led to a movement within the medical community to end the practice. Circumcision has no practical purpose, and the time to continue the procedure has long expired.
Citations
Macris D., Milos MF. Circumcision: A Medical or a Human Rights Issue?, J Nurse Midwifery, 1992; 37: 87S-96S passim