Know Your Enemy

Tool's singer, Maynard J Keenan, sings the part that goes: "I've got no patience now, so sick of complacence now, I've got no patience now, so sick of complacence now, sick of sick of sick of sick of you" (thanks, gon - concepcion, Chile)

The lyrics stress that when we can identify those who are out to make us conform and follow blindly, we are more effective in creating change. Schools are notorious for this, and Zack De La Rocha identifies his teachers as his enemies because they told him to fight his own humanity.

On the album cover is Thich Quang Duc, an elderly Buddhist monk, immolating himself on a main intersection in Saigon, Vietnam on June 11, 1963 to protest the rule of Ngo Dinh Diem, the American backed leader of Vietnam who was leading an anti-Buddhist campaign in southern Vietnam. This action was witnessed and filmed by many members of the American media and led to the end of the Diem rule in Vietnam. This photo won the 1963 Pulitzer Prize. Check it out in Song Images. (thanks, Tim - Pittsburgh, PA, for above 2)

This was one of the songs Rage played on September 3, 2008 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota in response to the Republican National Convention, which was going on in St. Paul. The band took the stage dressed like terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, in protest of the Bush administration's practice of detaining suspects with murky cause. After the show, fans clashed with police, resulting in over 100 arrests. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)