Rage Against the Machine, in the running as my favorite band of all time, has announced a reunion tour with Run the Jewels. Available tickets in Chicago are pushing $300 for nosebleed. By the time the show hits, I expect to pay (if I decide to pay it) close to $500, maybe more, for a single ticket.
There's a part of me that's really mad that I'll have to spend so much to go see a band noted for their anti-capitalist stance. I want to decry their hypocrisy for not playing a cheaper show or a bigger venue to allow the people who want to come see them go see them. But then I think a bit....
Those who need to hear their message the most are the ones who can afford a $500 ticket. The poor and the marginalized don't need Rage to tell them to "Wake Up" and see that the systems and structures aren't for them. They know that. That is their lived experience. The Black and brown people living in a police state don't need to be told that "Some of those that work forces are the same that burned crosses." They know the KKK member police officers by name and face and know how to avoid them. Moms and dads who lost their kids in perpetual war and now watch as they struggle with heroin addiction and lack of access to medical care don't need to hear that most people have a "yellow ribbon instead of a swastika." And the people dying at the border under Clinton/Bush/Obama/Trump era neoliberal policies of free trade and closed borders enable corporations to take what they want from local populations don't need to hear that "every official that comes in cripples us and leaves us maimed" they know this.
These are the messages of Rage Against the Machine and the pastor won't be preaching to the choir. They'll be preaching to us, the privileged, about those who do not live as we do. And the question on our minds as we walk out will be "Are we going to Rage Against the Machine or just accept that this is the way the world operates and say we have no power here?" Their message is one of warning and the warning is clear in "Township Rebellion":
Lord, I wish I could be peaceful
But there can be no sequel
In Johannesburg, or South Central
On the mic, cause someone should tell 'em
To kick in the township rebellion
Rage is telling us, those who can afford $500 tickets, to pay attention. This may be the final warning of the death knell of the republic. We either bring justice and equality peacefully or wake up one day to active rebellion. It is our choice.
