Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

This is an excellent new video for the Rage’s No Shelter, and the video director’s views on culture and resistance are equally perceptive.

My critique of popular culture.

The video serves two purposes. My first goal was to draw upon the Frankfurt School’s idea of Culture Industry (which Rage so eloquently articulates in “No Shelter”), and create a connection between consumption (pop culture), a militaristic foreign policy, and terrorism. I had been grappling with the concept of subversion. In postindustrial capitalism, a subversive idea poses no real threat to the status quo. Something that is anti-establishment can only reach critical mass by way of the market, therefore it’s growth is its own undoing. Take for instance Rage Against the Machine. Its message is clearly anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-American in the hegemonic sense of the term. Theoretically, Rage could serve as a catalyst for revolution, raise class-consciousness and open the eyes of the disenfranchised. Yet, as Rage’s message picks up steam, its channels of distribution begin to change. Rage is now a music video, a poster, a product of the culture industry. The market appropriates Rage’s message, repackages it and sells it devoid of its initial subversiveness. The classic example of this is the commodification of the iconic image of Che. What once was the face of revolution is now no more than a hat, or t-shirt; a testament to globalization as it is most likely made in China. Onto my second goal. I was left a bit disillusioned, having realized that no counter-cultural or anti-estabilshment movement can withstand the all mighty market. It occurred to me that something could only be subversive if it works in the reverse manner of the market. I would reappropriate existing products of the culture industry and use them against itself. This entire video is all footage from television and film which I downloaded off of Limewire or off of the web.

No Shelter — by Rage Against the Machine

The main attraction, distraction
got ya number than numb
Empty ya pockets son,
they got you thinkin that
What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin’
From the theaters to malls on every shore
The thin line between entertainment and war

The frontline is everywhere,
there will be no shelter here

Spielberg the nightmare works so push it far
Amistad was a whip,
the truth feathered and tarred
Memories erased and burned and scarred
Trade in ya history for a VCR

Cinema, simulated life, ill drama
Fourth reich culture, Americana
Chained to the dream they got ya searchin for
The thin line between entertainment and war

There’ll be no shelter here!
The thin line is everywhere
There’ll be no shelter here!
The thin line is everywhere

Hospitals not profit full
The market bull’s got pockets full
To advertise some hip disguise
View the world from American eyes

Tha poor adore keep feeding for more
Tha thin line between entertainment and war
Fix the need, develop the taste
Buy their products or get laid to waste

Coca-Cola is back in the veins of Saigon
And Rambo too, he’s got a dope pair of Nikes on
Godzilla pure mother f**kin filler
Get your eyes off the real killer

Cinema, simulated life, ill drama
Fourth reich culture, Americana
Chained to the dream they got you searchin for
Tha thin line between entertainment and war

There’ll be no shelter here!
The thin line is everywhere
There’ll be no shelter here!
The thin line is everywhere

American eyes, American eyes
View the world from American eyes
Bury the past, rob us blind
And leave nothin behind

American eyes, American eyes
View the world from American eyes
Bury the past, rob us blind
And leave nothin behind

Just stare!
Just stare!
Just stare!
Just stare!

Relive the nightmare!