“The Legacy of Bin Laden” by Immortal Technique
The rapper takes an insightful look at what the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death means for the U.S. now and from a historical perspective in this critical breakdown…
-
PLATINUM POST225 Comments
Post A Comment
When the announcement came late last night that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by the United States, many took to Twitter, the streets, and the airwaves to offer snap judgments, brief thoughts, and celebration. Immortal Technique, instead, took a different route. The always critically thinking, socially conscious rhymer decided to reflect. He reflected on the news and what it meant for this country and the world, and he translated those reflections onto digital paper.
This morning, we saw Tech tweet the following: “I wrote a very long essay about Bin Laden and Afghanistan and our involvement with it, but I doubt any of you really want to read it all. There is no link. It’s not posted it’s just sitting here. I haven’t posted it anywhere yet.” We wanted to give a platform for the response of one of hip-hop’s most politically aware minds. Tech in turn bestowed us with this potent, lengthy essay that you’ll find below.
We encourage you to prove him wrong in doubting that anyone will read his words.
In a world that has been flooded by news, there is usually nothing that rises far above the smoldering lava of sensation—that which consumes all truth and absorbs all lies mixing them into a fiery lake or stew of bubbling nonsense. So much so, that to discover glanced over facts, to question people of importance within government or the machine itself leads to the branding of one as a “conspiracy theorist.”
Truthfully, there are many people who lived life with doubt over the facts surrounding 9/11, who felt afraid to express it, probably because they feared being accused of “hating America,” of being “with the terrorists,” hence sympathizing with the people who were responsible for killing all of those who died on 9/11. You talk to people like this at work, you see them walking by you everyday, you can read their rants on message boards or in chat rooms around the world, insulting people who present their doubts. Some choose to not question anything to fit in, others just figure their opinion is irrelevant and doesn’t change anything. After all, there is such thing as human error and no matter how much the government or people in it stand to gain, they could have a made a mistake, by mistake, and not on purpose. Some secrets are best kept secrets in the interest of national security. However, if national security means protecting the abuse of power and the negligence of authority, then it is not the security of a nation that is being protected, but the indulgences of the corrupt.
Of course, the counterpart to this position, which creates the fervor of hatred and disrespectful debate, is the believer of all conspiracy theories and repeater of random information with only websites as sources. The angry person who blows up a postal truck because they think that their tax dollars shouldn’t go to excessive spending, or things like bombing people or paying mercenaries triple for what soldiers should be doing. This person is sometimes purposefully placed in that position and given a platform as a deterrent for the people who actually have a truth to be heard and taken seriously. This is what we term an agent provocateur, a mole planted to make the real issues lose credibility mixed in with insanity.
Not all people who doubt the official version of the story are raving lunatics, though. Some have an honest distrust of their own government. Some are veterans of a war like Vietnam who know that the people who run the United States of America are very capable of lying even to the best and bravest of those who risk their lives to defend the dwindling freedoms that we enjoy. Others are youthful minds, seeking to present themselves as different than the bland and overwhelmingly planned out and boring existence that chokes anything original or radical around them.
For the rest of us that are caught in between, it creates a crushing vice. The overflow of information, whether it was naturally evolving or a deliberate blurring mechanism put into place, distorts everything. And so for the sake of logic and truth, and to put the recent events surrounding Osama Bin Laden in perspective, I have decided to address several points about America’s tumultuous relationship with him.
1. First Impressions
There are people in this country who, when they speak, give you the impression that we never negotiate with terrorists; that our mission is to overthrow dictatorships; that we help the people gain true freedom; and that we do not torture people… But without lending any weight to conspiracy, there is documented evidence that at Guantanamo Bay, at Bagram Airforce base, and other secret locations we have tortured thousands, many wrongly accused, to obtain information. We have supported many more dictatorships than we could ever possibly overthrow because it was necessary for us to be able to have access to natural resources including their cheap labor. Why else would the clothing manufacturers in Honduras quietly lobby for the coup in 2009 and support it? Because the people who make their clothes might Unionize. Collective bargaining, health standards (not even American ones, but that of the nation they are in), humane conditions, all mean cutting into the profit margin and, in case you haven’t noticed, that matters more to corporations than people’s lives. Why do you think a dictatorship like Mubarak’s or the King of Saudi Arabia’s never received the same vitriol and hatred as the democratically elected regime of Hugo Chavez? Because it is not Communism or Socialism or even radical Islam that this country is opposed to. It is any form of government, any regime or any person that stands between the United States and it’s interests that should be considered marked for death. (By the United States, I mean the entities—be they corporate or of some other means—that are responsible for our elected officials being in the positions of power they hold.)
Actually, we have always “negotiated with terrorists.” Iran Contra. “The Surge,” not in troop strength, but also the surge in money we paid armed militias and armed gangs to not fire at American troops. Etc… So it’s clear, we only care about one kind of terrorist. Our terrorist. That person or organization is our dog, and our dog alone. When others use such tactics against us, it is evil, unkind and inhumane. But when we use these approaches against enemies who have already been demonized, then we find some gentle complacency over it instead of the anger and betrayal at our American standard of war. For nothing damages the American pride more than to acknowledge that underneath the stars and stripes, we can be just wicked as everyone else in the world.
I NEVER HEARD THIS GUY RAP, BUT I JUST BECAME A FAN.
GOOD READ DEF.
Deep and insightful! Very worth the time and effort to read and deep throat (swallow).
Listen to Revolutionary Vol. 1, Revolutionary Vol. 2 (classic) and The 3rd World, yo Tech keep doin ya thang man love all de way 4rm S. Africa waitin on da new album
Anything this guy produces is awesome… you simply named his popular albums… just saying. Thanks Immortal for your words.
When will conspiracy theorists learn that the most dubious, discredited and disreputable source of information is not the US government, but fellow conspiracy theorists? Immortal Technique’s response to this obvious fact? A conspiracy theory that bad conspiracy theories are really planted by governments to make sound conspiracy theories look bad. LOL. If there has ever been a larger mare’s nest of convoluted nonsense, I’ve never encountered it.
Overlong, poorly written, and asinine piece. Try to fail less, please.
Sorry mate but if you blindly accept any piece of media that is put in front of you and automatically accept it as fact, then go on to define your actions accordingly you are a very ignorant person and you will probably be a sheep your whole life.
It may sound crazy, but every hypothesis put forth by a so called “conspiracy theorist” may have the ability to make one more person just consider an issue from a different standpoint, thus making mass media not only more accountable but giving the a voice to those who dont have the favour, power or views, that are cohesive with multinational media companies which do have a relative monopoly on most of what you visually consume.
Yo people wake up, it wont get any better…. just like a guys said earlier. Someone will simply replace Osama…or Usama as the news suddenly changes his name….. and that’s IF he isn’t part of the government in the first place. Y did they find him near the 10 year anniversary of 9/11? Y did Obama make it such a big plan to catch him…. And then they threw his body in the water… WTF makes no sense!
But I don’t have the answer… sometimes the best question is really the place to start. So in the words of C-Rayz Walz….”I suggest you prepare for the worst, and strive for the best”
Absolutely Incredibly!
This could well be the best piece of truth written since 2001.
imagine the amount of ppl jus sittin on this one article…. thinkn….. dam….
whether dead or not, the killing wont stop. ppl need to learn the meanin of LIFE, n LIVIN it, n how to come together, n understand who the true enemy is, n wat their about. wats their agenda? wat is their purpose? these are questions we all should be askn…
Damn, what a deep and thorough essay. Not only an incredible artist, Immortal Technique is one of the realest revolutionaries out there. His attention to detail and common sense distinguishes him from the conspiracy theorists. Thank you XXL for posting this, and of course Tech for writing it. This is the kind of critical thinking that people need to be inspired to partake in.
The man is brilliant. Bravo for saying what is on the informed intellects mind.
Thank you!
May I aquire the calm that you must feel to be able to do this writing. So many detailed facts along with your feelings, at a time when folks like me just awakening, connecting all the dots that lead me to believe in the globalits nwo order agenda, wonderful if they are humans, do they lack empathy on a dna level? Because if they are so superior, why wait for the population to grow so far beyond their wish, to depopulate the world by 70-90%? Why, is so often my question, I am slow to process, maybe i’ve been dummied down, but i am blessed with knowing. You seem to be blessed with an exceptional right AND left brain. You are #greatness!
Love,
Wendy
Above, I meant to write “wondering” not “wonderful”