hyeboy
11-24-2002, 12:34 AM
“Ever heard of Jesus, or Buda? Or Krishna, or Muhammad? Any of those guys? They had some pretty good ideas. But then their agents started trying to make some money on them and fucked everything up! This song is about those agents…”
-Maynard (live during a Houston show right before playing Opiate).
Everyone is waiting for guidance from someone else. The “good” people rely on those “holier than thou” to instruct them on who God is and how to please Him. This is not a matter of “Tool hates God”. Regardless of their beliefs, this song is directed towards those that blindly follow others without ever questioning why they have instilled this faith into these people to begin with.
I remember seeing an interesting answer Maynard had for a question on the official APC site:
Q: “Why have you desecrated our savior?”
A: “I have never made a derogatory comment about Michael Jordan!”
Sums it up pretty well, don’t you think? I mean, there ARE people that worship the man! We haven’t even gotten to the issue of weather a spiritual God exists or not. How can we tackle that issue when we can’t even let go of the gods here on earth? Look at the leaders we’ve followed, look at the paths we’ve taken, all for the sake of not having to make decisions? We let the blaring spot light shine on the person leading us as we stay protected, hiding in the darkness and security we find in the shadow of those leaders. Why does Yasser Ararafat hold the power he has? No one put him there. He just walked in one day, laid down an agenda, and people started following! How many of you worship Maynard? How many of you have screamed out “Maynard is God” during a concert? Interesting! Why? Because everything he says is so brilliant? Because he is so enlightened? All this means is he has found a “pure” path that hasn’t been tracked on or trampled upon by “vampires”, agents, and salesmen. It’s been said time and time again, but it is the classic truth: “All Indians, no Chiefs”.
This is not about being against worshipping “higher beings”. This is about being against worshipping “higher human beings”! There is no one on this planet that has the answers, NO ONE! Not you, not me, and sorry kids but not even Maynard! He is just another person like you and me sharing some of the many ideas and “insights” he has been exposed to just as we are doing on this forum. No one is definitively right or wrong, but the more knowledge you have about that which you speak of, the more convincing your ideas sound. If you take a person who doesn’t know much about cars, give him/her a Ford Escort and tell him/her to bury the accelerator, that person may come back and say “wow, that must be the fastest car on earth”! This person may think he/she is right and go on spreading the word to all his/her friends. “The Ford Escort is the fastest car on earth!” Someone like me would be laughing his ass off! I’m not making fun of this person, I just know better because I have been exposed more and have far greater knowledge on the subject. And if this person doesn’t seek out the truth, he/she is just liable to end up walking into the local Lexus dealership and getting conned by Reverend Smith into driving away in a $60K Toyota (Lexus is an overpriced Toyota for those of you that didn’t get that!)
The point is simple. If you believe in God or don’t believe in God, you CANNOT rely on books, words, and interpretations of others to bring you any closer to answers or definitions. “Think for yourself, question authority!”
-Maynard (live during a Houston show right before playing Opiate).
Everyone is waiting for guidance from someone else. The “good” people rely on those “holier than thou” to instruct them on who God is and how to please Him. This is not a matter of “Tool hates God”. Regardless of their beliefs, this song is directed towards those that blindly follow others without ever questioning why they have instilled this faith into these people to begin with.
I remember seeing an interesting answer Maynard had for a question on the official APC site:
Q: “Why have you desecrated our savior?”
A: “I have never made a derogatory comment about Michael Jordan!”
Sums it up pretty well, don’t you think? I mean, there ARE people that worship the man! We haven’t even gotten to the issue of weather a spiritual God exists or not. How can we tackle that issue when we can’t even let go of the gods here on earth? Look at the leaders we’ve followed, look at the paths we’ve taken, all for the sake of not having to make decisions? We let the blaring spot light shine on the person leading us as we stay protected, hiding in the darkness and security we find in the shadow of those leaders. Why does Yasser Ararafat hold the power he has? No one put him there. He just walked in one day, laid down an agenda, and people started following! How many of you worship Maynard? How many of you have screamed out “Maynard is God” during a concert? Interesting! Why? Because everything he says is so brilliant? Because he is so enlightened? All this means is he has found a “pure” path that hasn’t been tracked on or trampled upon by “vampires”, agents, and salesmen. It’s been said time and time again, but it is the classic truth: “All Indians, no Chiefs”.
This is not about being against worshipping “higher beings”. This is about being against worshipping “higher human beings”! There is no one on this planet that has the answers, NO ONE! Not you, not me, and sorry kids but not even Maynard! He is just another person like you and me sharing some of the many ideas and “insights” he has been exposed to just as we are doing on this forum. No one is definitively right or wrong, but the more knowledge you have about that which you speak of, the more convincing your ideas sound. If you take a person who doesn’t know much about cars, give him/her a Ford Escort and tell him/her to bury the accelerator, that person may come back and say “wow, that must be the fastest car on earth”! This person may think he/she is right and go on spreading the word to all his/her friends. “The Ford Escort is the fastest car on earth!” Someone like me would be laughing his ass off! I’m not making fun of this person, I just know better because I have been exposed more and have far greater knowledge on the subject. And if this person doesn’t seek out the truth, he/she is just liable to end up walking into the local Lexus dealership and getting conned by Reverend Smith into driving away in a $60K Toyota (Lexus is an overpriced Toyota for those of you that didn’t get that!)
The point is simple. If you believe in God or don’t believe in God, you CANNOT rely on books, words, and interpretations of others to bring you any closer to answers or definitions. “Think for yourself, question authority!”