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System of a Down Are Why I’m Communist

Originally written for a Street Fight zine about a year or two ago. 

Like a lot of people in my generation, I became politically aware during the dark days of the George W. Bush presidency, particularly around the time of the 2004 election. The same year Green Day released the liberal anti-Bush magnum opus American Idiot. By that point I realized that Bush was a fascist buffoon and a repulsive Christian chauvinist. The Weapons of Mass Destruction that were hyped to sell the Iraq War turned out to be totally nonexistent. It was the first time I became aware that the government would blatantly lie to the people. All the people killed and maimed and an inconceivable amount of money spent was founded on a lie. I rooted for John Kerry, since I thought he would stop Bush’s reign of terror, greed and ignorance and there were no other options. But we all know how that turned out. It was demoralizing for me, the “good guy” lost and the country and the world would have to endure another four year term of Bush.

The next year was the year System of a Down released Hypnotize and Mesmerize and it was when they entered my radar. The music videos for the albums were played fairly frequently on MTV and VH1. As a young metal-head and peacenik, B.Y.O.B. was right up my alley. At the time I was a big fan of Black Sabbath and Megadeth because of their lyrics with similar themes. After I heard that I had to dig into their discography. Not necessarily the easiest thing living in the middle of Ohio and with a dad who was iffy on letting me hear albums with a parental advisory sticker. Through borrowing from friends and Sam Goody trips in a nearby city I was able to get most of their CDs. 2005 was also the year of Hurricane Katrina, when Bush’s incompetence cost thousands of lives and ruined the lives of many more. A sign of how the rest of Bush’s second term would be. The music of System of a Down were the perfect soundtrack for it.

The lyric books that came with the CDs taught me more than I would learn in school. Listening to them made me feel smart. Prison Song taught me about the prison industrial complex; how it punishes and controls rather than reforming people, and the governments’ dirty hands in the drug trade that fills the prisons up. “Minor drug offenders fill your prisons, you don't even flinch/ All our taxes paying for your wars against the new non-rich.” They also have lyrics that treat drug users with an empathy that is not often seen in media or in school. Boom! Is another antiwar song of theirs that hit me hard. “Manufacturing consent is the name of the game/The bottom line is money, nobody gives a fuck/ 4000 hungry children leave us per hour from starvation/While billions are spent on bombs, creating death showers!” I had the naive thought in my head that if everyone heard that song there would be no more war. They have other songs dealing with propaganda, environmentalism, big business’ influence on government, and so on.  I didn’t learn about the Armenian Genocide in school, I learned about it from System of a Down.

As the years went on my taste in music changed. I stopped considering myself a metal-head and no longer listened to System of a Down. My political beliefs evolved as well. I was a Daily Show watching progressive liberal in my high school years. In 2008 I had high hopes for Obama. His advertising campaign made me think he would be the anti-Bush. He promised to close down Guantanamo Bay and end the Iraq War. I thought he would be the new Franklin Roosevelt as we went into the Great Recession. After several years into his first term I realized he was a phoney. We were still blowing up the Middle East, and didn’t crack down on Wall Street or rebuild the welfare state. He basically solidified Bush’s legacy and didn’t bring the hope and change he promised. The disappointment led me to anarchism and socialism, and I started reading books on the subjects from the college library. I began as many leftists do with Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, and when reading them I noticed how many phrases and concepts in their writings were in System of a Down songs. Deer Dance referenced Zinn’s memoir You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. The seeds of my becoming a socialist were planted with System of a Down.

It’s been 15 years since I first heard Hypnotize, and it feels like a whole lifetime ago with the overwhelming amount of history that has happened in my life and in the world since then. A lot has changed, but so much has unfortunately stayed the same. There’s a different fascist buffoon in the White House. The forever wars in the Middle East have not stopped, they’ve just become easier for most people to ignore. Bush’s image has been largely rehabilitated. He got to floss dance with Ellen DeGeneres and Democrats approval rating has increased over the years since at least he’s not a dang Cheeto like Drumpf. The ghouls in Bush’s circle deserved to be tried at the Hague or at least pelted with shoes whenever they go outside, but they are still free and continue to hold power and influence. Some of them are working for Joe Biden.

Over the last year or so I rediscovered System of a Down, and am surprised at how well it held up musically and lyrically. Deer Dance could have been written in 2020, since the subject of police brutality against protesters is perhaps more relevant and in focus now than ever before. “Pushing little children/ With their fully automatics/ They like to push the weak around”. It was probably inspired by the Battle of Seattle but since then we have seen the police brutalize protesters at Occupy, Ferguson, Standing Rock, and reaching a boiling point in this year. I can’t say if more people listened to them they would also be socialist. Even their drummer John Dolmayan turned out to be a MAGA chud this year. It had a lasting and significant influence on me at least. It at least gave me a head start in my political education.