Album Cover The Poverty Of Philosophy

The Poverty Of Philosophy

Immortal Technique

6

Most of my Latino and black people who are struggling to get food

Clothes and shelter in the hood, are so concerned with that

That philosophising about freedom and socialist democracyIs usually unfortunately beyond their rationale

They don′t realize that America can't exist

Without separating them from their identity

Because if we had some sense of who we really are

There′s no way in hell we'd allow this country to push

It's genocidal consensus on our homelands

This ignorance exists, but it can be destroyed

Niggas talk about change and working within the system to achieve that

The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try

To change the system from within, it′s not you who changes the system

It′s the system that will eventually change you

There is usually nothing wrong with compromise in a situation

But compromising yourself in a situation is another story completely

And I have seen this happen long enough in the few years that

I've been alive to know that it′s a serious problem

Latino America is a huge colony of countries whose presidents

Are cowards in the face of economic imperialism

You see, third world countries are rich places, abundant in resources

And many of these countries have the capacity to feed their starving people

And the children we always see digging for food in trash on commercials

But plutocracies, in other words

A government run by the rich such as this one

And traditionally oppressive European states

Force the third world into buying overpriced unnecessary goods

While exporting huge portions of their natural resources

I'm quite sure that people will look upon my attitude

And sentiments and look for hypocrisy and hatred in my words

My revolution is born out of love for my people, not hatred for others

You see, most of Latinos are here because of the great inflation

That was caused by American companies in Latin America

Aside from that, many are seeking a life away from the puppet

Democracies that were funded by the United States

Places like El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua

Ecuador and Republica Dominicana

And not just Spanish-speaking countries either

But Haiti and Jamaica as well

As different as we have been taught

To look at each other by colonial society

We are in the same struggle and until we realize that

We′ll be fighting for scraps from the table of a system

That has kept us subservient instead of being self-determined

And that's why we have no control over when the embargo will stop in Cuba

Or when the bombs will stop dropping in Vieques

But you see, here in America the attitude that is fed to us

Is that outside of America there live lesser people

"Fuck them, let them fend for themselves"

No, fuck you, they are you

No matter how much you want to dye your hair blonde

And put fake eyes in, or follow an anorexic standard of beauty

Or no matter how many diamonds you buy from people

Who exploit your own brutally to get them

No matter what kind of car you drive

Or what kind of fancy clothes you put on

You will never be them

They′re always gonna look at you as nothing but a little monkey

I'd rather be proud of what I am

Rather than desperately trying to be something I'm really not

Just to fit in

And whether we want to accept it or not

That′s what this culture or lack of culture is feeding us

I want a better life for my family and for my children

But it doesn′t have to be at the expense of millions of lives in my homeland

We're given the idea that if we didn′t have these people to exploit

Then America wouldn't be rich enough to let us have

These little petty material things in our lives and basic standards of living

No, that′s wrong, it's the business giants

And the government officials who make all the real money

We have whatever they kick down to us

My enemy is not the average white man

It′s not the kid down the block or the kids I see on the street

My enemy is the white man I don't see, the people in the white house

The corporate monopoly owners, fake liberal politicians, those are my enemies

The generals of the armies that are mostly conservatives

Those are the real motherfuckers that I need to bring it to

Not the poor, broke country-ass soldier that's too stupid

To know shit about the way things are set up

In fact, I have more in common

With most working and middle-class white people

Than I do with most rich black and Latino people

As much as racism bleeds America

We need to understand that classism is the real issue

Many of us are in the same boat and it′s sinking

While these bougie motherfuckers ride on a luxury liner

And as long as we keep fighting

Over kicking people out of the little boat we′re all in

We're gonna miss an opportunity

To gain a better standard of living as a whole

In other words, I don′t want to escape the plantation

I want to come back, free all my people

Hang the motherfucker that kept me there

And burn the house to the goddamn ground

I want to take over the encomienda

And give it back to the people who work the land

You cannot change the past but you can make the future

And anyone who tells you different is a fucking lethargic devil

I don't look at a few token Latinos and black people in the public eye

As some type of achievement for my people as a whole

Most of those successful individuals are just sell-outs and house Negros

But, I don′t consider brothers a sell-out if they move out of the ghetto

Poverty has nothing to do with our people

It's not in our culture to be poor

That′s only been the last five hundred years of our history

Look at the last two thousand years of our existence

And what we brought to the world in terms of science, mathematics

Agriculture and forms of government

You know the idea of a confederation of provinces

Where one federal government controls the states?

The Europeans who came to this country

Stole that idea from the Iroquois league

The idea of impeaching a ruler comes from an Aztec tradition

That's why Montezuma was stoned to death by his own people

'Cause he represented the agenda of white Spaniards once he was captured

Not the Aztec people who would become Mexicans

So in conclusion, I′m not gonna vote for anybody

Just ′cause they Black or Latino

They have to truly represent the community

And represent what's good for all of us proletariat

Porque si no entonces te mando pa′l carajo, cabrón

Gusano hijo de puta, seremos libres pronto

Viva la revolución (que viva la revolución)