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The Master's Tools

from Born Without Consent by L'État C'est Moi

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lyrics

Use the master's tools to destroy the master's house
Use the master's gun to pistol-whip the master's mouth
Remove the title master and expropriate his wealth
Rebuild in the rubble and keep the bastard out

Cuz a bank can't own a fuckin forest
Anymore than I can own the sky
And capital can't be a fuckin person
Anymore than I can never die

And I'm gonna die, we're all gonna die
The only question is, by your hand or mine?

The master hired uniforms to man the institutions
That long ago monopolized all conflict resolution
But I don't like the way that all these conflicts get resolved
And I don't care at all about the sanctity of law
Fuck that
And fuck you

Cuz the state can't own my fuckin body
Unless that state is me
One place under the power of another
Is occupied and must be freed

Use the master's hammer and use the master's nails
To crucify the master, and burn the master's jails
Fight the master's minions and break the master's guns
Combat the master's power til his mastery is done
Til his mastery is done

NOTE:
Some people have mentioned that they interpret this song as an attack on Audrey Lorde, who originated the phrase "The master's tools will not dismantle the master's house". This is not the case. In fact, this song is an attack on those who would misuse Lorde's phrase to declaw radical movements. The book 'Pacifism As Pathology' by Ward Churchill was very influential on the lyrics to this song. Here is an excerpt from the book:

" They tell us you can’t use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house. I can’t tell you how many people have said this to me. I can, however, tell you with reasonable certainly that none of these people have ever read the essay from which the line comes: “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House,” By Audrey Lorde (certainly no pacifist herself). The essay has noting to do with pacifism, but with the exclusion of marginalized voices from discourse ostensibly having to do with social change. If any of these pacifists had read her essay, they would have undoubtedly been horrified, because she is, reasonably enough, suggesting a multivaried approach to the multivarious problems we face.

It has always seemed clear to me that violent and nonviolent approaches to social change are complementary. No one i know who advocates the possibility of armed resistance to the dominant cultures degradation and exploitation rejects nonviolent resistance. Many of us routinely participate in the nonviolent resistance and support those for whom this is their only mode of opposition.

Who is it that says we should not use the master’s tools? Often it is Christians, Buddhists, or other adherents of civilized religions. It is routinely people who wish us to vote our way to justice or shop our way to sustainability. But civilized religions are tools used by the master as surely as is violence. So is voting. So is shopping. If we cannot use the tools used by the master, what tools, precisely, can we use? How about writing? No, sorry. Writing has long been a tool used by the master. So I guess we can’t use that. Well, how about discourse in general? Yes, those in power own the means of industrial discourse production, and those in power misuse discourse. Does that mean they own all discourse and we can never us it? Of Course not. they also own the means of industrial religion production, and they misuse religions. Does that mean they own all religion and we can never use it? Of course not. They own the means of industrial violent production, and they misuse violence. Does that mean they own all violence and we can never use it? Of course not.

But i have yet another problem with the statement that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house, which is that it’s a terrible metaphor. It just doesn’t work. The first and most necessary condition for a metaphor is that it makes sense in the real world. This doesn’t.

You can use a hammer to build a house, and you can use a hammer to take it down.

It doesn’t matter whose hammer it is.

There’s an even bigger problem with the metaphor. What is perhaps its most fundamental premise. That the house belongs to the master. But there is no master, and there is no master’s house. There are no master’s tools. There is a person who believes himself a master. There is a house he claims is his. There are tools he claims as well. And there are those who still believe he is the master.

But there are others who do not buy into this delusion. There are those of us who see a man, a house, and tools. No more and now less."

credits

from Born Without Consent, released May 3, 2015

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L'État C'est Moi Montreal, Québec

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