Masters of War with Dylan and Pearl Jam Videos

by Robert Wilkinson

Been thinkin' about this song lately. Figured it might be good to take a new look at what it's saying, since Halliburton and the rest of the death machine are making a lot of money off of human suffering. Though it's 44 years old, it's still right on target. For your perusal below the fold, the powerful message of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War."

Oh yes. Lest any who stumble upon this site think that I hate Amerika, I'll also dedicate this to the British, French, Chinese, Koreans, Russians, and all the other merchants of death who create the devices that destroy humanity. See, I do love America.

Someone has removed all Bob Dylan performances of this song from you tube, but I found a couple of Pearl Jam performances of this awesome antiwar song.

Here's a video of Pearl Jam doing this song Masters of War on Letterman. Here's another version of Masters of War in NY, 2008.

Masters of War

by Bob Dylan

Come you masters of war

You that build all the guns

You that build the death planes

You that build the big bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand

And you hide from my eyes

And you turn and run farther

When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old

You lie and deceive

A world war can be won

You want me to believe

But I see through your eyes

And I see through your brain

Like I see through the water

That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers

For the others to fire

Then you set back and watch

When the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion

As young people's blood

Flows out of their bodies

And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear

That can ever be hurled

Fear to bring children

Into the world

For threatening my baby

Unborn and unnamed

You ain't worth the blood

That runs in your veins

How much do I know

To talk out of turn

You might say that I'm young

You might say I'm unlearned

But there's one thing I know

Though I'm younger than you

Even Jesus would never

Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die

And your death'll come soon

I will follow your casket

In the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I'll stand o'er your grave

'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

Comments

[toni]

I love Dylan and the first part of his song is valid; however, he makes the same mistake in the last part that most people do. He wishes someone dead just like the very people he is condemning. He sees the wrong they are doing and then he wants to correct that with another wrong. He hates them with the same intensity they hate others with. Until people get over that kind of hatred, nothing will change.

[Robert]

Hi toni - You're right, of course, about hatred being a useless tool. I'm sure "Charlie T. Wilbury Jr." would add some different lyrics today, at least for the last verse. This song was written by a scathingly sarcastic young man who articulated the feelings of powerlessness that all feel at seeing the wealth of the world squandered by the merchants of death in every country, those who are more than willing to sacrifice the young and old to the meatgrinder while they collect six figure checks from the likes of Halliburton.

This song was originally on "Freewheelin'" along with "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," protest songs written around the time of the Cuban missle crisis, when "Talking World War III Blues" wasn't a metaphor. Most of us alive then, at least those of us who lived places that were targets of nuclear tipped missles, definitely felt that the "Masters of War" needed to leave this Earth, one way or another. I don't hate them - they just need to get over the delusional greed that results in destruction and suffering for countless beings. "War No More!"

[toni]

Hi Robert, I agree, but it's not only those in power who are to blame. Fear has tied up so many people from the inside out that they are filled with hate. Two years ago, a young man just graduating from high school told me he couldn't wait to go to war and kill as many people in Iraq as possible. He wanted me to remember him and thank him for keeping me safe. Our country has done quite a job brainwashing those who can be. Can you imagine? This young man had grown up in a nice home, with all his basic needs met, but words he had read and heard had led him to hate so much he was looking forward to killing other human beings. There is a lot of power in words.

[Robert]

Hi toni - I suppose I should go back to posting more Gandhi, since he's the closest to my heart in terms of political spirituality. His philosophy, applied under our circumstances, may be a necessity for the race. The power he generated through Satyagraha was awesome enough to compel a selfish, violent, and largely indifferent world to wake up and pay attention in a BIG way.

Your story reminds me that I knew several such as you describe when I graduated in '68 and killing people in 'Nam was taken as future sport by some hateful young men. Ugh. That attitude can never lead to anything but pain and suffering, regardless of what era the Universal Soldier lives in. But that's a different animal than hateful people.

You're so right about fear. It breeds hate, since fear always seeks an object to attack. Then it justifies the polarization, and before you know it, the lower desire is dominating the reason, even the intellect, and creating the "10,000" things that distract us from our higher potentials, individually and collectively.

This is what the on-going transformational revolution is leading to - the constant awareness by a lot of humans that there's got to be a better way than the one that's perpetuating so much suffering. One great Master said it all stems from "The Heresy of Separateness." You could say that fear, hate, and all the negative emotions and mindsets do stem from an unawareness of our One Life Together. And yes, our words do have tremendous power. That's why I wholeheartedly recommend Florence Scovel Shinn, the grandmother of getting your thoughts straight. Great conversation!

[Toni]

Hi Robert, What exactly do you mean by this statement? the "lower desire is dominating the reason, even the intellect and creating the "10,000" things that distract us from our higher potentials, individually and collectively."
Why would our lower desire do that? Why would we allow this to happen? I'm asking from a personal point of view because without a doubt my life has 10,000 things that distract me. I don't want it to, but I feel obligations and responsibilities to my children for whom I have custody and a financial crisis in the last year has led me to working too many hours, trying to sell my house so we can get into a different one we can afford, etc. But I would much rather be focusing on spiritual issues. Why is it that these lower desires get in the way?
And is survival a lower desire?

[Robert]

Hi Toni - I was speaking of the nature of hate and fear. Fear is generated in the desire mind, and the nature of desire is to override reason and intellect, being the strong pole of the lower self. We allow it to happen by not being aware of its happening. The antidote is Spiritual Will, but few actually take up the challenge to allow the Spiritual Self to override the desires that have been reasoned into reality.

"The 10,000 things" that arise to confront our senses may or may not be distracting in good or bad ways. And our obligations born of love for other Souls are not a distraction - they are the vehicles by which we prove we know the higher from the lower, the more important from the lesser. And occasionally we do have to work overtime, given the pressures of life in the 21st century. Our hopes and dreams for/with our loved ones ARE our spiritual issue. It's called karma yoga. And no, survival is hardwired in the reptilian brain. It's a primal necessity. Our job is to unlearn instinctive reactivity spurred by "survival needs" that are no longer appropriate to the 21st century.

[Toni]

Thank you for clearing up my question. Let us hope that 1000 years from now people will look back at this time and wonder how people could ever have thought killing each other to solve problems could possibly be an answer. Because that would mean 1000 years from now the idea of war will be archaic.

I talk to the kids I teach every day about it. About finding other ways, instead of their first reaction of violence, to solve their arguements.
And then they grow up and the govt. hands them a gun and says "go to it."

[Robert]

Well, we are told from legit sources that we're in the ascending Dwapara Yuga for a couple thousand years, which will skyrocket us out of ignorance, relative to how long things have taken during the past few thousand years of Kali Yuga. As for archaic? It was archaic before it happened the first time. We've been trapped in duality and separateness for a loooong time. There will always be contests of legitimacy in any era of dualism. Compare, contrast, and categorize is how the mind earns its bihemispheric keep. It's a matter of turning the energy from competition to cooperation, or if we MUST be competitive, make it win-win, synergistic to the betterment of the ALL. The Nu Games movement was one pioneering effort in that direction. I'm sure there will be more, especially under the spur of necessity, coming soon to an environment near you.

[Felita]

Hi Robert Googled Dwapara Yuga,surfing the aquarius papers on this sultry summer evening. Love Eddies version of this . Sung with so much passion in his soul. I will sing this when i feel anger towards those world powers. Release this with my own passion. Still need more explanation of Dwapara yuga. When it is timely for you. I did not know you aspired to Ghandi.

Thanking you Felita

[Robert]

Hi Felita - As I wrote in a comment stream in this article which you may want to revisit, "In each age there is a dance between the cosmic feminine and the cosmic masculine, and depending on whether we are in descending or ascending Kali Yuga, Dwapara Yuga, Treta Yuga, or Satya Yuga, we will see enlightened ways of masculine and feminine expression on collective levels, or unenlightened. I use the system asserted by Sri Yukteswar in "The Holy Science" as my guidepost here. That means we have recently hit the ascending Dwapara Yuga, and are going for the remembrance of the electromagnetic Creation. This is very good for the future of humanity."

The 4 Yugas, or Ages, come from the Sanskrit. Kali Yuga is the darkest, densest age, with lots of ignorance and violence. Dwapara Yuga is the next ascending stage, an age of remembrance and electromagnetic exploration. The ascending Treta Yuga is said to be an age where we become like "gods" and more. Satya Yuga is "the Golden Age," where there is no suffering, no ignorance, where everything is in perfect harmony, and heaven is on Earth. We ascend over time through the Ages toward perfection, then descend over time into forgetfulness, then ascend over time into remembrance, then again move into density. Each great cycle is 26,000 years, with an Ascending half and a descending half. Different Soul groups incarnate at different times for different evolutionary purposes, and those who learned in one era are the teachers in the next.

As for Gandhi, he set the gold standard for enlightened political action, enlightened negotiation, enlightened interaction, and enlightened intention. Ahimsa powered by Satyagraha is an irresistible force. I don't think I "aspire" to Gandhi as much as I pay my highest respects to the one of whom Einstein himself said "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood." Please check out this article for more on this remarkable exemplar of human potential.