The Ghost of Tom Joad—Rage Against the Machine
#365Songs: July 30th
I woke up to news that my favorite neighborhood bookstore burnt down last night. Like the store itself, I was completely gutted. In all the cities I’ve lived in, of all the neighborhood bookstores I’ve visited or frequented, none felt quite like home the way East Bay Booksellers did. For over a decade, I’ve visited at least one or twice a week — oftentimes more. What made this one so special wasn’t just the lovely curation, the handwritten staff recommendations, or the literary events they hosted, it was also how well it embodied the inclusive spirit of Oakland itself. It was a safe space for everyone, a queer refuge, an activist’s hub, a courageous store that proudly showcased the books we all must read, especially the ones demonized by the conservatives.
Readers who seek lived experiences beyond their own express themselves through empathy. You are an extension of me, therefore I am here for you. The places that build and sustain a community will be rebuilt through the support of that same community. That’s how a civilized culture operates.
For now.
And the highway is alive tonight
Nobody’s foolin’ nobody as to where it goes
I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
With the ghost of Tom Joad
And that got me thinking: If Florida were a fire, this bookstore would’ve been what burned.
It’s quite clear why Fascists ban and burn books, as what resides within is antithesis to ignorance at scale. These stories teach us to think and process the world, to embody the experiences of those we’re not, to educate us about what happened and can never happen again. They embolden us to rethink our lives, but also to change the world around us. We read so as not to be a DeSantis, a Trump, a Vance, a Putin. We read as a means to remember that we must question everything, challenge systems, avoid repetitive history.
Modern day conservatives (read: Fascists) demonize immigrants, even though somewhere in each of our ancestral folklores resides a personal journey from one place to another. They demonize migrants, even as they quietly profit from their labor. They demonize the homeless, even as they collectively vote against adequate funding for the social services that’d keep them housed and employed. By censoring the stories we read and hear, they can easily reshape new truths around their intended outcomes — all while convincing the masses that it’s good for them, that WE are the threat.
Man walks along the railroad track
He’s going some place and there’s no turnin’ back
The Highway Patrol chopper comin’ up over the ridge
Man sleeps by a campfire under the bridge
The shelter line stretchin’ around the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleepin’ in their cars out in the Southwest
No job, no home, no peace, no rest, no rest
And while the stakes are higher, while our democracy is threatened in ways it hasn’t been before, this is and has always been at the foundation of the American socio-political structure. Steinbeck wrote Grapes of Wrath almost 85 years ago, flawlessly breaking down the falseness of the American Dream that still stands true today. He wrote Travels with Charley over 62 years ago, highlighting a road trip across a country racially, socially, and politically divided in ways that resonate exactly the same today.
Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad is a perfect song, a modernized version of Steinbeck’s very American story: a systemic breakdown of the societal blanket one should expect from the wealthiest, most advanced culture on the planet. All set to a hypnotizing harmonic, rhythmic strums, and Springsteen’s whispering ballad voice.
But times like these require more anger. Rage, to be specific.
He pulls his prayer book out of a sleepin’ bag
The preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag
He’s waitin’ for the time
When the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box ‘neath the underpass
With a one way ticket to the promise land
With a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand
Lookin’ for a pillow of solid rock
Bathin’ in the city’s aqueducts
A few years after Bruce’s original release, heyday Rage Against the Machine added their own special treatment, a more accurate depiction for LA’s urban decay. The song hits a whole lot harder these days. Over the weekend, typically-progressive Gavin Newsom announced mandatory public sweeps of homeless encampments, yet failed to mention where they’ll go or what happens next.
In the ’80s, Reagan wiped out funding for mental health institutions, sending thousands into the streets with no discernible treatment options — including countless war vets, even as their peers praised the President. A perpetuated “war on drugs” imprisoned thousands more through the ’90s and aughts, even as the same government took a laissez-faire approach to the opioid crisis. Thousands more underemployed felons and addicted Americans were sent to the streets. Now, politically-savvy and morally-bankrupt Mayors and Governors across the country clean their own cities by shipping the problem they created to California. When we turn our backs, where is left to go?
Then Tom said “Ma, whenever ya seen a cop beatin’ a guy
Wherever a hungry new born baby cries
Wherever there’s a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me ma, I’ll be there
Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ for a place to stand
For a decent job or a helpin’ hand
Wherever somebody is strugglin’ to be free
Look in their eyes ma, you’ll see me”
Ignorance and selfishness is seemingly endemic in this country, and it’s best treated with books, with stories, with actual lived truths. By personalizing what is demonized, we see and feel a pain we otherwise ignored.
We’re a country segregated by a lack of imagination, by an inexperience interacting with the Other. The politicians most vocal against DEI are the ones who most benefited from it, the white boys born to wealth and status and a skin color deemed superior. When you hear Harvard and see a white man saying it, your first question should be: “what year did his father graduate?”
And that’s exactly why they ban books, demonize queer communities, paint non-Whites as the source of crime and moral decay. It’s how they protect their own privilege. It’s how they fuel their false truths when speaking to the undereducated and underemployed White Americans who’ve been provoked to believe that we took it from them.
You’ll see me, you’ll see me
You’ll see me, you’ll see me
You’ll see me, you’ll see me
You’ll see me, you’ll see me
Actual truth is Fascism’s kryptonite, and where better to accumulate knowledge than from the stories we share. Where better to share those stories than through books, songs, films. When a book is burned, a story dies, and someone somewhere misses a critical moment to connect with something new, embody someone else.
If we don’t start raging against the machine, the machine will soon rage against us.
And the highway is alive tonight
Nobody’s foolin’ nobody as to where it goes
I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
With the ghost of Tom Joad
~
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