Posted on 01/28/2026 8:43:28 AM PST by rktman
The only surviving photo of my grandfather – Gershon Eliezer Rubinstein – whom I am named after – In the middle of a winter’s night in 1940 he was dragged from his home in Wierzbnik Poland, at gunpoint, thrown into jail, then sent to his death at Treblinka Concentration Camp. His crime ?
Being a Jew.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
Bastille Day, Anthem, 2112 all drive into the heart of leftist dystopians.
I was replying to a post about lyrics. Guess I should have just said all the lyrics were written by Neil Peart.
My next purchase.
Sabaton is good, too.
Alone and yet together, like two passing ships
Having been a ship driver l can vouch for the sentiment.
Rush is the best, but I won’t be seeing them without Neil.
Ayn Rand was also a militant atheist.
Hmm. “Free will” and to an extent “Something for Nothing” were anti-faith; and on the other foot “The Trees” and “Red Barchetta” drive right into the heart of leftist dystopian goals.
“No his mind is not for rent, to any god or government”
My oldest son listens to them.
You don't have to be a leftist to be a bigot.
🤟
Up the Irons!!!!!
Not arguing but my take:
- Bastille Day is populism yes, but juxtaposed against monarchism, not socialism. (Still, IMO the left wants neo-feudalism so hey).
- Anthem is purely an Ayn Rand/objectivist fanfic, for both good and ill.
- 2112 is not two-dimensional or purely against the modern left. It starts with open mockery of one of the Beatitudes, but then the “Priests” run a techno-socialist Earth much like the WEF wants; the bosses and their computers tell everyone what to do, think, be, with communist slogans and a red star. ... but the saviors of Earth in the album are objectivist heroes, self-actualized humanity on the wings of space.
If pressed hard I would say Neal was neither ‘left’ nor ‘right’ but in the “Don’t Tread on Me” camp and found both ‘sides’ full of stamping boots.
In the days of some of his better writing I have a pic of him wearing a “Prisoner” penny-farthing button. I’m biased on this one (see handle) but I see a similar thread through Rush’s lyrics — there are many external forces that attempt to control and manipulate the self, but the biggest controller, the factor that directs which things bend us, is our own self.
(and if that last doesn’t ring any bells, go watch the series maybe and mull it over; I can’t blather it all out in a post. bcnu.)
“Questions are a burden; and answers a prison for oneself” — Back in the Village, Powerslave
(their “other” Prisoner song)
You are trying to splits hairs on what is Marxism, communism, socialism, fascism, *ism.
It is all exactly the same thing: One group of people wanting to tell everyone else what to do.
For various reasons, arrogance, being afraid, anger, whatever their poison, they want to control others.
They simply tell themselves they are doing it for everyone else’s own good, that they know better.
This is the first time I've ever heard that song. Pretty powerful...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.