“The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice.”
-Saul D. Alinsky
“The Hand That Feeds” was the lead single from Nine Inch Nails’ fourth studio album, With Teeth.
It was also their first release after a decent hiatus. Six years separated With Teeth and 1999’s monumental double album, The Fragile. During that time, Nine Inch Nails — led by Trent Reznor — released remixed and live albums to critical and commercial success. “Deep” was Reznor’s contribution to the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider soundtrack. A stint in rehab and a little soul searching, and he was back in the studio in late 2004.
Previous Nine Inch Nails albums had to do with themes of sex, depression, alienation, and anxiety. But now, newly sober and with a revitalised vision, Reznor was looking in a different direction for inspiration. The first taste of the new album came in “The Hand That Feeds,” a snappy, bombastic number that made for an excellent introduction. Lyrically, it concerns itself with control, obedience, and resistance. The chorus, for example:
Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?
Definitely asking in absolutes, but I guess that’s where Reznor was at that point.
And it’s a question as old as civilisation itself. In a time of social and political uncertainty, when something has to give, what is to be done? Does one accept the system and follow authority, or challenge those in power? On an individual level, is one in a position to really do something, and if so, what?
Pretty much everyone has interpreted “The Hand That Feeds” as a political statement directed at the absolute dumpster fire that was the Bush administration. For those not familiar with this era, it was pretty wild. There was this haze of patriotic fervour post-9/11, and as the United States sent the troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, Australia followed suit. Someone better versed on policy could correct me, but we weren’t actually obligated to do so. The Howard government sent our soldiers over, ostensibly for political and strategic reasons, and alliance considerations. Sometimes, I think it was less thought out than that. Our government — which tends to be centre-right no matter who’s in parliament — has this emotional attachment to the U.S. like they’re our drunk uncle on Christmas Day. They say go, we gleefully say yes. Think back to Howard going to stay at Bush’s family ranch, like kids having a sleepover. What a dynamic duo they were.
The Iraq War was a big deal, to put it mildly. I remember the protests in Melbourne (well, here and everywhere else). Students at my high school got to take Friday afternoons off if they were going to protest outside the State Library of Victoria. This was in the 2000s, long before the activist lifestyle became as alluring as it is now. “Free the refugees” and “No blood for oil” were the rallying cries.
A couple of years later, with this lead single, Reznor asked if the listener would “bite the hand that feeds,” and take a stand, or “get down on [their] knees,” which in his mind meant submission.
It’s easy to interpret it in the context of Bush, Howard, and Iraq. But you could apply it to all manner of power dynamics, in society, or in personal relationships. Or the political climate that exists now, seemingly with even deeper division.
People who know me know that I like to go on rants about this and that. On Facebook, I’ll write up an essay on the spot railing against anything, from the Israel/Palestine conflict, to Jordan Peterson and e-celebs, to Funko Pops and all manner of consumer culture. “Lawrence has an opinion on something” has become a kind of meme in my social circle, after all. Does it change anything? No, it does not. It’s the social media equivalent of writing my thoughts on a piece of paper and lighting it on fire. The bombs get dropped, the influencers sell their merch, and the Funko Pops end up on the Ikea shelves of conservabros and socialists alike.
I realise all of this is happening around me. I can only work on myself. That is within my power, and I don’t need permission to do so. I can always learn and reveal new ideas and skills, whether at work or in everyday life.
Epictetus once said, “The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own.”
Or, to quote Alinsky again, “As an organiser I start from where the world is, as it as, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be–it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working in the system.”
Is this what Reznor was talking about? Who knows, but the words of Epictetus and Alinsky may be as good a starting place as any. Then I can look at the world and think about what needs to be done. Humility in the face of things I can’t control; spurred forth while mindful of where the world is.
I don’t know if I have it down, but I’m trying. That, and I have a whole bunch of other things to work on.
More to come, after I’ve meditated on this a little longer. Thank you for reading.
Lawrence Deveney 