“No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same. What is to give light must endure burning.”
“Just Stop” was the third single released from Disturbed’s Ten Thousand Fists.
“Stricken” and “Land of Confusion” were the album’s biggest hits, while “Just Stop” was more modest in comparison. That said, it was one of my favourites.
A little less thrash-oriented than the band’s other singles, the track hits hard all the same, built around sharp guitar playing from Dan Donegan, and some tight rhythm work from drummer Mike Wengren and bassist John Moyer. Stylistically, it was a bit of a throwback to the band’s earlier material, probably closer to The Sickness and Believe. It is quintessential Disturbed. Staccato rhythms, big chorus with a great hook, and hard-hitting lyrics about one’s refusal to be controlled or silenced. It might not be their best-known track, but it is excellent all the same.
When the band toured for Ten Thousand Fists, the track became a staple in their set. I remember seeing them opening for Korn in 2006, but I don’t think they played it here. Shame, because it would have fit right in with their intense setlist. They’ve played it on and off since, not quite enjoying the consistency of tracks like “Down with the Sickness,” “Stupify,” or “Stricken.”
Frontman David Draiman rages against forms of manipulation, control, and judgement. A common theme throughout his works. When he sings:
“Enough of the limitless critical comments on my life…”
He calls out those who would assume some position of authority, or superiority over himself, or anyone. Enough with the criticism, enough with the hypocrisy, he says. Enough with the attempts to dictate one’s path. The chorus:
“All that you want is to criticise
Something for nothing
And all that I want, is forgiveness one more time
I know that all that we want is to feel inside
Some kind of comfort
And all that we’ve done we can’t hide
We’ll be the best in the world…”
It’s an anthem of defiance and will, sitting right in the middle of Ten Thousand Fists, an album that focuses on empowerment, rebellion, and unity. Exactly what Draiman and co. are rebelling against isn’t really made clear. The music industry? Music critics? The Bush administration? Someone in Draiman’s life who just finds fault with everything he says and does for no reason or any reason at all?
I don’t know what Draiman was standing for or against necessarily, but with everything to rage against over the past thirty years, it’s not hard to find some cause to get behind. And when you do stand for something, or create anything publicly for any amount of time, there will always be some clapback response from somewhere. Judgement and hypocrisy in others are two things we can’t control; we only control our response to those things.
“Someone despises me,” Marcus Aurelius once said. “That’s their problem.”
“But of all injustice, theirs is certainly of the deepest die, who make it their business to appear honest men, even whilst they are practising the greatest of villainies,” Cicero would say some centuries prior. He would have know, being an honest man in a senate full of liars and hypocrites.
“Judgements, value judgements concerning life, for or against, can in the last resort never be true,” Nietzsche said. “They possess value only as symptoms, they come into consideration only as symptoms – in themselves such judgements are stupidities.”
For Nietzsche, judgement and attempts at control are “herd morality.” This seems more aligned with what Draiman is saying, that he would break free with his noble, life-affirming values, and assert his will to power, create his own values and carve his own path. Judgement from those on the sidelines could just be a mask. The weak often use criticism and judgement as a means of using the virtues of the strong against them.
“If someone finds fault with everything you say or do, ignore,” the essayist Nassim Taleb says. “But there is information from those who differ on the occasion.”
This is true when it comes to actual constructive criticism, which is completely different. Personally, I embrace a bit of pushback. I get it at work all the time. “Hey Lawrence, I like where you’re going with this unit plan, just a couple of things…” I might not agree with their assessment. I might argue my point. But if their feedback is sound and I can use it, then I welcome it.
But the kind of judgement Disturbed raged against wasn’t that.
Look, you can sit in judgement of someone if you want. That’s your prerogative. But it doesn’t make you wise. It doesn’t make you cool. It makes you kind of a dickhead. It’s like being in the cuck chair, watching. Which is stupid, and, ultimately self-defeating. You’re not acting, you’re not participating or taking risks, you’re just watching as someone does something else. Even if they fuck up, they’re doing.
Social judgement positions one as a spectator with no skin in the game. Whatever feeling of moral superiority you might feel is a placebo, since it exists without the vulnerability that comes with engagement. It’s a chair I’d like to avoid.
Lawrence Deveney 