{"id":11155,"date":"2009-10-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-10-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-16T00:00:00","slug":"Korn\u2019s Thoughtless \u2013 Selling Satanism To Suburban Kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=11155","title":{"rendered":"Korn\u2019s Thoughtless \u2013 Selling Satanism To Suburban Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

The association of rock music with satanism isn\u2019t new. Groups like Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath have exploited this type of imagery decades ago. Young fans saw in those groups the perfect way to rebel against authority and the ideal medium through which they could affirm their individuality. Korn\u2019s Thoughtless video<\/a> could be considered a continuation of this \u201ctradition\u201d but with a troubling twist: in this case, satanism is directly marketed to school kids and is presented in an almost practical answer to their problems.<\/i><\/p>\n

I can already see comments saying: \u201cKorn members aren\u2019t Satanic, they\u2019re Christian except for one who is atheist\u201d. That\u2019s great to know. I honestly don\u2019t care what religion artists claim to be. You should also know that I\u2019m not writing this from a \u201cChristian fundamentalist\u201d standpoint. I\u2019m simply not one of those people and I don\u2019t think this way. I have however studied communication models. The aim of this article is to analyze the message of this video as a self-contained cultural product, which is diffused to the masses through media corporations. Like a common TV advertisement, the video is aimed towards a particular market (teens and pre-teens). It presents a problem to be solved and a solution which addresses the problem. This solution is satanism. Here\u2019s the video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Analysis of Video<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span>
\nThe main character of the video is an average student attending an upper-class, suburban white high school. Girls are pointing and laughing at him for no apparent reason. He is constantly picked on by jocks who can\u2019t resist the urge to pummel the crap out of him every time the boy walks by. After the jocks are done with him the boy sits there, stunned<\/a> and a banner above him informs us of an upcoming senior prom.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, we see Korn playing inside the guy\u2019s head. Jonathan Davis\u2019 lyrics resonnate in his brain, representing the sick inner-thoughts that are fermenting inside of him. Here are the lyrics:<\/p>\n

Thumbing through the pages of my fantasies
\nPushing all the mercy down, down, down
\nI wanna see you try to take a swing at me
\nCome on, gonna put you on the ground, ground, ground<\/p>\n

Why are you trying to make fun of me?
\nYou think it\u2019s funny?
\nWhat the fuck you think it\u2019s doing to me?
\nYou take your turn lashing out at me
\nI want you crying with your dirty ass in front of me<\/p>\n

All of my hate cannot be found
\nI will not be drowned by your thoughtless scheming
\nSo you can try to tear me down
\nBeat me to the ground
\nI will see you screaming<\/p>\n

Thumbing through the pages of my fantasies
\nI\u2019m above you, smiling at you, drown, drown, drown
\nI wanna kill and rape you the way you raped me
\nAnd I\u2019ll pull the trigger
\nAnd you\u2019re down, down, down<\/p>\n

Why are you trying to make fun of me?
\nYou think it\u2019s funny?
\nWhat the fuck you think it\u2019s doing to me?
\nYou take your turn lashing out at me
\nI want you crying with your dirty ass in front of me<\/p>\n

All of my hate cannot be found
\nI will not be drowned by your thoughtless scheming
\nSo you can try to tear me down
\nBeat me to the ground
\nI will see you screaming<\/p>\n

All my friends are gone, they died (gonna take you down)
\nThey all screamed, and cried (gonna take you down)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m never (?) back against the wall
\nGonna take you down<\/p>\n

All of my hate cannot be found
\nI will not be drowned by your thoughtless scheming
\nSo you can try to tear me down
\nBeat me to the ground
\nI will see you screaming
\nAll of my hate cannot be found
\nI will not be drowned by your thoughtless scheming
\nSo you can try to tear me down
\nBeat me to the ground
\nI will see you screaming<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the lyrics aren\u2019t too nice or forgiving. They\u2019re rather violent, vengeful and twisted. They\u2019re also obviously the words of a young person. I don\u2019t see too many adults telling each other \u201cWhy are you trying to make fun of me?\u201d. Its more schoolyard talk. The singer of Korn is yelling those lyrics inside the guy\u2019s brain and is therefore the messenger of those thoughts. Back to the video.<\/p>\n

So the guy is in the cafeteria, alone and is looking troubled and disturbed. He is drawing demonic images in his notepad. For a couple of seconds, some of the text starts shimmering, giving it a supernatural feel.<\/p>\n

We soon understand that the drawings are actually an evil entity expressing itself through our main character. It is announcing the coming transformation of our angry guy. We then see his hand bubbling, further symbolizing that something inside of him is trying to get out.<\/p>\n

In the next scene, our main guy is minding his own business, swimming in the pool when the jock douchebags see him and say \u201chey it\u2019s that loser kid again, let\u2019s all go in the water and act like the bullies that we are\u201d. So the guy gets his daily those of knuckles. Afterwards, we see him floating in the water with his skin crawling again. Every unfortunate event seems to give more power to the being inside of him. It has been historically recorded that people who have fallen victim of spirit possession claimed to feel a constant crawling sensation all over their skin. So the apparent discomfort of the main character also represents an actual effect of spiritual possession.<\/p>\n

In the next scene, the guy is in the locker room and isapparently losing it. His skin keeps crawling and he\u2019s starting to look and act like a wild beast.<\/p>\n

Then the actual possession takes place. We see the singer Jonathan Davis floating in mid-air, with apparently no physical body and creepy devilish eyes<\/a>. This scene alludes to the etheric and metaphysical nature of the change that is occurring inside the main character\u2019s head. He looks at his yearbook, throws a TV out the window for some reason and finally decides to get a phone book and finds an ad for escorts (prostitutes). We see the singer\u2019s devilish face flashing in the yearbook and the phone book, signifying that the entity inside the guy is taking over his thoughts and pushing him to carry out a great revenge. <\/p>\n

So we are now at the big prom night and we see the prom king and prom queen doing their prom things. Then the loser that was picked on makes a dramatic entrance, dressed like some kind of Scarface from the suburbs and escorted by an attractive prostitute. The escort removes her coat, revealing a demonic face, whose flashing eyes are conveniently placed on her breasts. If you had any doubts concerning the nature of the guy\u2019s \u201cdisturbance\u201d, they should be gone by now. She flashes the devil\u2019s horns hand sign to leave absolutely no doubt about who she is. In fact, the girl is a representation of Satan himself, who is assisting our guy in his plan.<\/p>\n

\"ProstituteThe guy is then overpowered by this entity, making him tear open his shirt and then vomit about like 32 gallons of sour milk of everybody. At this point, I can hear all the young people who identified with the hero saying \u201cYeah, take that stupid prom king and the rest of you conformists!\u201d. The escort is pointing and laughing at everybody as if it was saying \u201cYeah, that was my plan and I\u2019m proud of it\u201d. In a final display of satanism, we see a shot of vomit dripping on the Christian cross worn by the possessed guy. <\/p>\n

Interesting fact: in the original (but banned) video, the boy came in the prom with a gun and shot everybody. Yup. So you can pretty much imagine that the vomit is actually gun bullets. This whole scene is based on immorality, which is the playground of the evil principle. Prostitution, revenge, hate and murder were part of Satan\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Message of the Video<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span>
\nThis video annoyed me because it directly took aim at school kids. In every school, there are kids being picked on, laughed at and harassed on a daily basis. These kids directly relate to the hardships of the hero of the video. His final victory becomes their victory, and the underlying message of satanism becomes a positive one. In the final prom scene, satanic possession gave the hero the strength, the courage and the confidence to get back at everybody. Satan made the hero look cool, get a new attitude and even got him a hot date. The girl flashes the devil horn signs, which is associated with rock star attitude and being cool. So the guy is basically fulfilling the ultimate fantasy of all rejected kids to get back at their oppressors. Oh, and he also killed everybody in the original video. Who permitted that? Satan. <\/p>\n

So, after the video, kids are left with a subconscious positive feeling towards satanic possession. Who won? The possessed guy. Is he cool? Hell yes. Did the jerks get their comeuppances? They sure did. Everything is good then. Satanism is thus a great way to stop being a vulnerable, victimized loser and there\u2019s no bad side to it. What the video fails to show is that high school is just a couple of awkward years in a whole lifetime. It is a self-contained bubble that you eventually get out of and the people that made fun of you quickly disappear from your life. The video however amplifies the illusion suburban kids maintain that the \u201cbig prom\u201d, \u201djocks\u201d and their high school world is at the center of the universe. It is worth becoming self-destructive, vengeful and hateful because there\u2019s nothing else in life than high school. The video tells kids that Satan is there to help you get the respect that you deserve. Defenders of the video might say, that the character didn\u2019t CHOSE to become this way, that others made him become like this. Others might say that the video simply portrays the negative effects insults have on persecuted kids. Yes, but the classical symbols of Satanism are still present and communicated to the viewer.<\/p>\n

Am I saying that all people watching the video will immediately revert to satanism and start shooting people? No, far from it. This video is simply part of the conditioning young people are put through by mass media during their whole childhood. It is yet another powerful piece of media that adds up to the others, and, after many years, this conditioning slowly but surely molds a generation of people with weak moral values. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What\u2019s up with Korn?<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span>
\nKorn had always been associated with the dark and twisted, much to their fan\u2019s enjoyment. Like many artists who show talent, potential and charisma, they however seem to have been co-opted by the \u201cestablishment\u201d and became tools of the record industry to promote the elite\u2019s brand of satanism. Their 2003 album cover of \u201dTake a Look in the Mirror\u201d<\/a> is typical Western Occultism.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Member who Defected<\/div>\n

<\/b><\/span>
\nIn 2005, the lead guitarist, Brian \u201cHead\u201d Welch (pic: passed out while still with the band<\/a>), left the group to rededicate his life to Christianity. The guitarist claimed that he had moral objections to the band\u2019s music and videos. He told MTV:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last year and a half, I wanted to leave, but someone would always talk to me and convince me to stay. But I\u2019ve had a problem with the way things were going since the second record. I mean, we would do things, and I would be like, \u2018Oh, this is metal! This is the rock and roll life!\u2019 But inside, I thought they took it too far. It was a little too crude for me.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Other members of the group did not appreciate his defection. Head added during the same interview:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it made the guys mad. It confused them. I left at the worst possible time. We got off Sony, and all the money was there, we were going to own all of our songs, but I had to prove to myself that money wasn\u2019t my God. I talked to Jonathan [Davis] and he said, \u2018I don\u2019t get it, man, you\u2019re all happy and we\u2019re sitting here grieving because our band is breaking up. And I wanted to tell him, \u2018Well, for years, you guys were out partying while I was sitting on the tour bus wanting to die.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

Head had problems with the content of the songs and videos for a while, especially since he had a daughter. In another interview Head stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can go up there and play those songs and those solos but \u2026 I distanced myself from Korn for probably a year and a half, two years. I just wanted to fade away, it was crazy. I was so gone. But I found my way out and I want to help anyone that wants to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had to go through the lows to appreciate the highs and it\u2019s not perfect but it\u2019s damn near.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The band\u2019s official statement concerning Head\u2019s decision goes as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cKorn has parted ways with guitarist Brian \u2018Head\u2019 Welch, who has chosen Jesus Christ as his savior, and will be dedicating his musical pursuits to that end. Korn respects Brian\u2019s wishes, and hopes he finds the happiness he\u2019s searching for.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The most striking aspect of those statements is their moral and spiritual nature. Head had obviously developed an aversion to the band\u2019s philosophy, hinting that something was profoundly wrong with the message Korn transmitted to the fans. He believed that his self-destructive lifestyle (addiction to drugs and alcohol) and Korn\u2019s immoral content could not be justified by any amount of money. He believed that something greater was at stake here. He also especially didn\u2019t appreciate the way he was portrayed in some of the group\u2019s videos. Did he feel that corporate America had taken over the band to promote their mind corrupting agenda?<\/p>\n

Whatever the case be, Head\u2019s decision to quit supports this analysis of \u201cThoughtless\u201d. Apparently disgusted by the direction taken by the group, Head disowned Korn\u2019s material and sought refuge in Christianity. When you see Satan\u2019s face and don\u2019t like what you see, you usually run as far as you can the other way. In his case, the other way was the Church.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To Conclude<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/span>
\nKorn fans love the group\u2019s aggressive style to which they can release their bottled up rage and anger. The group\u2019s trademark twisted songs and videos have grown to be increasingly mainstream which eventually earned the title of \u201ccorporate sell-outs\u201d. It is at this point that \u201cThoughtless\u201d came out. The made-for-MTV video kept some of Korn\u2019s deviant style but inserted typical elements of teen movies, effectively attempting to reach the a young audience. The main character of the video is harassed and picked on by other students and eventually gets revenge after going through supernatural changes. He sold his soul to the devil, which made him \u201ccool\u201d but also made him kill everybody at his school. He thus effectively lost his soul. But kids will remember that what he did was cool.<\/p>\n

The video is an allegory for satanic possession, a practice where one obtains the help of a supernatural being in exchange of the soul. \u201cThoughtless\u201d refers to the insults of the other students towards the perscuted boy, but it also refers to the state of a person under evil possession. The hero of the video wasn\u2019t in control of his thoughts and actions anymore and thus became \u201cThoughtless\u201d. If you\u2019ve read other articles on this site, you might notice that the story of this video is similar to those of Rihanna<\/a>, Beyonce<\/a> and Omarion<\/a>. They all show steps to satanic initiation. Why is that? Because the same people are behind all of those videos. They just reach different audiences through different styles of music<\/b>. MTV and music channels distribute this to young people around the world. The ultimate goal: they want you to become \u201cthoughtless\u201d.
\nhttp:\/\/vigilantcitizen.com\/?p=1308<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story of this video is similar to those of Rihanna, Beyonce and Omarion. Why? Because the same people are behind all of those videos and they are reaching out to different audiences through different styles of music with images of satanic initiation <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Real_Life_X-Files"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}