Maynard James Keenan (Tool) Says Trump Is Not Your Enemy, Ignorance Is

[Initech]

“I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news. I’m just gonna tell you both of them at the same time,” announced Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan from the stage at New York’s Governors Ball on Sunday Night (June 4). “Fox News, Huffington Post, the left, the right, Trump, Breitbart, Facebook – none of these things are your enemy.”

“Your enemy is ignorance,” he continued at the band’s first New York appearance in over 10 years. “That’s the fight. If you disagree with that, this next song’s for you.”

Tool followed Keenan’s political spiel by launching into “Opiate,” the title track from their 1992 debut EP.

The band has 11 more concerts scheduled. Tomorrow (June 7) they’ll play Clarkston, Michigan. Their final announced show is June 24 in San Bernardino, California.
http://kroq.cbslocal.com/2017/06/06/tool-maynard-james-keenan-trump-not-enemy/?e=uc76l8XlMgGOOA

Well, he's not wrong!

[ExciteBike66]

1. Best band ever...

That said, I think a case could be made that Trump IS an enemy since he is an active purveyor of ignorance.

[m-lekktor]

2. I've seen them twice in concert! I am a fan.

I am half way through Maynard's book, I need to finish it.

[Caliman73]

3. No he is not. But he is only partly correct.

You can make a very solid argument that there is one side that promotes and encourages ignorance. I am sure that the Right thinks that that side is us, but they are wrong, which is why Maynard is only partially correct. The very terms liberal and conservative denote the values that separate the left and right and which would suggest that one group above the other, promotes that ignorance which is the "true enemy".

The left/liberal is "open to new ideas and information" while the right/conservative "values tradition and behaviors that adhere to established norms". We have one group that promotes learning, experimenting, and moving forward with the best possible solutions and policies at the time; then we have the other group that believes that solutions that they feel have worked in the past will continue to work in the future and they oppose changes and challenges to those ideas.

Looking at the lyrics to "Opiate", it certainly shows how both left and right can fall victim to the desire for certainty and a "strong leader" to tell them what and how to think. However, as I said, there is one side that values authority to a much higher degree than the other. There is one side that values on sense of order more than the other. There is one side that attempts to restrict information in textbooks that maintain a certain view of history from a White Christian perspective. There is one side that disguises discrimination as "religious liberty", that seeks to defund scientific study, that denigrates Universities, that has had an ongoing war with intellectualism, and that says, "I like the uneducated" That side is not the liberals.