The Poverty of Philosophy

David Littlefield

  Period D

POS

SA2

Felipe Andres Coronel better known by the stage name Immortal Technique, is an American

rapper of Afro-Peruvian descent as well as an urban activist. Immortal Techniques Song “The Poverty

of Philosophy”, inspired by Karl Marx's “Poverty of Philosophy”, elucidates the social, political, and

economic issues the rest of the world is facing, at the hands of our lavish, imperialistic republic. In one

of the first lines, a bold statement is made, “[People] talk about change and working within the system

to achieve that. The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to change the system

from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's the system that will eventually change you” this

is very powerful, because it implies not only the conformist, but the masses are subservient to the

system. Soon after, the main focus of the song begins, with,”You see, third world countries are rich

places, abundant in resources, and many of these countries have the capacity to feed their starving

people and the children we always see digging for food in trash on commercials” which, is indeed very

true. He claims the reason these countries are so poor is because of plutocracies exploit these countries

severely. They force the people into buying over priced, and unnecessary goods, exploit labor, and

natural resources. This next line, I believe is one of the most powerful in the entire song, “I want a

better life for my family and for my children, but it doesn't have to be at the expense of millions of

lives in my homeland. We're given the idea that if we didn't have these people to exploit then America

wouldn't be rich enough to let us have these little petty material things in our lives and basic standards

of living. No, that's wrong. It's the business giants and the government officials who make all the real

money. We have whatever they kick down to us” By saying this, he challenges the entire democratic

system of the US. He tells us its corrupt, misleading, and needs to be stopped. His political views are

very interesting, and have a lot of logic behind it, everything he says makes a lot of sense.

Unfortunately the lack of poetic devices holds the song back. Although many illusions are made,

because of the benefits history has about politics. I think non the less, that this is one of the best songs

out there, and one of the most thought out, and well planned pieces of work.