Masters of War - Bob Dylan

It is frightening to think about how little the voice of the citizens counts in this country. Growing up, I had always been told that the United States was the land of the free, where every individual has the right to pursue happiness, and the freedom of speech is not just a meaningless collection of words. These ideals, however, are not always adhered to. There is a certain level of disenchantment that exists in the United States today, especially among my peers, that took root in the tumultuous years during which the Vietnam War took place.

Popular dissent against the "late war" had been growing steadily during the early 1960's and it had turned into a full-blown pacifist movement by the time that Masters of War had been released. Hearing this song made me consider how grand the "hippie" movement really was, what a large percentage of the U.S. population was against any military action in the far east, and how little those people's opinions counted in the end.