Henry Rollins: Ember of Rage

The video was posted 17 years ago, so it’s most likely from around that time. Rollins is in Israel. He spends the first ¾ of the segment discusses his visits with wounded, American veterans. He segues, at the end, to giving the Israeli audience a noble mission.

Ember of Rage by Henry Rollins (YouTube)

A good friend sent me this link recently, with the comment, “I don’t think they listened.” The video already had my thumbs-up on it, but I can’t remember when I’d already watched it.

Yeah, I don’t think they listened. They weren’t even listening at the time, if you look at a part of the audience. There’s a sullen resentment that this American thinks he can tell them what to think. They’re not wrong to be annoyed necessarily but he is spitting uncomfortable truth. Some of them looked moved by his words, but not even close to half. The standing ovation was very ragged—only a smattering jumped up.

“I know, here in Israel, all of you have a friend, have seen this, have smelled it, have walked by it, this happens in this country: people blow up, people don’t stop killing. I beg of you to right the wrongs. I would not dare to insult you or the situation by saying, ‘sit down with someone over yonder you’re having a dispute with, and hug and kiss and play Ramones albums, would all be better.‘ Because, if it was that simple, it would have been done 50 years ago.

“All I’m saying is this—not trying to lay a guilt trip on you, but I think I’m right about this—you have a problem with Palestine or Lebanon and I’m not trying to, like, tie it up into a little tiny bundle and go yeah. I’m just saying there’s problems and kids keep dying and people keep getting blown up and it’s just awful. It’s ghastly, you know?

“I’m not saying it’s your fault. All I’m saying is, if you do not stop it, all of you will have beautiful children—some of you have them already—they will inherit the war you did not stop and, when they become soldiers and they go into combat and they come home with some awful story, they’re going to say, ‘yeah, I saw my buddy get vaporized. Why are we doing this?’

“And the only honest answer you’ll really be able to say is, ‘because I didn’t stop this. Because I didn’t stop this on my watch. It should have been me and my generation who stopped this, so you would not have to endure this horror your parents gave you.‘

“Don’t give it to your kids, is all I’m saying. Real substantive change comes from citizens, from private citizens going ‘not on my watch you don’t’. And I’m not saying to get up and do something. I’m begging you to get up and do something, cuz if you don’t get up and do something, it doesn’t get done.

“[…]

“I think if you really love your country and you really love humanity, you got to be pissed about something. It’s like going through the ashes, trying to find the ember. It’s in there, and you have to dig down deep inside to find it and extract that jewel of rage and use it for civic good. I have found mine.

“If you have not found yours yet, please find it before it’s too late. No big pressure here. Either get eaten by a crocodile or save the world.

“Shalom and good night.”

I wonder, though, about finding that “ember of rage” because I feel that a lot of people do find it but they use to get eaten by the crocodile. They use their rage to lose all of their humanity. At the end of October 2023, I told an Israeli colleague of mine that I hoped that her country wouldn’t lose its mind like the U.S. did after 9/11. My hope went unfulfilled.