Apathy. It's the buzz-term the American media currently uses to describe the youth of this country. If you’ve been watching BBC news or read Dave Carnie’s last two editorial letters in Big Brother magazine, you’d know that the young people of this country seemingly could give 2 craps about the world’s issues.

Instead, we are too consumed with getting 22 inch rims on our whips, wearing $400 Evisus and listening to whatever music conglomerate music corporations shove down our throats. And while this is true to an extent, it’s sad. Youth of Today, wake the hell up! Your freedom is being slaughtered, your voice is being squashed, and your future is looking bleaker every night—why? Because no one gives a shit hoping that someone else will fire up the ol’ 1960’s revolution machine and then I can run behind it mugging the dead bodies of what worldly possessions they still have.

The first time I heard this band, I thought the lead singer was kidding. He sounds like an opera singer on nitrous. This is the music I envision gypsies on acid must write. The music changes time signature often, and there are a lot of breakdowns. It’s like circus music, Tom Morello, and Sideshow Bob decided to form a band. It's wacky stuff. But I think it works, mainly because these guys are one of the few mainstream politically active bands out there. These are not songs about the glory of God (P.O.D.) or about their lack of paternal love (Staind). No, these guys are pissed, but about the government, the economy, and endless stream of advertising that slaps us across the face daily.

It is this invisible tyranny with which System of a Down tries to enlighten its listeners. Maybe it's me, but watching our government secretly ship more and more troops to the Middle East without any official war declaration, I can get into any band that’s hook is “We don’t give a F*ck about your war/Right now/Right now.” Like Rage Against the Machine before them, System of a Down challenges the American juggernaut to look inward and asks its children: Is this the way things need to be? Or can youth really change the world?

Anthony Bovino