"Handlebars" by Flobots

The song “Handlebars” by Flobots shows how people in search of liberty will rise against the government. It is important to discuss this topic because freedom is what man wants and needs the most in order to live a good and peaceful life. It also shows the potential of the human race for destruction.  When people feel oppressed by their government they have the right to overthrow it and establish a new one.  This work shows how a person rises to power and becomes a dictator; the people stripped from their rights rise up, but are massacred by the government that is supposed to protect them.

The video starts out as two friends who are riding a bicycle down a hill. They reach a fork in the road, they hug, and each goes their separate ways. The first one goes to the right of the sign with a dove and the other one goes to the left of the sign that had a “C”, for corporate. The first one walks in a normal street, while the lyrics make him look like a person who lives a simple life. The friend at the other side of the block gets involved in a dangerous world and slowly works his way up to the top and becomes president; but soon turns the government into a dictatorship corrupted by his lust for power. His friend leads a group of rebels in order to overthrow his friend, but they all end up massacred. 

Whenever someone deprives a person form their rights that person will try to overcome their oppressor to achieve freedom. The friend on the corporate-side starts to rise in power and rapidly begins to think about himself and how powerful he is at the same time taking rights away from the citizens.  In the song when the friend in the dove-side sees his friend in the corporate-side in the television as a dictator he nods his head in disapproval he then gathers people to form a group of rebels to overthrow the dictator.