"Sometimes it's not enough to know what things mean, sometimes you have to know what things don't mean." —— Bob Dylan (2003)
The Times They Are A-Changin' Album Cover
After World War II, there was a period of continuing economical and political conflicts between countries. Having not yet recovered from the world war, American people were again put on the edge of a destructive nuclear war during the 13 days of the Cuban missile crisis. In such a chaotic period, the younger generation started to get discouraged about the endless wars and to question the traditional American values and patriotism. What does it mean to be “God’s own country” and does this connotation automatically make everything justified?
When Bob Dylan first performed the song “With God on Our Side,” he was only 22 years old. In this song, he expressed the young voice of rejection towards some critical moments in American history and the religious justification for military actions. Ever since childhood, children are taught in school about the Manifest Destiny that God is with America and therefore all “the laws [are] to abide.” However, growing up hearing the news of ceaseless wars, Dylan looks back to the history book and sees that with the constant change of enemies, God, somehow, is always on America’s side. “The reason for fighting,” Dylan sings, is not there for memorization, but only the pride should be accepted “for you don’t count the dead/When God’s on your side.”
Ticket of Dylan's 1963 performance at the Town Hall
On one hand, Dylan questions the religious defenses for America to start or participate in all those wars; on the other hand, he contradicts America’s victory with her counterpart. As America constructs its history, some of the opponents are deliberately forgotten, while the others are forgiven and also come to the side of God. The shift of alliance perplexed the youngs including Dylan. In the song, he cries out the conflicting question through a biblical context: “whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side.” As the old enemy comes to the same side with America, one would think that it should be the end of the wars because enemies have become friends. But as we all learned from history, now there is someone else standing on the other side.
The world is like a nonstop turning wheel: the countries are always creating new conflicts to the expanse of their people’s life crushed by the wheel. The Indians, the “six million,” where is the place for them in history? Has God ever been on their side? But the people are not taught to ask, but only to “accept it all bravely” and “with pride.” The generation in the 60s were moulded into robotic machines but asked to accept contradictory information which caused “errors” in their belief system.
In the last stance, Dylan let out his confusion and his tiredness about the wars. If Manifest Destiny is only a disillusion, then the nationalism built on the top of it collapses into dust. This idea dispirits the generation and turns many of them away from God, and at the end of this protest song, Dylan writes that if God is ever on anyone’s side, He should be on the side of peace and “He’ll stop the next war.”