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The And Justice For All And Eye Of The Beholder Essay

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In 1988, Metallica released its fourth album …And Justice for All which went on to be the band’s second-most-bestselling album. …And Justice for All pushes the boundaries of how progressive thrash metal could be, having more complex song structures and tempo changes than previous albums. The lyrical content of the album pushes the boundaries of how political metal bands could be as well. The lyrics in songs such as …And Justice for All and Eye of the Beholder explore how political oppression and injustice affect the individual and why it is wrong. The Shortest Straw tells of how discrimination and blacklisting leave an individual weak and powerless while Dyer’s Eve rants of how parents can be oppressive over the free will of their children. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract explains why someone would come to these conclusions. In The Social Contract, Rousseau argues that for a social contract to be successful, everyone has to buy into it to keep their individual rights. Rousseau states that by giving yourself to the general will of the collective society, you give yourself to no one since you are on equal terms with everyone (Rousseau, 1987, 24). Rousseau’s arguments in The Social Contract about the problems of society and government when it does not follow a proper social contract explain the effects of political and social injustices on the individual in …And Justice for All’s lyrics.
The lyrics in the song Eye of the Beholder talk of how the law abuses its

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