Another Brick in the Wall - Part 2

The song « Another Brick in the Wall » by the famous English psychedelic rock band « The Pink
Floyd » was part of a concept album released in 1979. This song, well known for its striking refrain
« We don’t need no education », seem to denounce the harshness of the English school system at
that time, the humiliations that students sometimes endured (« No dark sarcasm in the classroom»)
and a form of brainwashing of the students by the teachers (« We don’t need no thought control »).
In the video clip, the students all look alike (not just because of their uniforms, but also because
they’re wearing masks), they are expressionless and one passage shows them all on a factory
conveyor belt (un tapis roulant) being ushered into a meat mincer (hachoir) to become ground meat
(viande hachée). This suggests that the students are exploited and dehumanized by this old-
fashioned school system. Pink, the character, probably embodies the song writer who might have
had a difficult school experience, and the album’s concept of the « wall » that the character is
building around himself to protect himself from the world reveals that school represents a threat to
his identity and self-esteem. This vision of school may seem excessive, but more than a criticism on
the education system, this song is also clearly a criticism on society in general and on all forms of
tyranny and oppression, and the students’ rebellion at the end may be an incitation to fight and rebel
against oppression.