From Five Finger Death Punch

 to The Great Gatsby

Five Finger Death Punch is a modern hard rock band, whose new album has reflected the values of America's capitalist society. The members of the band are known for their intensely "American" image, supporting guns, beer, the military, and other stereotypical images of American Pride. In their song "The Pride", they simply illustrate that their pride derives from consumerist brands and that those brands define the American Dream.

First Chorus:

I will not be forgotten, this it my time to shine. I've got the scars to prove it, only the strong survive. I'm not afraid of dying, everyone has their time. I've never favored weakness, welcome to the pride.

Direct Meaning

In a quote from Bathory, one of the guitatist of the band, he says,

America adopted a form of capitalism that closely resembles the dynamics of nature. Darwinism and capitalism share many similarities.

This quote suggests that man is not equal, and that in order to survive and prove you are dominant, you must succeed in life. The "Pride" in the song refers to the pride in American capitalist values because the song goes on to list a bunch of popular icons: Johnny Cash, PBR, Jack Daniels, NasCar, Facebook, Bill Gates, Smith and Wesson, NRA, Dimebag, Tupac, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, White House, JFK, John Wayne, Springsteen, Eastwood, Coca cola, Playboy, NFL, NBA, Brett Favre, King James.

Clint Eastwood Pride

These icons, are seen as the end result of a consumerist economy, an economy where corruption and greed are not flaws if success is gained. Looking at the album cover, it alone suggests that corruption is needed to make the American Dream of economic success possible. The Machiavellian ideology that the ends justify the means, allows for individuals to have moral freedom. Clint Eastwood is an example of this moral freedom, or this absence of strict moral guidelines that often gets praised by Americans. Clint Eastwood often portrays in his films a "true" American man who is a master of guns, women, and whiskey. He is, however, the hero. His character, who often smears the line between right and wrong, has "never favored weakness," is "not afraid of dying," and most importantly, inspires all Americans to praise violence.

Bill Gates Pride

While Eastwood portrays the most basic praise of social evolution where man kills man and the last man standing wins, in modern society, the individual with the most money is celebrated. The use of Bill Gates in "The Pride" illustrates the self-admiration that Americans have for being the wealthiest. This admiration of wealth derives from original puritan thinking from the first settlers of colonial America. Puritans believed in Predestination which is the doctrine that all events are predetermined by God. This belief led many original settlers to spend their time working to succeed economically in life to prove that God had predestined them or "chosen" them. These thoughts have led to modern worship in wealth, creating a sense of inequality between economic classes. Those who have more money are greater than those who have less because they have proved their worth with their accomplishments. This thinking has forced individuals to base their self evaluations on their dollar value which, in turn, creates a moral deterioration, giving birth to icons like Clint Eastwood and speeches like Alec Baldwin's in Glengarry Glen Ross.  

The Great Gatsby

Gatsby, like all Americans, believed that if he worked hard and bettered himself, he would be able to succeed  in life and achieve greatness. He followed the correct path of corruption to get to the top as illustrated in "The Pride" and once he got there he showed his superiority indirectly though all the love he received from the people at the parties. The reason why Gatsby failed in the end is because a system of corruption had already been set up by the old wealth. Fitzgerald takes a different view point from Five Finger Death Punch and illustrates that the time of the American Dream is dead. Those who have already succeeded in America determine whether or not some one else will rise. Consumerist Darwinism is gone and we are all at the will of the rich, forever stuck in the valley of ashes.