| Harvey Danger – Flagpole Sitta Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@[Scheherezade:7090] I think you are closest to having it right. The song opens with the section about the author seeing rottenness and evil in himself. Without context, we don't know why the author feels that way. Jump ahead to the 2nd and 3rd choruses which are extended by the line "... and it's a sin to live so well." The author feels rotten and evil because he lives so well. What's wrong with living well? The problem is that the vast majority of the world doesn't live well at all. I think the song is about the mental struggle of trying to live a normal, happy life while being aware of how horrible life is for most people on the planet. We live lives of frivolity and hypocrisy while people starve to death, or struggle for basic necessities, deal with constant malnutrition, crime, violence, political disenfranchisement and so on. The ones who have it decent in the 3rd world are working in sweatshops making pointless junk for us. The comment about stupid people breeding is a commentary about the teeming masses of people who participate happily and obliviously in first world culture seemingly unaware of the rottenness that the author sees in himself, others and the culture as a whole. The comment about the author not even owning a TV is a reference to him giving up on the culture entirely rather than trying to change it from within. He doesn't own a TV, he doesn't watch the news, he doesn't try to change the culture from within because he's outnumbered and out bred. He wants to publish zines (little magazines or blogs with limited distribution), rage against machines, pierce his tongue... he wants to rebel... but he's already given up. Hence, the trivial sublime. Turn off time and kill my mind is a reference to any form of escapism, though the author might be thinking of drugs in particular, it could be movies, games or anything else. As much as any of us might not participate in the mainstream culture, there are sub-cultures for everyone in the first world to distract themselves with. The lines about mental illness are a straightforward comment about his own reaction to the situation. A few lines are more obscure to me, but I think can fit into this general theme from on perspective or another. Only the author could tell you for certain what every word means. For example, perhaps the amputee reference is figurative. The author went to a shrink for mental help, ended up being committed and is now tagged as a mental case for the rest of his life which is crippling in a competitive world where background checks screen flawed individuals from the system. |
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