| King Crimson – 21st Century Schizoid Man Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Firstly it's important to note that schizoidism is not simply amorality, but rather a very complex personality disease. The schizoid man sees no need for others, he has been hurt too much and he doesn't see how others can be worthwhile or beautiful inside. He sees society as a nuisance that he must put up with in order to achieve his own solitary goals. In this context: Cat's foot iron claw Neuro-surgeons scream for more At paranoia's poison door. Twenty first century schizoid man. The lyrics of this song are certainly related to the Vietnam War. But it's not a twentieth century schizoid man, it's a twenty-first century schizoid man. It's a man in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, it's about those who came back from war having seen more horrible things than any man ever should. A soldier comes back from killing and seeing his closest friends killed horribly, and suddenly the fireplace looks more like trees burning with napalm, or the cat's foot that might have seemed so innocent and playful before looks more like an iron claw, an instrument of death. One of the most prominent effects of PTSD like this is flashbacks, where if a balloon pops near the old soldier, he might think it's a gunshot and go crazy for a moment thinking he's in the forests in Vietnam. And he's so fucked up, so prone to slip across the threshold into paranoia's poison door at any moment, even the neurosurgeons can't treat him. As in, the neurosurgeons are fighting against paranoia's poison door, with whatever drugs or surgery they're using, but it's not enough, they scream for more. Blood rack barbed wire Politicians' funeral pyre Innocents raped with napalm fire Twenty first century schizoid man. Death imagery death imagery. Unholy politicians are burned with respect, while innocents are burned with napalm. It's so fucked up it's almost easier not to care about any of those people or what's happening to them; thus is comprised the twenty-first century schizoid man. Death seed blind man's greed Poets' starving children bleed Nothing he's got he really needs Twenty first century schizoid man. The fat cat politicians who enrolled the entire country in war, thus seeding death, were blind to the horrors the soldiers would experience there. They were fueled only by greed for power and political status. They seeded death for everyone who wasn't them, even the starving children of poets, who embody the opposite of greed, since they practically accept poverty for the sake of the art they produce. But the world's shocking injustice and coldness, indeed schizoidism, has created this individual who no longer knows how to appreciate anything or anyone he has. Thus the new face of the twenty-first century is born, the twenty-first century schizoid man. |
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