So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
So, you've been to school
For a year or two
And you know you've seen it all
In daddy's car
Thinking you'll go far
Back east your type don't crawl
Playing ethnicky jazz
To parade your snazz
On your five-grand stereo
Braggin' that you know
How the niggers feel cold
And the slum's got so much soul
It's time to taste what you most fear
Right Guard will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear
Brace yourself, my dear
It's a holiday in Cambodia
It's tough, kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Don't forget to pack a wife
You're a star-belly snitch
You suck like a leech
You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch
So you can get rich
While your boss gets richer off you
Well, you'll work harder
With a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers
Till you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake
Now you can go where the people are one
Now you can go where they get things done
What you need, my son...
What you need, my son...
Is a holiday in Cambodia
Where people are dressed in black
A holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll kiss ass or crack
Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where the slums got so much soul
Pol Pot
For a year or two
And you know you've seen it all
In daddy's car
Thinking you'll go far
Back east your type don't crawl
Playing ethnicky jazz
To parade your snazz
On your five-grand stereo
Braggin' that you know
How the niggers feel cold
And the slum's got so much soul
It's time to taste what you most fear
Right Guard will not help you here
Brace yourself, my dear
Brace yourself, my dear
It's a holiday in Cambodia
It's tough, kid, but it's life
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Don't forget to pack a wife
You're a star-belly snitch
You suck like a leech
You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch
So you can get rich
While your boss gets richer off you
Well, you'll work harder
With a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers
Till you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake
Now you can go where the people are one
Now you can go where they get things done
What you need, my son...
What you need, my son...
Is a holiday in Cambodia
Where people are dressed in black
A holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll kiss ass or crack
Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told
It's a holiday in Cambodia
Where the slums got so much soul
Pol Pot
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I agree with a lot of what ZodiacD (and chef09s reply) said, that the song, is about the hypocrisy that is exhibited primarily by rich, white liberal types who want everyone to think they are so cultured and how they know about how people around the world live but they themselves are really stuck-up, condescending, spoilt assholes who don't really care.
I'm thinking the sort of people I've met, who take holidays to far off places and come back pretending they got the "real experience" and that they "know the people" when in reality they spent all their time in 5* hotels in between being chauffeured about in guided tours. So when they are faced with the reality, they get all scared because it is such a contrast to what their used to.
To be honest, I don't think the usage of Cambodia is as immensely relevant as some people on here think it is - it could be anywhere from the Nazi death camps to the Rwandan genocide, Cambodia was just a contemporary example of a place where life was particularly hard.
You made me remember some lyrics from my clueless youth:<br /> <br /> Somebody, somewhere once railed:<br /> <br /> ...cheap holidays in other peoples MISERY !<br /> I don't want a holiday in the sun / I wanna go to the new Belsen<br /> I wanna see some history / cause now i got a reasonable economy...<br /> <br /> I like your take on the the lyrics. But don't you think the nightmare gap between communist theory and practice is an essential part of the song? This song condemns the Left and links them to real, documented bloodbaths in pursuit of their utopian pipe dreams. <br /> <br /> The Cultural Revolution, Sendero Luminoso, Khmer Rouge, North Korea, name a few more for me.