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.
When the ebbing tide retreats
Along the rocky shoreline
It leaves a trail of tidal pools
In a short-lived galaxy
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society
A simple kind mirror
To reflect upon our own
All the busy little creatures
Chasing out their destinies
Living in their pools
They soon forget about the sea
Wheels within wheels
In a spiral array
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time
We lose sight of the way
Our causes can't see their effects
A quantum leap forward
In time and space
The universe learned to expand
The mess and the magic
Triumphant and tragic
A mechanized world, out of hand
Computerized clinic
For superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band
In their own image
Their world is fashioned
No wonder they don't understand
Wheels within wheels
In a spiral array
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time
We lose sight of the way
Our causes can't see their effects
Science, like nature
Must also be tamed
With a view towards its preservation
Given the same
State of integrity
It will surely serve us well
Art as expression,
Not as market campaigns
Will still capture our imaginations
Given the same
State of integrity
It will surely help us along
The most endangered species
The honest man
Will still survive annihilation
Forming a world
State of integrity
Sensitive, open and strong
Wave after wave
Will flow with the tide
And bury the world as it does
Tide after tide
Will flow and recede
Leaving life to go on
As it was
Along the rocky shoreline
It leaves a trail of tidal pools
In a short-lived galaxy
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society
A simple kind mirror
To reflect upon our own
All the busy little creatures
Chasing out their destinies
Living in their pools
They soon forget about the sea
Wheels within wheels
In a spiral array
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time
We lose sight of the way
Our causes can't see their effects
A quantum leap forward
In time and space
The universe learned to expand
The mess and the magic
Triumphant and tragic
A mechanized world, out of hand
Computerized clinic
For superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band
In their own image
Their world is fashioned
No wonder they don't understand
Wheels within wheels
In a spiral array
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time
We lose sight of the way
Our causes can't see their effects
Science, like nature
Must also be tamed
With a view towards its preservation
Given the same
State of integrity
It will surely serve us well
Art as expression,
Not as market campaigns
Will still capture our imaginations
Given the same
State of integrity
It will surely help us along
The most endangered species
The honest man
Will still survive annihilation
Forming a world
State of integrity
Sensitive, open and strong
Wave after wave
Will flow with the tide
And bury the world as it does
Tide after tide
Will flow and recede
Leaving life to go on
As it was
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The essence of the song is in the refrain, "Wheels within wheels . . ." continuing withTime after time; We lose sight of the way; Our causes can't see their effects." So science natural science at that is critical to advance but not without checks and balances. And if the causes don't see their effects (think global warming) science will undo itself. So science like natural must be tamed to survive annihilation. Whose? Ours? Earth? Both. The most endangered species is the honest man - the one who has the bold audacity to say "WAIT! We must stop this."
All should strive to be part of that species. Only then will we survive annihilation.