Disgustipated

The "carrots" he is talking about can be viewed metaphorically, but he literally is talking about carrots, which is supposed to be kind of ironic. Carrots are technically living, they might even have a soul, but that doesn't matter when it comes to their harvest - they are eaten by species that are higher in the food chain. If life did not feed on life, then all life would die. The irony of "carrots" is that they obviously do not have a nervous system, and to the best of our scientific knowledge, they do not feel pain or suffering or anything at all. But if we do not care about carrots, why should we care about flies and insects either? Flies have a very simple nervous system, and arguably, they do not feel any complex amount of pain. If we do not care about the flies, then why care about the birds who eat the flies? Birds have a relatively simple nervous system, and they most likely do not feel any complex amount of pain. But if we do not care about the birds, then why care about the cats that eat the birds? And why care about the dogs that eat the cats? The deer that eat the grass? The pigs that eat their own shit? The humans that eat the pigs? Pain is just a sensation - an electric signal sent along a sequence of organic tissue that is all essentially composed of just ordinary matter: single molecules; protons, electrons, neutrons, etc.. All of which ultimately feels nothing, and the sensation of pain was hollow and empty..

It would seem that this song (as well as the entire album) presents us the duality that They/He/It (whether it was Maynard, other members of the band, or just Tool in general) has been afflicted with - the paradox of morality. How can we claim to be for good and against evil, and how can we claim to be righteous, if we have to inflict pain on an innumerable amount of other creatures simply in order to survive?

What if it turned out that we were all unknowingly on a farm as well, and aliens came to Earth one day to harvest us -- and feed not on our flesh, but torture us and feed on the tragedy produced from our cries of agony and torment? Without that tragedy to feed on, the aliens would enter a state of unbearable nihilism due to the lack of any purpose - but when they torture us, it reminds of them of the temporary nature of existence, even their own, and the ultimate mortality of all things. It makes them thankful to exist. Without it, they would die.

Was there ever a difference between these hypothetical aliens and the species (whatever it may have been, the song suggests rabbits) that ate the carrots?

Where do we draw the line between right and wrong? There is no possible way to draw an absolute line between "when it is right, and when it is wrong", since right and wrong are relative to their observer. Morality is a human invention. But subjectivity does not necessarily imply fallibility. The notions of "right and wrong" exist, because we make them exist - but that is it.

However, considering morality in the case of humanity alone and amongst itself, it can be stated as a fact that our survival requires some degree of unconditional cooperation with each other. Mothers have to love their baby and feed their baby, or else their baby dies. Members of society have to cooperate with each other, or else humanity's more complex desires (such as the arts, technology, higher knowledge, science, etc) would be impossible to achieve. You're reading this on a computer right now. Do you know how to make a computer from scratch? I don't mean buying the parts and putting it together - I mean harvesting the raw resources from bare earth with your bare hands and no tools besides what you can find for yourself, and then assembling those resources into a computer? I highly doubt anyone on this planet is capable of that. Your charade of a lifestyle automatically drafts you as a member of society's morals and ethics. Do morals and ethics get out-dated from time to time? Yes. Do we need to revise them? Yes. It's far from perfect, and its highly unlikely it will ever reach perfection. All you can do is find out for yourself through experience what YOU think is the best way to improve the world, and then REPRESENT these ideals of yours by integrating them into your individual persona. It is NOT possible to predict these changes/fluctuations in morality and ethics by using logical sciences and measurements alone. There are too many variables involved in the fine-tuning of morality, and breaking it down mathematically is impossible, and even if we could do it, the results would be beyond human comprehension. You have to use your intuition gained from experience in conjunction with logical sciences and measurements in order to come up with the best representation you can. Many people do not know it, but most people are already finely-synchronized with morality via their intuition, and they do not even have to worry about it - the perceived disruption occurs when individuals try to exploit the rhetoric and structure of morality for their own personal gain that is unrelated to morality.

So to basically sum it all up: Based on our subjective experiences, we must use our intuition to participate (with as much effort as we care to put into it) in refining society's morality to resolve to see what we perceive to be its current flaws. When we do this, our persistence and humility will eventually bring us to satisfactory results that we can at least be content with. Some people have it easier than others - and from my perspective, yes, it is morally correct to crash these types of people down whenever they are acting cocky to someone who has to deal with more than them. Maybe that isn't the same for you, maybe it is, and that's the beauty of it I guess. Our experience here will be worthwhile - but that doesn't mean you are automatically guaranteed satisfactory without having to work for it at a level past your comfort zone.

We can improve our lives, to whatever extent we allow ourselves to. However, it is unknown whether or not we can improve the state of all humanity. This might be as good as it gets as far as our world goes, but that's only because society can't hold everyone's hand and wipe their asses for them - they know themselves the best, and only they know how to fulfill their needs the best. The sky is the limit for improving our own lives, because whatever you consider the definition of "improvement" to be is up to you..

Wow this is a long ass comment okay I'm done. There's Tool in a nutshell for you ladies and gentlemen

This song, is divisible into 2 parts, each with a seperate yet connected meaning, hence why there are 2 seperate monologues seperated by the middle chant of the tune;

First, Maynard is very very obviously poking at relgion. He even uses the sound of sheep in order to make sure that the point is put across to the common person. He is simply saying how powerful education, manipulation, and religion are combined when the only common denominator of the human mind is fear. Fear can be used to make the sheep believe that the carrots are real and alive, and things that logic neglects, such as the rabbits needing glasses, would be ignored and taken for fact.

Fear is all powerful, and fear of damnation and ideas can change reality in our minds, from the peace and coexistance with all things to which we all share. "This is necissary. Life feeds on life, feeds on life, feeds on life..." We must consume in order to survive, the curse of consciousness makes this difficult because of our love for things and one another, we must accept it is the way of things.

Last but not least, Maynard's landlord points to something that is the opposite of what he accepts as all things being connected. While we are all connected, it is because we do not own everything or anything, and why "satan is seen as our cousin, and god as our father in this message, by a "psycho" who cannot see that not all things belong to him. the concept of ownership, greed; are not unique to our people (dogs and animals even believe this). Strangley we see that true insanity is believing that everything is yours, while we as people view that ourselves. Nothing belongs to anyone; we are one as a mind.

This is what Maynard says.

ok, well, i know this probably won't really explain the song. but, what i got the vibe from it was that humans are basically animals and are natural. religion and society makes us, as humans, into who we are. Every single time i hear this song, I remember the book "lord of the flies" especially at the part where maynard yells "this is necessary...life feeds on life feeds on..." And LOTF is a DAMNED good example of humans turning into what we naturally are. Beasts. Recently, in my english class ((which i'm failing because i spend time daydreaming trying to figure what we're here for)) we discussed lotf and that just got my attention. Not to say that my english class is boring, but it doesn't really reach to me, if i'm alone with the teacher, i'm able to understand. ANYWAY...kinda got off topic, the first part of the song i believe is showin how religion basically is a flaw, and shows that religion is just a facade. Facade as in we use religion to make ourselves better, or at least feel better. . . i dunno, i think i'll basically post later when i'm not tired

this is the best explanation i can come up with

Part 1: Televangelist on TV making ludacrous claims, and people follow him, hence the sheep, definitly a religious mockery no doubt. The line life feeds on life feeds on life is saying one organism must survive off another organism to live.

Part 2: Crickets- has to do with Part 3, woke up in a ditch, this is the sound of who ever it was sleeping in the ditch.

Part 3: has to be about life being connected, i didnt get the idea i had now until i listened to Vicarious and thought about it. remember Life Feeds on Life, basic survival, one organism must survive off another organism to live, if you are an animal, you kill other animals, take land away from other animals. okay now. human perspective. He thinks Everything is his, he took the territory, its his, he sees the sky, its blue, its his color, he is covered in goo(blood, possibly killing who ever was on the land, so now he is claiming it as his own. he wipes the goo(blood) off of this hands onto the green grass, and now his color is green b/c he saw the grass and if the grass is green than his color is green. when he says why does everything have to change he is refering to the colors changing and his wants changing. new color new posession. when he says waiting for the rest of your mind to come back to you, i get this vibe now, he thinks all these things are his because he cant rememeber. he sees the car and thinks its his car. the god and satan thing may be in their because his memory is coming back to him, and why doesent anyone else understand these important things?, i think the man is establishing a state of empowerment and he feels like he is better than everyone, he is coming out of his confused and head aching state into a more "clear" state of mind.He gets to the car and tries all the doors, locked, meaning its not his car, funny that he doesnt check for keys or anything.mabey he knows its his car(thinks it is anyway) but doesnt understand what it does, hence he wouldnt know he needs keys, he just knows its locked. like when people wake up with brain damage and dont know who they are or what is theirs or who their family is or where they are but they know how to speak and they know what everyhign is like a bed, a chair, a bowl. expensive leather camera case laying in the seat. it belongs to the people who are in the field by the woods,( taking pictures, mabey bird watchers) you begin to walk toward them. the guy is wanting to kill i would suppose. your color is red, this is strange, his color should have been red when he saw the car and it should have turned to the color of the field/ woods/ people when he saw them. mabey his color is red now because he want to kill them but i dont think so. i think its red because he wants the red car and when he sees the people he knows he can get the car by killing them so he sees red, like its his mission to obtain the red, so when he walks toward them, he thinks red becuase he knows if they are dead than its his. and of course those little people out their were your too. well he is now thinking these are his people, that they belong to him like the car and the grass and the sky, so mabey he doesnt want to kill them. or mabey this means he has killed them and they are now his.....

what i got out of the song is that when we first start finding out about life and when we are actually old enough to understand some of the things that go on, we realize that life is brutal. we always here about what is wrong and what is right and we are never able to make choices for outselves without getting crap from at least 1/3 of the people you know. everyone is so overwhelmed about trying to be politically correct that we lose ourselves. i think that "cries of the carrots" is just an anology for how much we have lost. kind of a metaphor for all the little things we take for granted. and we don't really see how important some things (or people) are until we are put in a desperate situation. when i first heard this song my brother said that it was "amazingly kickass, who else [but tool] could make a song about carrots!?" but after i listed to the song more, and heard more of the lyrics i saw so much more. i guess this may be a little far fetched to some, but the main reason i love tool (and maynard james) is that their songs are the ones that can truly make me think. its like a verbal rubix cube. i always have to try to find hidden meaning, and try to find something that is significan to my life.

Has anyone ever considered the possibility that the the "tiny people" in the woods are aliens?

ummmmm...no

but it's really cool to listen to stoned, guaranteed!

and as for the second part, i believe it is kind of like the evil portion of the song. . . You see, i believe the song is basically is in a scale type set up. With religion in the front, and human instinct in the middle, and human thought after we have regained conciousness from being set free

I think that the first part of this song is a stab at L. Ron Hubbard and other fundimentalists. I mean, I laugh every time I hear it, because it all seems so rediculous (a carrot holocaust, etc), just like everything that L. Ron has said. As for the second part, I'm not sure what it means, but I think I know better than to just accept the answer of "it's his landlord leaving a message". There's SOMETHING else there...

Bill the Landlord is on FaceBook- Bill Ernst Grand Rapids. Bill rented many apartments to Maynard lived in GR.

Bill felt very close to Maynard. My guess is what Bill left on Maynard's machine was from his (Bill's) book about a serial killer. I know for a fact Bill was hung over that morning when he left the message. Bill is an amazing guy-genius.Hardly a creepy serial killer...but a great writer.

Just some Tool Trivia.