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I'm closer to the Golden Dawn
Immersed in Crowley's uniform
Of imagery
I'm living in a silent film
Portraying
Himmler's sacred realm
Of dream reality
I'm frightened by the total goal
Drawing to the ragged hole
And I ain't got the power anymore
No I ain't got the power anymore
I'm the twisted name
On Garbo's eyes
Living proof of
Churchill's lies
I'm destiny
I'm torn between the light and dark
Where others see their targets
Divine symmetry
Should I kiss the viper's fang
Or herald loud
The death of Man
I'm sinking in the quicksand
Of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore
[CHORUS]
Don't believe in yourself
Don't deceive with belief
Knowledge comes
With death's release
I'm not a prophet
Or a stone age man
Just a mortal
With the potential of a superman
I'm living on
I'm tethered to the logic
Of Homo Sapien
Can't take my eyes
From the great salvation
Of bullshit faith
If I don't explain what you ought to know
You can tell me all about it
On, the next Bardo
I'm sinking in the quicksand
Of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore
[CHORUS]
Immersed in Crowley's uniform
Of imagery
I'm living in a silent film
Portraying
Himmler's sacred realm
Of dream reality
I'm frightened by the total goal
Drawing to the ragged hole
And I ain't got the power anymore
No I ain't got the power anymore
I'm the twisted name
On Garbo's eyes
Living proof of
Churchill's lies
I'm destiny
I'm torn between the light and dark
Where others see their targets
Divine symmetry
Should I kiss the viper's fang
Or herald loud
The death of Man
I'm sinking in the quicksand
Of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore
[CHORUS]
Don't believe in yourself
Don't deceive with belief
Knowledge comes
With death's release
I'm not a prophet
Or a stone age man
Just a mortal
With the potential of a superman
I'm living on
I'm tethered to the logic
Of Homo Sapien
Can't take my eyes
From the great salvation
Of bullshit faith
If I don't explain what you ought to know
You can tell me all about it
On, the next Bardo
I'm sinking in the quicksand
Of my thought
And I ain't got the power anymore
[CHORUS]
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He realizes now that he had the potential of a superman, but is just a mortal. He began life as a follower of God, but turned on faith in God, for the occult. He wonders if he should taste the vipers fang (poison) of shoot himself. Bowie was fascinated with Hitler, and this is his take on the sadness and resolve he felt in his last moments in the bunker.
After watching "Century of the Self" the section on Nazis reminded me of this song, since it's such a zen like message of not taking yourself too seriously and the mistakes the Nazis made.
I'm living in a silent film
Portraying
Himmler's sacred realm
Of dream reality
Great stuff :)
I've never really read into many of his songs however you're Hitler theory is a good one. With regard to the chorus, if this is a Hitler story, could be a reference to immanentizing the eschaton which Hitler was trying to achieve in the Illuminatus Trilogy - essentially trying to bring about judgement day and his transcendental illumination.
"Don't believe in yourself (the Golden Dawn) don't deceive with belief (the Church),
Knowledge comes (illumination) with deaths release (mass killing)"
"Mortal with potential of a superman"? Master race = superman.
I reckon Bowie read the Illuminatus Trilogy.
Changes: the act of becoming, not being.
Oh! You Pretty Things: the "Übermensch" is yet to come, Homo Sapiens is old, weak, weary etc. and now it's time to make way for something better.
Life on Mars?: he's fed up with mankind which keeps repeating itself, feeling trapped, sick of man's mediocrity.
Those are of course only elements within the songs, go figure yourself what you believe them to mean.
For Nietzsche the "self" can also be a trap, a prison that keeps us from evolving. What we "are" is not some kind of God given identity, but something that has its origins in the course of history with all the laws of the monotheistic religions that have been forced upon us so many times that they have become a part of our identity that has to be overcome.
The first one sounds so bleak and morbid at first, but I don't really take it as that. I take it more as, well, fact. Just inescapable fact that everyone should realize. It's only depressing if you let it be. And those three lines seem to follow in a logical path of thought. Don't believe in yourself. Not because you should think you are worthless, but because belief is a very deceptive thing. And knowledge is far better.
And I can relate way too well to the second. Sometimes I get so deep in philosophical thought that it feels like I'm sinking into, well, a pit of quicksand. And really, as intriguing and addicting as deep thinking is, it gets you nowhere. All it can do is leave you feeling insignificant.
Who the hell is David Bowie really. Maybe, like Paul, he's dead too.