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They made a statue of us
Then put it on a mountain top
The tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs of fun, have/of fun
They'll name a city after us
And later say it's all our fault
Then they'll give us a talking to
Then they'll give us a talking to
Cause they've got years of experience
Living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Living in a den of thieves
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
We wear our scarves just like a noose
But not cause we want eternal sleep
And though our parts are slightly used
New ones are slave labor you can keep
Living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Living in a den of thieves
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
The tourists come and stare at us
The sculptors mama sends regards
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
Our noses have begun to rust
Living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Living in a den of thieves
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
Then put it on a mountain top
The tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs of fun, have/of fun
They'll name a city after us
And later say it's all our fault
Then they'll give us a talking to
Then they'll give us a talking to
Cause they've got years of experience
Living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Living in a den of thieves
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
We wear our scarves just like a noose
But not cause we want eternal sleep
And though our parts are slightly used
New ones are slave labor you can keep
Living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Living in a den of thieves
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
The tourists come and stare at us
The sculptors mama sends regards
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
Our noses have begun to rust
Living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Living in a den of thieves
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
And its contagious
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"They made a statue of us
Then put it on a mountain top" =Conservatives in the nation make a lot of assumptions about what my life is like, and what my partner is like without actually knowing us. We have become caractures, scapegoats for what is wrong with the nation, when in reality we are doing our best to form a partnership that is divorced from the violence and coersion that we found in the church and in life in general.
"They'll name a city after us" =Sodom and Gommorah.
"And later say it's all our fault"=Again, how we are being blamed for the corrosion of traditional family values when we are doing our best to create a healthy structure for family and sexuality.
"Then they'll give us a talking to
Cause they've got years of experience."=corrective therapy for gay and trans people
"Living in a den of thieves"=We live on land that has been stolen from Native Americans, everything that we consume has been stolen from people in the third world, ie: Kenya, where public land was privatized, people were kicked off of their subsistence farms to raise bananas and other tropical fruits for white people in the western hemisphere. This has basically happened everywhere in regards to farming, mining, and factories. Our lives depend on it.
"Rummaging for answers in the pages"=we are trying to find a spiritual path that is meaningful in the face of all of this wreckage. In the past, most cultures revered transgender people, they were seen as spiritual mediators. Colonialism spread the idea that trans people are perverts. We don't have many clues left from those past cultures, but we are trying to find what we can and piece something meaningful together.
"And its contagious"=There's no way to escape the world we live in. We have to perpetuate violence in order to survive.
"We wear our scarves just like a noose
But not cause we want eternal sleep"=the fact that 40% of trans people try to commit suicide, but only because there is no place for them in this society. They could lead fulfilling lives if we lived in a different world.
"And though our parts are slightly used"=People's obsession with trans people getting 'the surgery,' or the idea that trans people must conform to society's vision of what a man or woman should be. Many trans people are fine with the parts that they were born with, and learn to give them new gendered meaning.
"New ones are slave labor you can keep."=Back to the idea that almost everything that exists in our world causes someone else suffering. This not only applies to the plastic surgery industry, but everything. My partner and I "rummage" for everything and rarely buy anything new. We dumpster dive for much of our food, our bed is from freecycle, our shelves are made of old pallets. We do our best to live with as low of an impact as possible.
I know that I go back and forth between anti-capitalist analysis and gender analysis, but to me they are linked. Capitalism rests on trauma, pain, and scapegoating those who deviate from the norm.
Matthew 21:13
'My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.'
Jesus told that to street peddlers selling their goods to pilgrims close to the temple, which overshadowed its true purpose - being a 'house of prayer'.
so i think this song is about how people misinterpret the religions they claim to follow. they make a statues of eg. Jesus, without understanding his message, and behave like tourists buying cheap religious paraphernalia, only wearing religious symbols, or peddling their own agenda under the veneer of religion.
' Rummaging for answers in the pages'
looking for exact answers in the holy scriptures, or believing the interpretation of the representatives of the church, instead of taking the general positive message and improving the immediate situation around you
'Then they'll give us a talking to
Cause they've got years of experience'
scholars or long-time believers (priests) will claim to represent the religion on the merit of having studied the Bible (/Quran), and will make comments that Jesus wouldn't have
'we wear our scarves just like a noose'
Muslim women wearing the hijab, which is a misinterpretation of the Quran
'and though are parts are slightly used
new ones are slave labor you can keep'
'civilised' people support human trafficking if they need an organ transplant, which is one example of their depravity
'our noses have begun to rust'
the original idea of religious leaders is forgotten
all in all, i think the song is about how people won't dig deep into ideas, just take the outer layers, and get the original message totally wrong because they'll get lost in some unimportant details or give up their thinking in favor of authority figures telling them what to do.
It also seems to be about the U.S (hence the name of the song) and how they perceived Russia. ''It's contagious'' is about the fear of America for communism.
''And though our parts are slightly used
New ones are slave labor you can keep""
I think this shows how Russia thought about America in the cold war: you can tell us that democracy is better, but we don't want this ''slave labor'' when everything is about money and people get a bad salary for something that is like slave labor.
The capitalists are happy for the statues to stay as mere cash cows of tourism, so long as the wrong people are always blamed for their failings. (now tourists come and stare at us, blow bubbles with their gum etc).
Regina Spector is a Russian-American and the title of the Album that "Us" is from is "Soviet Kitsch" a phrase taken from the book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," which is set during the communist period of the Soviet Union. This is a perfectly legitimate interpretation. There are plenty of artifacts of art and literature that criticize capitalism (along with communism, monarchy, religion, democracy, war, peace, you see where I'm going...), so why not this song too?
Personally I think you could interpret this about being many things (lovers being probably the least likely). That's the beauty of real art - and why the work of artists like Drake and Nikki Minaj are going to be forgotten in 10 years.
If you don't care to analyze a song that's fine, but it's kind of ridiculous that you would take the time to criticize someone for having the audacity to actually think critically about art.
>Living in a den of thieves - Middle East
>Rummaging for answers in the pages - holy book -> Koran
Those two lines kinda strike me about her portraying Arab women and how they're trying to justify their unjust treatment by rummaging pages in Koran.
>We wear our scarves just like a noose
>But not cause we want eternal sleep
And those lines are probably about how many of them are forced to wear headscarves and it binds them in such kind of way.
Overall I think it's about how feminism is contagious, that every woman will eventually get their own right and they are not just a symbol of oppresion.
just think of helen of troy!! Or romeo and juliet!
All great romances that are written about seem to bring about devastation of one sort or another!
But true unconditional love is the whole entire point of existence!
I believe this entire song is depicting how oblivious the world is to the whole point of life,
instead of trying to love unconditionally they steal from one another trying to get higher on the pyramid (We're living in a den of thieves)!
Then they blame true love for the tragedy of the world, it is their disease that is contagious, they're misunderstanding!
They look back in the history books thinking they are getting closer to the point, but they are actually missing the point entirely!
The tourists are chewing their gum and having fun, but they don't really get it...
To them it is just a tourist attraction.
From what a see it's about the relationship between Europe and the US ("US"). They (Europe) give them the Statue of Liberty wich is now banalised by tourists.
Europeans always say they have years of experience (history, old democracies, old republics) in comparison to Americans which "they give a talking to" because they see the US as too agressive to other countries.
Opposed to the US ppl in Europe wear scarves ALL THE TIME.
But the part that makes me think of it the most is the part that says "the sculptor's mama sends regards". The Statue of Liberty was made after Augusta Charlotte Bartholdi... THE SCULPTOR'S MAMA...
Then again going to the more communist/socialist (or even modern European, if you will) view, some aspects of the US and it's culture are seen as a den of thieves and it's contagious because many other countries try to copy them
I'll try to expand more to the idea at some point.
Best regards
"Den of thieves" is a argument that you could use to describe basically any government so I think it's probably feasible to interpret either way.
I'd assume that it would be more likely that "Us" refers to a formerly prominent leader that is being heavily criticized by the rest of the world ("they"), a leader that has a statue and a city named in his honor.
It may be even more likely that "Us" is a general term for the group of people associated with this leader-maybe those who supported a form of government no longer popular (communism/socialism/etc). "Our parts" refers to the instruments of government: people, institutions, ideologies, etc. They're slightly used but there are new ones to replace them which, ironically, are used for "slave labor."
The "pages" could refer to the pages of history or the political writings of philosophers like Confucius, Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Jefferson, etc. They hold all the answers but still, goverments are corrupt and people are abused.
I would guess that the point, in any case, is that political criticisms and ideologies are rarely as simple as "Your government is bad, let us fix it with this new form of government." People will always be abused regardless of the specific form that government takes because people in power are usually corrupt (a den of thieves).
If this is correct, its an interesting perspective that I can appreciate (but don't totally agree with).