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Doublespeak
I drug my heart with doublespeak
All my misgivings disappear
It helps to keep my conscience clean
The end justifies the means
Still I'm always careful what I hear
I don't want to know who really pulls the strings
Just as long as it's not you or me
There's a jackboot toe tap, keeping time while the children dance and play
Honey if you think you've seen a crime you just look the other way
I slowly carve my soul away
Piece by piece I sacrifice
To comfort and peace of mind
I keep my toes on the party line
There's nothing wrong dear, don't think twice
I drug my heart with doublespeak
All my misgivings disappear
It helps to keep my conscience clean
The end justifies the means
Still I'm always careful what I hear
I don't want to know who really pulls the strings
Just as long as it's not you or me
There's a jackboot toe tap, keeping time while the children dance and play
Honey if you think you've seen a crime you just look the other way
I slowly carve my soul away
Piece by piece I sacrifice
To comfort and peace of mind
I keep my toes on the party line
There's nothing wrong dear, don't think twice
Lyrics submitted by faithinthethief
Track duration: 04:51
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Jesus puts it this way: " And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
(John 3:19-21 ESV)
Still we smile and deny that we’re cursed. But of all our iniquities ignorance may be the worst."
Really, though, I think this song simply comes down to complacency. As if Winston, despite his disillusionment, continued to keep his head down and conform - keeping his "toes on the Party line."
Pg 220 of 1984:
"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them... The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt... Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge ; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth."
In reference to the Jackboot thing, it could be a reference to Nazi genocide (the Jews as well as the elderly and those with defects), and hence could be comparing it to abortion, which is also genocide, and could only happen as a result of a calloused conscience.
The lines "I don't want to know who really pulls the strings, Just as long as it's not you or me" would mean that we can just tell ourselves it's out of our control, and as long as we aren't directly responsible, then it's not our problem.
It's the same thing the chorus, "There's a jackboot toe tap, keeping time while the children dance and play, Honey if you think you've seen a crime you just look the other way" would mean that the wars and militaries around the world are in control, but we just continue to not really want to know what's truly going on and look the other way.
Second verse, he says "I slowly carve my soul away, Piece by piece I sacrifice, To comfort and peace of mind, I keep my toes on the party lines" This would mean we slowly give up and sacrifice our compassion for people, and also just go along with our government's party lines and believe what we hear and allow them to have control instead of making our voices heard.
Anyway, that's my interpretation. I would say that song really has a "Cold Cash, and Colder Hearts" vibe to the meaning of it.
the lyrics "I don't want to know who really pulls the strings
Just as long as it's not you or me" are very powerful but are quite perplexing.
Doublespeak is saying one thing and meaning another, usually its opposite.
In 1984 when BIG BROTHER and the Party say PEACE they mean WAR, when they say LOVE they mean HATE, and when they say FREEDOM they mean SLAVERY.
hmmmmm......