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.
Ancient ways ensnared in the monetary grip
Sons and daughters slaved by the wage and the whip
Our way of life crushed, as our lives drown in work
Is this what we’re to think, that a human life is worth?
Burned out fields and broken, black factories
Echoing names of the dead who came before me
Who yearns to breathe this acrid, acid air?
Who among us bleeds for a better life beyond despair?
Eaters and eaten - deathwork, so nauseating
Master and servant - deathwork immisertating
The Eaters and the Eaten - eaten alive
Hours spent in the shadow of the mill
Days turn to weeks as our lifeblood spills
Burned out fields and broken, black factories
Echoing names of the dead who came before me
Eaters and eaten - deathwork, so nauseating
Master and servant - deathwork immisertating
From the rare earth mine, to the longshore line
Survival is a burden, that we can not relent
The Eaters and the Eaten - eaten alive
Hours spent in the shadow of the mill
Days turn to weeks as our lifeblood spills
Falling through the cracks, we bring down the anvil of dissent
From ash-caked eyes, thousand-mile stares
Gaze upon a world where this system is extinct and nevermore
Sons and daughters slaved by the wage and the whip
Our way of life crushed, as our lives drown in work
Is this what we’re to think, that a human life is worth?
Burned out fields and broken, black factories
Echoing names of the dead who came before me
Who yearns to breathe this acrid, acid air?
Who among us bleeds for a better life beyond despair?
Eaters and eaten - deathwork, so nauseating
Master and servant - deathwork immisertating
The Eaters and the Eaten - eaten alive
Hours spent in the shadow of the mill
Days turn to weeks as our lifeblood spills
Burned out fields and broken, black factories
Echoing names of the dead who came before me
Eaters and eaten - deathwork, so nauseating
Master and servant - deathwork immisertating
From the rare earth mine, to the longshore line
Survival is a burden, that we can not relent
The Eaters and the Eaten - eaten alive
Hours spent in the shadow of the mill
Days turn to weeks as our lifeblood spills
Falling through the cracks, we bring down the anvil of dissent
From ash-caked eyes, thousand-mile stares
Gaze upon a world where this system is extinct and nevermore
Lyrics submitted by EternalTearsOfSorrow
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Misery Index explained the albums focus (& I sense the focus/ theme in this track as well) is competing forces of control and chaos; they interrogate ‘power’ as something that is not always wielded with brute force in the modern age (through violence), but more so as a control-society where it manifests on a self-governing, individual level.