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.
The gap that grows between our lives
The gap our parents never had
Stop those thoughts control your mind
Replace the things that you despise
Oh you're old I hear you say
It doesn't mean that I don't care
I don't believe in it anymore
Pathetic acts for a worthless cause
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
The world is full of refugees
They're just like you and just like me
But as people we have a choice
To end the void with all its force
So don't forget or don't pretend
It's all the same now in the end
It was set in a different life
Destroys my days and haunts my nights
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
The gap our parents never had
Stop those thoughts control your mind
Replace the things that you despise
Oh you're old I hear you say
It doesn't mean that I don't care
I don't believe in it anymore
Pathetic acts for a worthless cause
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
The world is full of refugees
They're just like you and just like me
But as people we have a choice
To end the void with all its force
So don't forget or don't pretend
It's all the same now in the end
It was set in a different life
Destroys my days and haunts my nights
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
In the beginning when we were winning when our smiles were genuine
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
But now unforgiven the everlasting everlasting
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Whats fascinating is that this is the first one on the album.
Yeah, I can relate to it. My word can I relate. It's about you, the world, and how genuine everything was when you were a child.
And now here I am, finding meaning in a song in a little-known website, yearning for that feeling, the days when my mind didn't rule school. Right and wrong was just instilled and you understood.
You didn't have to make the rules for yourself. To teach yourself to be better, you were just good. As you try to be decent and serve those you respect and trust, they grow apart, most people you went to school with gone.
Basically this song is for all the genuine people at heart, those who didnt grow up with a 'view' who didnt judge. But found themselves having to carefully reconstruct how the estrangement began. The big world full of refugees, they once shared a classroom, but now have this not so great freedom, just like everyone else, whats really important is to belong, and never give up on people.
But the hopeless fight goes on, to communicate, to understand, why were we turned against each other? The only thing that lasts is orbit, where do we go from here? I tried! But rambled sadly.
I know why some think its about childhood, and your explanation is creative but I dont think it explains a lot of the lines and the fact is the line "it was said in a different life" sort of hints at something further back in time than the authors own experience backed up by the line "the gap that grows between our lives the gap our parents never had" my explanation of it being about fascism and racism with a smidgin of class strugle thrown in makes more sense on a line by line basis, or it may be wholly about class strugle as someone else suggested.