I actually don't believe this is about living your live like a zombie without any meaning. I think he is talking about how people imagine time and how it affects our lives.
Most people think about time as a stream that leading us from one point to another, and thus live their lives always looking forward, trying to get to a point that they are not at.
I think in reality, time doesn't really exist. All things are just sitting there, they have always been the same, and if they change it is because of a property that always existed in them.
When people look at it this way they realize that everything around them truly exists, it is not changing into it's true form, or degrading away. He says "time isn't after us" most people always live in fear of running out of time, and they feel that they are waiting for things to get better, not realizing that everything they image will exist in the future is right in front of them.
People are "letting the days go by", not pursuing their strong desires, thinking that something needs to be different before they can get to them. People's lives are awkwardly shaped around this, they are confused and try to move foreward, guessing at what to fill their lives with like a beautiful house and wife.
The way we imagine time is what sets us apart from other animals so much. When they have a desire, they will not do anything else until that desire is met, or a more urgent desire comes.
It's about existentialism, like that carl jung quote "the ultimate question is: is man connected to something infinite?". We feel haunting existential uncertainty. In part because of the way we imagine death as a stream that is rapidly moving us away from our existence. What I think is, all things are made of matter, your brain, your thoughts and feelings, are all just interpretations of different arrangements of matter. So if a thought or feeling existed at some point in your mind, it certainly exists, and there is no need to be afraid of losing it. If all things are simply material, then when you die you will exist simply as much, or as little, as you did before.
@willsmith Yep - this is not a song about disaffection; it's a song about time. Below and above all is time. Time changes everything it touches but time itself never changes. It neither increases or decreases
@willsmith Yep - this is not a song about disaffection; it's a song about time. Below and above all is time. Time changes everything it touches but time itself never changes. It neither increases or decreases
@willsmith I agree with this interpretation – which doesn't contradict the others but adds to them. It's unfortunate in this respect that there's a typo in the lyrics that's gotten replicated everywhere. It's not "time isn't holding up, time isn't after us", which makes no sense, but "time isn't holding US, time isn't after us", which is why "AFTER" is stressed when sung as it's the only word that changes. Time is neither holding us back nor chasing us on, in fact it doesn't exist at all ("same as it ever was")....
@willsmith I agree with this interpretation – which doesn't contradict the others but adds to them. It's unfortunate in this respect that there's a typo in the lyrics that's gotten replicated everywhere. It's not "time isn't holding up, time isn't after us", which makes no sense, but "time isn't holding US, time isn't after us", which is why "AFTER" is stressed when sung as it's the only word that changes. Time is neither holding us back nor chasing us on, in fact it doesn't exist at all ("same as it ever was").
I actually don't believe this is about living your live like a zombie without any meaning. I think he is talking about how people imagine time and how it affects our lives.
Most people think about time as a stream that leading us from one point to another, and thus live their lives always looking forward, trying to get to a point that they are not at.
I think in reality, time doesn't really exist. All things are just sitting there, they have always been the same, and if they change it is because of a property that always existed in them.
When people look at it this way they realize that everything around them truly exists, it is not changing into it's true form, or degrading away. He says "time isn't after us" most people always live in fear of running out of time, and they feel that they are waiting for things to get better, not realizing that everything they image will exist in the future is right in front of them.
People are "letting the days go by", not pursuing their strong desires, thinking that something needs to be different before they can get to them. People's lives are awkwardly shaped around this, they are confused and try to move foreward, guessing at what to fill their lives with like a beautiful house and wife.
The way we imagine time is what sets us apart from other animals so much. When they have a desire, they will not do anything else until that desire is met, or a more urgent desire comes.
It's about existentialism, like that carl jung quote "the ultimate question is: is man connected to something infinite?". We feel haunting existential uncertainty. In part because of the way we imagine death as a stream that is rapidly moving us away from our existence. What I think is, all things are made of matter, your brain, your thoughts and feelings, are all just interpretations of different arrangements of matter. So if a thought or feeling existed at some point in your mind, it certainly exists, and there is no need to be afraid of losing it. If all things are simply material, then when you die you will exist simply as much, or as little, as you did before.
@willsmith Yep - this is not a song about disaffection; it's a song about time. Below and above all is time. Time changes everything it touches but time itself never changes. It neither increases or decreases
@willsmith Yep - this is not a song about disaffection; it's a song about time. Below and above all is time. Time changes everything it touches but time itself never changes. It neither increases or decreases
@willsmith I agree with this interpretation – which doesn't contradict the others but adds to them. It's unfortunate in this respect that there's a typo in the lyrics that's gotten replicated everywhere. It's not "time isn't holding up, time isn't after us", which makes no sense, but "time isn't holding US, time isn't after us", which is why "AFTER" is stressed when sung as it's the only word that changes. Time is neither holding us back nor chasing us on, in fact it doesn't exist at all ("same as it ever was")....
@willsmith I agree with this interpretation – which doesn't contradict the others but adds to them. It's unfortunate in this respect that there's a typo in the lyrics that's gotten replicated everywhere. It's not "time isn't holding up, time isn't after us", which makes no sense, but "time isn't holding US, time isn't after us", which is why "AFTER" is stressed when sung as it's the only word that changes. Time is neither holding us back nor chasing us on, in fact it doesn't exist at all ("same as it ever was").