Very depressing song, but very existentially deep, definitely worthy of listening to, its actually become one of my favorite songs.
The animal in the cage you have built is the person you chose to craft for yourself. A cage is safety. That is most likely not the first way you think of the word cage, you probably think imprisonment. Take the next words of the song, addressing the life you have built for yourself and the hollowness you feel inside. This is him explaining the animal in his cage to you.
You trade in the possibilities of literally EVERYTHING you can do in life, in existence, for a boring, fucking monotone life, because of... Safety. Security.
The hollowness a caged animal feels, is, fucked up as it is, right where it belongs. How could it feel anything but hollowness, it's been distanced from all but itself. The tragedy with us is we put ourselves in the cage, not only willingly, but happily, desperately. Too willing to trade everything for the safety of a useless, empty existence.
You can't see the forest for the trees while all you're aware of is the tree you've locked yourself in.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, is it all you want to be? Are you content to stop growing and learning and developing? Are you okay with being a two dimensional image? Not a competent sentient being, just a useless image of one.
The spiritual parts of the song dealing with existence strikingly remind me of 'The Mysterious Stranger' by Mark Twain. His assertion in this short story is that really, the ultimate end to all that exists is your consciousness. Its not really just yours, as in, everybody you know is in your head, but rather, everyone that you know is also a piece of what you are a piece of. They are all you and you are all of them. Together you make up the universe, one total consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively through many different lenses. All of reality is just an elaborate dream, nothing exists save you, and empty space. The universe, and all else that might exist beside it, is your beautiful dream, and you can change it at anytime. All you have to do is wake up.
Think you pretty much nailed. I always looked at the security aspects of it to refer to religion, personally, or the government (i.e. laws, rules, norms, etc..). "You keep looking, but you can't find the wooks. While you're hiding in the trees" is about how all you see is illusion; religion, government, etc.. This song is almost begging us to take a closer look, to step back from our own "safe and secure" perspective, to voluntarily place ourselves in a more vulnerable state so that we can gather TRUE meaning in our lives, not depend on external things to give...
Think you pretty much nailed. I always looked at the security aspects of it to refer to religion, personally, or the government (i.e. laws, rules, norms, etc..). "You keep looking, but you can't find the wooks. While you're hiding in the trees" is about how all you see is illusion; religion, government, etc.. This song is almost begging us to take a closer look, to step back from our own "safe and secure" perspective, to voluntarily place ourselves in a more vulnerable state so that we can gather TRUE meaning in our lives, not depend on external things to give us that (i.e. religion, government, another's love, etc...). Nice Twain reference. This album came out the year I graduated high school and this song became a personal "anthem" of sorts for graduation. Thinking about everyone and everything I was leaving behind, and where I was headed next, and how different everything would be in very unexpected ways (i.e. being "friends forever," etc...).
Very depressing song, but very existentially deep, definitely worthy of listening to, its actually become one of my favorite songs.
The animal in the cage you have built is the person you chose to craft for yourself. A cage is safety. That is most likely not the first way you think of the word cage, you probably think imprisonment. Take the next words of the song, addressing the life you have built for yourself and the hollowness you feel inside. This is him explaining the animal in his cage to you.
You trade in the possibilities of literally EVERYTHING you can do in life, in existence, for a boring, fucking monotone life, because of... Safety. Security.
The hollowness a caged animal feels, is, fucked up as it is, right where it belongs. How could it feel anything but hollowness, it's been distanced from all but itself. The tragedy with us is we put ourselves in the cage, not only willingly, but happily, desperately. Too willing to trade everything for the safety of a useless, empty existence.
You can't see the forest for the trees while all you're aware of is the tree you've locked yourself in.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, is it all you want to be? Are you content to stop growing and learning and developing? Are you okay with being a two dimensional image? Not a competent sentient being, just a useless image of one.
The spiritual parts of the song dealing with existence strikingly remind me of 'The Mysterious Stranger' by Mark Twain. His assertion in this short story is that really, the ultimate end to all that exists is your consciousness. Its not really just yours, as in, everybody you know is in your head, but rather, everyone that you know is also a piece of what you are a piece of. They are all you and you are all of them. Together you make up the universe, one total consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively through many different lenses. All of reality is just an elaborate dream, nothing exists save you, and empty space. The universe, and all else that might exist beside it, is your beautiful dream, and you can change it at anytime. All you have to do is wake up.
Think you pretty much nailed. I always looked at the security aspects of it to refer to religion, personally, or the government (i.e. laws, rules, norms, etc..). "You keep looking, but you can't find the wooks. While you're hiding in the trees" is about how all you see is illusion; religion, government, etc.. This song is almost begging us to take a closer look, to step back from our own "safe and secure" perspective, to voluntarily place ourselves in a more vulnerable state so that we can gather TRUE meaning in our lives, not depend on external things to give...
Think you pretty much nailed. I always looked at the security aspects of it to refer to religion, personally, or the government (i.e. laws, rules, norms, etc..). "You keep looking, but you can't find the wooks. While you're hiding in the trees" is about how all you see is illusion; religion, government, etc.. This song is almost begging us to take a closer look, to step back from our own "safe and secure" perspective, to voluntarily place ourselves in a more vulnerable state so that we can gather TRUE meaning in our lives, not depend on external things to give us that (i.e. religion, government, another's love, etc...). Nice Twain reference. This album came out the year I graduated high school and this song became a personal "anthem" of sorts for graduation. Thinking about everyone and everything I was leaving behind, and where I was headed next, and how different everything would be in very unexpected ways (i.e. being "friends forever," etc...).