| Atmosphere – Sunshine Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| The song he's referring to in the video is actually Your Glasshouse.... I believe it has a different meaning in this song while the hangover meaning remains. | |
| Atmosphere – Tears For The Sheep Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This song is about the realization of the character that he is being a scapegoat within a certain group of people. My interpretation of the song is made mainly on René Girard's scapegoat theory. A description of the typical scapegoating process is available on Wikipedia. [1] I will proceed with linking verses with concept of this theory: "I wanna bash whoever's responsible for this incomprehensible lack of passion" In this verse, the lack of passion can be assimilated to the lack of civism he is faced with. The covetous pervert tries to eliminate the human character of the scapegoat. Usually, the entourage follows the movement and begin to lack respect too. "The sucker's been seduced down to the stick" And the peasants fill their bellies with the poisons you omit" The pervert tries to eliminate the aspects of the personnality of its victim. This is sometimes made by omitting everything about the scapegoat that would remind of his human personnality or anything good about the scapegoat. "I've come to seperate the heads and shoulders Of these tracin' paper soldiers" This marks a realization of part of the scapegoating process by the character. He plans to take action and correct his status by the interaction with the entouraged that followed the pervert. "The assassin covered in plain clothes Smothered the sunlight and set flame to your rainbows And then came the storm (and then came the storm) Bewildered those that didn't contemplate Fake disguised as the norm (as the norm)" Later, he realized his action wasn't positive. A scapegoat that retaliates to an attack, when in a state of being dehumanized will result in a second attack towards the scapegoat as the entourage has usually a positive bias towards the covetous pervert. "those that didn't contemplate" refers to the entourage that's unaware of the scapegoating that's in progress. "All that stood atop the hill was number seven silhouette". A scapegoat is usually made of someone with a strong interior life or is very competent in a domain. "Number Seven" might refer to the fact that he is too competent as the number 7 refers to luck and success. "(And with this) head splitting tears, cement breaking weeping for these people walking in their sleep" In the chorus, people walking in their sleep refers to the entourage that participates to the persecution without being aware of the process. "My talk is not as cheap And my thoughts are not as deep As the day I woke up to discover I lost my sheep" This might represent some sort of recovery of the character's status by socialization in order to acquire back some of the human status. Here, the sheep represents the entourage that once was favorable to the character. "They say a picture's worth a thousand words Well I beg a thousand pardons for each word I've used for personal gains" This resocialization might have lead to the character trying to revert the process by attacking the covetous pervert. This has lead to the second traumatism that's occuring when retaliating from an attack by the pervert. "But the letters that float through my head, demote my sentences Could never be contained by your simple picture frames" Here again, he reassumes his human character, he explains that his thoughts and reasonings are complex (possibly more if he has a deep interior life), and that the complexity makes him just as human as anyone. "I fight it, each time I find myself walking across your eyelids" He says here he fights his will to retaliate when he is being decridibilized towards his peers. Walking across your eyelids might refer to the act of rolling eyes to express sarcasm. "Could see the truth you breathe through each one of your pores" The character wishes the pervert would realize the process of scapegoating he is doing probably in an inconscient way. "I'd like to ask the cats that act like they my peers" Refers to the entourage that scapegoats that interact with him, but inside, express some disdain towards him. "One of these days you're gonna climb the tallest building of all Give a warning to those below and let the tears fall" He warns the pervert that a day, once he will have reached the top (being competent), he will face the same kind of behavior the character's living. "The damage...overseen by anyone that comprehends" He assumes some people do understand how he is being scapegoated, but they act as passive observers. "The anguish...felt only by the ones that invest" The anguish felt by the pervert when the esteem of the others increases because of the positive bias. "The language...was primitive" Refers to the fact that some part of the dehumanization is made with non-verbal communication. "All the self-proclaimed prophets dressed up to look like poets Pretendin' to be martyrs that they're not" The pervert usually depicts himself as a victim in order to gain sympathy from the entourage. "So I'ma take a second to beckon the downfall of your so called civilized nation" In Girard's theory, Jesus was one of the "paraclets" that expressed and propagated knowledge about the scapegoating mechanism. He considers the catholic religion to be a pivot in the stories of religions. Primitive religions were mostly based on creation myths where creature would be killed and that would lead to the creation of the world. The sacrificial rituals would be one implementation of the need of a scapegoat for every primitive society to work. In fact, the sacrificing of a victim and the uniting of the group against a common enemy is a source of social cohesion. According to Girard, it is possible that all the societies that had no sacrificial mechanism might be extinct because interpersonal conflicts. Christianism, and the fact that the prophet Jesus would in fact return the religions "like a glove". The society would go to favor the victim rather over the agressor. That would be the civilized nation. The character is skeptical about the affirmation as he is still a target of the scapegoating persecution. The topic is wide and Girard's theory is complex, I suggest reading "Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde" written by the philosopher himself about the topic. [1] http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouc_%C3%A9missaire#Sociopsychanalyse_et_psychiatrie |
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