| In Flames – Ordinary Story Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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You can take this song very literally, the meaning is quite clear. "Egoism dictates human relations" People are selfish and only do things which are in their own self interest. They do not do things which help others or do things which are are morally good or do things for the betterment of something larger than themselves. "A world where fashion outshines morality" The world places more importance on appearance than deeds. This is evident in the modern media, where sports stars and entertainers get paid millions of dollars despite the fact they are often corrupt or morally bankrupt. Meanwhile, a large percentage of the world lives in poverty. "Here success is written in blood-red colours" The way to get ahead in the world is to climb over others, figuratively (and sometimes literally) resulting in their death, writing your success with their blood. "Designed by the thirst for power" People's main motivation in the world is the selfish pursuit of personal power. "Gather the faithful and propose a toast" Here the word "faithful" is used mockingly, as in "the faithful who believe that the disgusting way this world operates is how it really should be". Gather the selfish and evil people and have them applaud themselves by drinking to their own success. "To the epoch of indifference" An epoch is the moment in time chosen as the origin of a particular era. Indifference is the lack of emotions about anything, either through conscious suppression of those emotions or actually not morally caring. Due to the way people treat each other, we have now started the era where nobody cares about anything except themselves. "An all too ordinary story" What has just been described used to be irregular. In times past, people cared about each other, their goals and motivations were different. Today, everybody is selfish and uncaring. "With aftertaste so bitter" How horrible it is that everybody is like this. It's definitely horrible for the singer to express, it leaves him with a negative feeling after describing it. It leaves you with a negative feeling to hear your fellow man described truthfully this way. Perhaps it also leaves the people described prior, who are so "successful" with a bitter aftertaste as they try to ignore how empty they have become. "Forced to be someone I don't want to be" The singer doesn't like the way the world works, the selfish and nasty way that he has to be just to get by amongst people, but it's a sad necessity or he'll never get anywhere in life. "I'm losing myself. sinking deeper down" He fears that acting in this self-serving and negative way is desensitizing him to its effects on others. He fears that in time, he will become just like the "faithful" and become indifferent to the results of his actions. "I'm caught in the world wound web" He feels trapped in the egotistic and immoral ways of the world. |
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