Toxicity

This song has a simple, but emotional meaning... It was written when SOAD were in touch deeply with their Armenian side...

'Eating seeds as a pastime activity' - literally, in Armenia, US/Armenian places, you would see people eating sunflower seeds to pass the time, in public places there's often trails leading to groups of Armenians.

'Do you own disorder' - There is alot of disorder in Armenia. There's no jobs, police are corrupt, the goverment are connected to the mob and the Armenian race, to some point, has given up. THis is why the US seems like a heaven compared to Armenia.

'Sacred silence and sleep' - With there being no jobs and the country going to the dogs, having something to pass the time (Like eating sunflower seeds) is ideal. Silence occours because nobodys really, genuinely happy; thus silence is created. People have nothing much better to do than eat sunflower seeds and sleep to pass time.

'Looking at life through the eyes of a tire hub' - This means you don't care how fast you're moving through life, you only see a fraction of what's out in the world.

'When I became the sun, I shone life into mans hearts' - this means he used to be really happy, social and doing what we would consider normal activity, until the toxicity (danger, poverty, disorder) caught up and took over. 'The toxicity of our city' was also explained there.

Well...I hate to end the arguing, but heres the answer from the source itself....Mr Serj.

Found in the August 18 2001 issue of Kerrang Metal magazine, taken from the first impression of the album "Toxicity" Kerrang did with Serj and John of SoaD.

John: It's about your poisonous content. Your toxicity level. But toxicity doesn't necessarily mean the toxicity of a person, it can be the toxicity of a city. Or the toxicity of a nation. The toxicity of a speech. It's just toxicity in general or whatever.

Who knows what the song means? None of us, obviously, so why don't we stop bickering amongst each other and get down to the real point of which is: what the song means to us: not one person will share the exact same views as another, so stop caling each other idiots and just listen to the music. Music is the brainchild of a person who understand themself. Listen and Feel.

My interpretation of the song is about the same as Rave's so I'm not going to repeat it, but there was one line in the song that I thought was very interesting. "Flashlight reveries caught in the headlights of a truck." He's talking about someone falling asleep behind the wheel of a car and turning into oncoming traffic. The driver hits a truck head on because, in a dream, he saw the headlights of the truck as flashlights. This could mean that Serj thinks technology is dulling our sense of reality (and that we're constantly stuck in a state between silence and sleep?), or it could be just an example of the disorder that is going on around us.

I think he's asking the capitalists out there how can they own everything, when certain things will never have a price tag (disorder and rebellion).

I love it when songs sound like they had thought put into them.. anyway. Toxicity. I think it’s about greed, pollution and destruction poisoning us as a society. A toxic city. “Software version 7.0” – that’s a little extreme. After all, there’s only so much you can add; for instance, I haven’t noticed one significant difference between AOL 2.0 and 7.0. They could be mocking AOL or just technology in general, but either way they’re pointing out that we go to excesses in pursuit of the best we can find. We narrow our focus, and see life from a tire hub; if you’re looking out from a tire, all you can see is the street flashing by. All you care about is how fast you’re going, but you never notice what you’re passing.
I think the reference to eating seeds, in context of the whole song, means that things have gotten so out of hand that we have to pump ourselves full of foreign substances just to feel alive. We’ve become corrupt and greedy. Instead of developing relationships with our family and friends, we spend time with our software. Instead of keeping our environment clean we carelessly pollute. We have to take extreme measures just to distract us from the mess we’ve created out of our lives. It hadn’t occurred to me, but I agree – I think sacred silence means death. I have no clue what he means by ‘somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep’. But I get this weird sense he means insanity. That or he could mean an overall lack of consciousness. Makes sense, sleep is the lightest form of being unconscious, death is obviously the ultimate form.

The interpretation of the truck hitting oncoming traffic is very interesting. However, I just don’t get that impression from ‘flashlight reveries’. It sounds more like a cult gathering to do their rituals, only instead of candles or torches they use flashlights. The idea of using technology in a way that seems wrong fits with the song. Also ‘more wood for their fires’ and ‘loud neighbors’ obviously could relate to the cult idea. I don’t know where the headlights come in though.

I also definitely agree with whoever said he was mocking Christ. He might blame Christ for evil things that have happened in society; for example, the Holocaust and the witch trials. Or he might think that Christ’s appearance led us to technology somehow. “Shone life into the man’s hearts”.. somehow motivated us to create a more complex society.. maybe. I can see a remote connection there. Mainly though I don’t think the ending is supposed to be optimistic, more sarcastic.

This Sums It Up: After a toxicity song in concert, serj tankian( Lead singer) said "We are hear to nurture our plantet, not fucking destroy it.

These are the lyrics from the end of Toxicity Live @ Big Day Out 2002 found off of YoutTube :

10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. an new way of thinking was developed. one that involved totalitarian agriculture and now ...

good by blue skies, good by blue skies, good bye (background singer continues this refrain)

We've fallen asleep as people, as animals on this planet. We are here to nurture our planet. We are hear to help guard(garden?) this fucking place, not destroy it for god's sakes!

I am sick and tired of unequal globalism. I am sick and tired of fascism ... of this type of people.

To me it means:\n\nConversion Software 7.0 (excessive updates) But we are the ones being programmed from TV news and our electronic devices.\n\nLooking at life through a hub - so quickly we are taking in media and being programmed, with each flip of the channel or click on a link.\n\nEating seeds- Again we are being programmed by media little by little like seeds that continue to grow into toxic ideas; thus we live in the toxic- city.\n\nYou, what do you own the world- this is to the powers that be- who control the media to make us conform to their world view, by showing us dysfunction and disorder, constantly on the news ( every waking moment - between sacred silence(death) and sleep) so that we will fear and fall in line.\n\nMore wood for their fire , loud neighbors ( showing the worst of humanity on the news to further implant these ideas into us) Most people you actually know are decent regardless of their politics, but the media is dividing us where we agree, so we think the worst about good people)\n\nFlashlight reveries- entertainment and distractions on our tvs and screens, so we don’t see we are headed (headlights of a truck) in a dangerous situation of viewing us vs them philosophy. Because Democracy is supposed to be about what the people want, the powers that be, are sowing seeds of of disorder, thus making life toxic and and distrustful of average people so that we cannot come together to to make positive change democratically.

i got sick of reading all this shit quite quickly.

kylie.