2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)

This song got me on to 1984, it's quite obvious when you read the book through. It seems to allude that we're turning to an Orwellian world. This is basically an essay, so read on if you're interested :P

In Britain cameras are all over the street, like hidden telescreens. People can be followed by satellites. Sounds like that loss of privacy you see in the book.

George Bush Jr was being projected over the world in 02/03, promising to avenge 9/11, almost like Big Brother since he has so much indirect influence over the rest of the world, not just over the USA. And I do believe he cheated his position, perhaps his family moving to make a faulty voting system, to continue the royalty. There's a sense we have no control. And if people like Bush can get into the top seat without public approval, we don't have a choice.

Thom Yorke may be British, but he noticed it's a big sign that the world is heading to an Orwellian dystopia. We need to pay attention. If we don't, a totalitarian government may rise behind the mist unopposed. We may wake up one day and find that thinking against the ruling class is a crime, and find we have Thought Police. Then again, why was John Lennon asassinated when he was a man for world peace and equality? 'Imagine'? ARE YOU SUCH A DREAMER- TO PUT THE WORLD TO RIGHTS? Some people didn't like his criticism of the class system. Think of Goldstein's book in 1984. The ruling class was seeing world peace and equality as something to be avoided. That may be why he was killed, and I think Radiohead referenced this. The first 2 verses are doublethink, with the fear in the mind-control phrase 'TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE' leaking out the tiniest bit. The sandbags and April showers may be the destruction of the planet by mankind, which may work in favour of the government, keeping the middle and lower class in fear of the end.

It's the devils way now There's no way out You can scream and you can shout It's too late now

This is the point beyond no return, where none can stop the new world order, where nothing but the most cataclysmic natural disaster (i.e. dinosaur-like extinction event) will bring it down. Everything after 'paying attention' is the experience in 1984, how it's so hard to keep incriminating thoughts back (Trying to sing along-but like flies the buggers keep coming back). 'But i'm not' is reference to the Ministry of Love. 'You do not exist'.

'Hail to the thief' is back in 03, where George Bush was loved by so much while he was in a position he probably didn't earn. How a lot of people loved him blindly, thinking it was patriotism. Kinda like Big Brother.

'Don't question my authority or put me in the box/dock, cause i'm not'

You can't easily push George Bush from his position until his two terms run out. Of course, Obama's there now. But Thom may have been saying Bush shouldn't be re-elected in 2004, because Bush isn't as decent as he says he is.

'Go and tell the king that the sky is falling in When it's not maybe not' Potentially a 9/11 reference, but more than likely the asteroid strike that might be the only thing to bring down the Party. I think 'Where I End And You Begin (The Sky Is Falling In)' follows this, about the end of the Party, the end of thought control and the end of Big Brother. 'X will mark the place, like the parting of the waves, like a house falling into the sea' 'I will eat you alive' Waves of fire and water, eating up and destroying each Ministry and killing every Party member. 'There will be no more lies' the end of the Thought Police, end of reality control, and the survivors free to think.