Thetawaves

System of a down is direct about their opinions that they know will be accepted such as their strong opinion on war. Others that seem to make no sense to people have a more subtle meaning, meaning that the general population may not agree but they want to put a concept in people's mind. I came at this with a certain mindset so you may not agree. When you take the first verse and it talks about the unsettled mind collecting information on beta-carotene and thetawaves . Beta carotine i'm not so sure why he included, but thetawaves are the brainwaves that occur when you are in an interactive form of sleep. And in conjuction with the chorus when it says time is like a midnight ride- midnight being the very beginning of the day- this means life is the beginning and finality comes afterward. Meaning this life isn't the end but since we don't know what will happen we weep when we're perplexed and to find meaning in our lives we caress our smiles and try to fill our lives with happiness showing affection to the good times. So looking back on the first verse when we think of midnight we think of being asleep (unless you're a partier) and he's comparing that to life so through life we're in an interactive sleep and we awake afterwards. By the second verse he expands to a view of our nation saying we discover high pulse weopons and microwaves and eventually found out the lie. Meaning we made inventions to defend ourselves and make our lives better and the lie is that we won't be satisfied with our protection or the amount of enjoyment and ease in our lives so i don't want to stretch this on too long (I already have) hope this sheds some light on the song.

Thinker1 has the right idea. I would only say that the second verse perhaps implies this: that the national debt is an ally, because it is something that gets our attention (towards the non-sense the government is doing in america). This leaves the people to fend for themselves, to be self-reliant and self-responsible (in my view: most of society has given up its self-responsibility to the government for security which doesn't really exist) and the people collect undeniable data (the information age, age of aquarius, age of revelation) about advanced wave technologies (hinting at the universe being composed of waves). And of course, this then leads to the people (the masses) finding out the lies of the government and those who control/influence the government.

Now we "all rise" to the awakening movement of taking back our personal power and responsibility and I suppose dispose of the government, as we ought to incorporate an internal self-government (because I believe we all have the capacity for much greater things than this mundane earth society is distracted with at the time)

@dlb1980 I also for a while thought Serj was saying census, but it makes more sense to me that he says "senses" in context of "the unsettled mind" and "Beta-carotenes and thetawaves" all revolving around the human body.

Beta-carotene is what the body uses to produce Vitamin A, which is linked to cancer prevention and many other disease preventions. This, to me, reminds me of my belief of the human body being a perfect system of harmony, only showing sickness or disease because of the toxic stresses (poor food quality, chemtrails, biological tests done by the military, did I mention poor food quality and standards?) and psychological stresses.... ( oh ya.. television as a drug..like an opiate..trancing people, then feeding people messages that nurture a mentality of scarcity and unbalance and disease...dis-ease..). So I feel Serj in the first verse is alluding to our RE-discovery of natural health (I say RE because I assume humans were at some point before now [probably when we were still nomads or in tribes] perfectly healthy and never had illness...until mainstream society came to life. corrupting our way of living..now leading into a materialistic orgy of splurging on immediate urges) and this natural health is achieved through getting the right nutrients (Which food nowadays is lacking of, since mineral levels in soils keep depleting as we reap/rape the earth for profit without taking care of it) and thetawaves (implying meditation to calm and expand the mind from the commonly scattered state to enlightenment...perhaps even becoming beings of light, existing in a higher dimensional form....hmm)

PS HardRockRules, you got it too =] I like your view on it.

I feel Thinker1 got the chorus very well, so I won't repost what he did :) Perhaps I am missing something else though?

This song is about how the development of earth by scientists and discoveries will lead to the fall of our world after that it have rised, because of the pollution, violence, extinction, ozone hole, global warming,...etc. The thetawaves and all the other stuff they mentionned in the song are the symbol of development and urbanisation. And they compared time to a midnight ride, so it starts in a brilliabt way and you're excited and then it ends up with being caught up by the police or crashing into another vehicule, so all this flurishing society will pay for the crime it has committed. Furthermore, SOAD insists on the fact that Finality awaits after all that, because humans are not able to put limits to their thinking and to their mental and senses' capacities. That's the whole thing! Good song btw, great thinking, abition aand anticipating by SOAD. SOAD is an excellent band from all the point of views, hope their hiatus will be over soon!! Post replys for the comment!!

ok so i focused on only my thoughts and completely ignored my senses and on thought, not feelings it seemd my body reacted to my goal or i did my goal without having to think about it but i was in deep thought at the same time

Gotta hand it them, these guys rock! One of the more melodious System songs so you really get the message. I especially liked the line "Then, the people found out the lie". Conjures an image of the president caught redhanded with his hand in the cookie jar with cookie crumbs all over his mouth.

Ok, so this is what I drew from it after reading Thinker1's and ThisUser's interpretation:

"The unsettled mind is at times an ally, Leaving the senses to fend for them selves"

-Alright I think this is about a kind of uncertainty about our lives that we have in the back of our minds. A kind of emptiness that drives us to seek the truth; so that would be consider "an ally." and then the second part about the senses fending for themselves is about how this uncertainty and incompleteness is almost instinctual and aside from higher thought we seek the truth naturally.

"All rise, I fall, Time feels like a midnight ride, Finality waits outside, Weeping in perplexity's arms, Curessing our smiles inside,"

• The first line im not so sure about. But the part about the midnight right is this: our understanding of time in our current reality feels like a midnight ride. Midnight being a time when people are usually asleep; which goes back to the REM and the unsettled mind. "Finality waits outside," meaning our final destination or "afterlife" waits outside of this dream, once we wake up. and then the last two lines, i think are referring to the immense confusion that it causes us, and how it's just easier to smile and enjoy this "reality" that we are in now instead trying to understand it all. "About beta carotine and theta waves"

-Ok so ThisUser said that beta carotine was used in the development of vitamin A in the body; the part that we branch off is this. Vitamin A, aside from what he/she says is does, also is important for vision. The whole eat carrots or go blind. This is because vitamin A deficiency can lead to deterioration of the retina. So, i think this is used as a metaphor to seeing the truth, or opening our eyes. The part about the Thetawaves is a bit more complicated, in my opinion. Thetawaves are waves that are present in the brain during REM, or rapid eye motion which is the deepest sleep that we can achieve. So going off of what Thinker1 said, life is like a dream a really intense REM dream, and eventually we are going to wake up. That's why we have the "unsettled mind," because our senses realize something is wrong and that maybe this isn't reality.

thats all i got haha. read Thinker1 and ThisUsers posts first, it might help you understand mine.

yay im first to rite "this song rox"! this song rox! "...Weeping in perplexity's arms..." i dont understand all the same it rox.... its off their STEAL THIS ALBUM album and it rox and the other songgs rok and this song rox

bethcoleman.net/theta.html

^ This page explains what theta waves are.

I can't believe there were only 2 replies for this. It's one of System's best.

it get a part of the song wrong in my disc, what i mean is the lyrics here are absurdly wrong, they dont even sound alike....

The National debt is at times an ally, Leaving the PEOPLE to fend for them selves, The PEOPLE collect undeniable data, About high pulse weapons and microwaves, The National debt is at times an ally, Leaving the PEOPLE to fend for them selves, Then, the people found out the lie,