A Beautiful Lie

I think there's this phase of life when we're young when most of us aim to do something different in life. BE different, DO different, think different--that's just the craze among the youngsters. It's the snob appeal. But how many of us youngsters actually define in explicit terms what being or doing "different" means for us.

Many a times, we might be passionate about a thing which is so commonplace so we drop it & instead go the "do different" stream.Now this is wrong.

"battles of your youth" refers to the competition that we face wherever we go. & the competitive spirit is at its peak in our youth. So when we lose, we try to console ourself pretending "it's just a game" while it's not. IT IS "LIFE". WIN or LOSE--we need to show the same level of difference. Take things in ur stride.

SO the beautiful (ironically) lie is "this is just a game"!! It is beautiful (in a bitter sense) because it helps us cope with our distraught, temporal emotional state at the face of our defeat. But that doesn't mean it's right to completely erase off reality & forget our past mistakes or past hurt.

"it is a perfect denial" of the truth that this is life & for god's sake, Life is NOT an illusion. It's an illusion for those losers who wanna escape reality and/or undermine the winners.

And then...when you can't face the world glaring at you (or when you can't meet your responsibilities in your work/ private life), you become increasingly desperate & again try to evade reality by reminding urself "its just a game" OR by taking to addictions.

The loser's spirit & their revelling in "its just a game" lie can be metaphorically compared to the state of euphoria reached by drug abusers (both trying to fake happiness). This it can be a beautiful feeling but an assault on your mind & a LIE after all.

P.S. This is just my own interpretation.

For me, what he's saying in this song is, when you "escape" from reality, it's a lie, basically. But, it's a beautiful lie because it's not real and everything's perfect. His reality and his escape are starting to blend together and he keeps reminding himself that this is not all real and that life is not perfect like he wants it to be. Call me insane, but, when I first read the lyrics to this song, I was reminded of the song "Imaginary" by Evanescence [no, I'm not saying they're anything like Evanescence]. Excellent song, by the way.

I think he’s talking about teenage wasteland… How everything like relationships, alcohol, fake friends & drugs of ne sort how they all seem to offer a temporary happiness.. and he cant seem to find true happiness …. The happiness that he’s found doesn’t last, so by convincing himself everything’s all right… lies turn out to be beautiful. Therefore in the end its all ok, and he lowers his moral standards. He continues to live this way because it makes him happy … even though its temporary..

He can’t seem to find anything or anyone who is REAL without being fake… … basically anything he thought was real turns out to be nothing but a lie…

Its like he thinks hes happy with his life… but really he’s doubting whether hes happy or not…. He tries to convince himself that its all a game… I guess in his head…
So many people lie.. it’s common.. its hard to find someone who isn’t a liar.

Usually stuff that is bad for you is not going to look disgusting its going to look, smell & taste sweet, delicious, amazing and beautiful… When something is usually too good to be true… better believe it’s a lie…

What’s beautiful about this song is that its left open for so many people to take different meanings from it… So many people relate to it by what they think it means…

this song is great its about beliving in a lie cuz u think ur life actually sucks and the lie is beautiful cuz it makes things seems lots better than they are. jared leto is a genius

MrFokker- that's a great opinion; i like to look at life like an RPG coz there's VERY little difference... This is my take on the song: "try to let go of the truth; the battles of your youth; coz this is just a game"- Leto speaks such pivotal truths about the life of mortality. And i agree with MusicIsTheSoul (great screen name) for the most part; personally i wouldn't say he's saying life sucks by the lie makes it beautiful.I think he's saying that everything in existence is a lie; an illusion- but its beautiful by nature.

I saw a clip of the band explaning what the song means and they say its about all the beautiful lies in life (like ciggaretes, drugs etc...) they call the beautiful lies cuz you believe them, you believe that drugs make it better, you look at comercials and wanna go out and buy it, it seems "beautiful" to you, and they are talking about escaping all the lies...

I think this song is about life in a sense, I think that hes in love with a girl who doesnt love him back. He knows that hes got no chance with her, but he lies to himself and tells himself that there is a chance. He lays in bed thinking about his life and what it all means, to those whove loved someone who doesnt love you, you should know exactly what thats like. I actually am goin through that now. This songs meaning reminds me alot of "Pain" by Jimmy Eat World

alright just seen the video. sometimes videos just dnt have anything to do with the song but in this case i think the video is all about the lyrics. for those who havent seen it you should download it, the money goes to an environmental charity. this song is telling us to become aware and stop denying global warming!

I thought it was about growing up.. The shedding of old beliefs, the pursuit for the truth. And how that hurts. So the author tries to go back to his "beautiful lie", "I've got to remember this is just a game", it's him trying to go back to that point. I can quite relate to it like this.

Have you seen the music video for this? Its awesome! it takes place someways away from the Artic Circle. (i dont rememer the exact # of miles) but in the end of the vid, they made a notice to the ice in the Artic that is slowly disappearing, saying to act now.