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The Grand Delusion Lyrics
If I could only get the tools, the stimuli and
Molecules, frozen moments in time
I could be the archetype, a credit to the
Genotype, re-program your mind
But the storybook sages fill their pages
Hiding from the warming sun
Limitless distractions give no pause to distort a
Precious delusion
Did you see the moralist retort and raise his fist
"You can't make man a machine!"
I can see the edifice crumbling in foggy mist,
Razed by discovery
But the storybook sages fill their pages
Hiding from the warming sun
Limitless distractions give no pause to distort a
Precious delusion
Molecules, frozen moments in time
I could be the archetype, a credit to the
Genotype, re-program your mind
Hiding from the warming sun
Limitless distractions give no pause to distort a
Precious delusion
"You can't make man a machine!"
I can see the edifice crumbling in foggy mist,
Razed by discovery
Hiding from the warming sun
Limitless distractions give no pause to distort a
Precious delusion
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This one has a similar message to "Lost Pilgrim." In that the powers that hold sway upon the masses are distorting reality and facts to fit their own "precious delusion." "Storybook sages" are the people who write and control history, i.e. politicians and religious figures. "Warming sun" I think has a double meaning. One: shedding light on facts (scientific discoveries, etc.) & Two: literally warming sun, global warming, giving the song an example of the manipulation that is occuring. $0.02
I think this song is about the people who cling to the "precious delusion" that humans are special, that we are not, when you get down to it, merely biological machines and their staunch resistance to the light of discovery and truth that would rip it away.
This song is about how politicians are so "dilusionized" by other issues in society that they divert their attention away from what Greg Graffin considers to be the issue of chief importance, global warming and climate change.
I thought it seemed to be about how moralists myopic delusional vindictions stand in the way to hinder science and progression..
But it also appears it could be about global warming
The Grand Delusion is Free Will.
The first verse is arguing for determinism - if he had the tools and knowledge to control circumstances completely, he could mold your mind or mine, just like any other physical system.
The chorus refers to storybook sages - these would be the theologians and religious apologists who know a lot about religious scripture and doctrine, but presumably little else in the real world (they hide from the sun, so to speak).
The second verse is about arguments for Free Will being based purely on an emotional need to make Man "special" and not subject to the deterministic laws of nature. The discoveries that have razed the edifice of the delusion of Free Will are discoveries in neuroscience and related fields.
Correct me if I'm wrong.