So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
Child-soldier children
From the soldier rebellion,
These children rebel again.
Waiting for airships that never arrive,
With crosses on suitcases, novelty knives,
They aimlessly wander the beach all that day.
Eventually most of them shuffled away.
A matchbox bears my picture.
It details the reward for my capture.
“Not one person here has helped me.”
Reads the caption under my picture, see?
The young they are, the more fearless!
But they were betrayed by merchants who had offered them seven ships.
“We were maimed, tortured and kidnapped.
They cut off our ears, limbs and lips.”
Oh my dears, when they hear the news
That’s been written in tears,
They will know there’s no way to excuse
The lies that were used to force them to fight.
Then into their rag tag clothing
An officer sews.
He says, “This will make for victorious battles.
It is a magical stone.”
Emmanuele looks down at the ground
As he fumbles with the tassels on his boots.
He can still hear the sound
Of many rebel groups
Or the government militia.
Who he’d been fighting for,
No, no, he had no idea…
Child-soldier children
From the soldier rebellion,
These children rebel again.
Child-soldier children
From the soldier rebellion,
These children rebel again.
From the soldier rebellion,
These children rebel again.
Waiting for airships that never arrive,
With crosses on suitcases, novelty knives,
They aimlessly wander the beach all that day.
Eventually most of them shuffled away.
A matchbox bears my picture.
It details the reward for my capture.
“Not one person here has helped me.”
Reads the caption under my picture, see?
The young they are, the more fearless!
But they were betrayed by merchants who had offered them seven ships.
“We were maimed, tortured and kidnapped.
They cut off our ears, limbs and lips.”
Oh my dears, when they hear the news
That’s been written in tears,
They will know there’s no way to excuse
The lies that were used to force them to fight.
Then into their rag tag clothing
An officer sews.
He says, “This will make for victorious battles.
It is a magical stone.”
Emmanuele looks down at the ground
As he fumbles with the tassels on his boots.
He can still hear the sound
Of many rebel groups
Or the government militia.
Who he’d been fighting for,
No, no, he had no idea…
Child-soldier children
From the soldier rebellion,
These children rebel again.
Child-soldier children
From the soldier rebellion,
These children rebel again.
Lyrics submitted by boneyardsorceress
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It may partially have to do with child-soldier rebellion, but the part where she sings, "Then into their rag tag clothing An officer sews. He says, “This will make for victorious battles. It is a magical stone.” I think may also have something to do with the continuing problem in africa regarding the diamond minds and the torture that the miners are put through.