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.
there are animals in cages with no room to turn around
being sent off to the slaughter and sold off by the pound
and there are people locked in prisons
where the outcome's much the same
they get death for their convictions
they get numbers for a name
there are women kept in houses
full of mirrors and TV
forced to fear their drunken fathers
and throw up the things they eat
and the same men who grab them
while they're walking down the street
rip their profits and their pleasure
from the earth beneath our feet
have you ever seen the eyes
of a soul that's occupied?
have you ever had to face
a creature living in a cage?
have you tasted their flesh
or drank their fear?
have you ever seen their eyes?
there are fences high in belfast
where the working class divides
the priests play with politicians
while the poor folks fight and die
and the lower twenty-six you know
are also occupied
by sexism and heroin and neoliberal lies
there are children born at checkpoints
who throw stones against the tanks
they play games amongst the rubble
till the glass in their eyes breaks
and with this concrete wall between them
there's no human face at all
another bus is blown to pieces
as the martyr heeds the call
have you ever seen the eyes
of a soul that's occupied?
do you know what has to die
just to make the things we buy?
do you reap the products of their lives?
have you ever seen their eyes?
can't you see it's all the same?
making profit out of pain
rape and torture are the norm
in prison and factory farms
occupation genocide
out of sight and out of mind
would you still live this life of lies
if you had to look them in the eyes?
have you ever seen their eyes?
being sent off to the slaughter and sold off by the pound
and there are people locked in prisons
where the outcome's much the same
they get death for their convictions
they get numbers for a name
there are women kept in houses
full of mirrors and TV
forced to fear their drunken fathers
and throw up the things they eat
and the same men who grab them
while they're walking down the street
rip their profits and their pleasure
from the earth beneath our feet
have you ever seen the eyes
of a soul that's occupied?
have you ever had to face
a creature living in a cage?
have you tasted their flesh
or drank their fear?
have you ever seen their eyes?
there are fences high in belfast
where the working class divides
the priests play with politicians
while the poor folks fight and die
and the lower twenty-six you know
are also occupied
by sexism and heroin and neoliberal lies
there are children born at checkpoints
who throw stones against the tanks
they play games amongst the rubble
till the glass in their eyes breaks
and with this concrete wall between them
there's no human face at all
another bus is blown to pieces
as the martyr heeds the call
have you ever seen the eyes
of a soul that's occupied?
do you know what has to die
just to make the things we buy?
do you reap the products of their lives?
have you ever seen their eyes?
can't you see it's all the same?
making profit out of pain
rape and torture are the norm
in prison and factory farms
occupation genocide
out of sight and out of mind
would you still live this life of lies
if you had to look them in the eyes?
have you ever seen their eyes?
Lyrics submitted by DakotaFloyd
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