Them and Us

wexenhex, that's because it's spelled consternation, and it means "a sudden, alarming amazement or dread that results in utter confusion; dismay"

But yeah, this songs about two groups that are at ends even though they're basically the same, whether it be about the Crips and Bloods, two warring nations, or hell, two groups of friends in high school. These groups, although at their core are the same, feel the need to battle just for sake of conflict.

Not really about racism, but it's a good suggestion. I'd say this song is about all forms of hate and bigotry. The "Them and Us" mentality. Even Bad Religion fans replicate this behavior by declaring their disgust for religious people. Them and us; Atheists and Christians; Christians and Non-Christians; Caucasians and Minorities; Liberal and Conservative; White Collar and Blue Collar; Common Man and the Tyrannical Government. We don't TRULY know the people we hate because we don't want to. We hate them and they don't even know. And we put ourselves in this group mentality because we know other people share our convictions even though we haven't really met many of them. We feel the need to belong to something and that need causes us to hate the people we feel don't belong.

My favorite part is how he describes hate. After reading I don't feel like I can really hate anyone because it makes so much sense.

Hate is a simple manifestation Of the deep-seated self-directed frustration All it does is promote fear and consternation It's the inability To justify the enemy And it fills us all with trepidation

It's created by the frustrations we feel because of our own inadequacy. It makes us fearful and stresses us out because it's all so sudden and overwhelming. And you cannot justify it no matter how hard you try, which creates even more hate and frustration because you really have nothing to be mad at. This keeps filling us all up with even more fear so it becomes an endless cycle.

This song is about groups and their need to make -up superficial differences to get us against each other. I think the group in question is the government making up reasons to fight someone when their is really no difference between us and said group.

This is a great song. it rulez and its great live..

Mr Graffin has an impressive vocabulary. I'm pretty sure this song is saying there will always be opposition and people may never agree but you should stand up for what you belive is right.

Forgive me if my interpretation is incorrect, but, based on his desription of the main character of the song ("he"), I believe that this song is about, not only the human need for opposition, but also Martin Luther and the exodus he led from the catholic church. "he saw blatent similarity", "incongruous insitence that there really is a difference between them and us", "inability to justify the enemy". All of these seem to be alluding to the catholic vs. protestant battle. I certainly could be wrong, but thats what I take from this song.

My personal favorite Bad Religion song, it is steeped in anti-racism. "he struggled to find a distinctive moiety all he found was vulgar superficiality but he focused it to sharpness and shared it with the others it signified his anger and misery"

Here they're criticizing the racists as those who focus on tiny differences even though almost everything else is exactly the same. The next stanza elaborates on how they try to emphasize whatever differences they find or make up. "tumult for the ignorant and purpose for the violence"-this refers to how many use these inconsequential reasons for their horrid racism. The best part is the end though, where he just makes fun of how ignorant people are always trying to draw lines in the sand, that it has to be between "them and us."

"and there wasn't any reason or motive or value to his story just allegory imitation glory" Just the sheer pointlessness of their tactics, with no end in sight nor one wished for by the culprits.

I don't believe that this song is saying that there will always be opposition, if anything, that you should try and avoid creating opposition as the people whom he is attacking do, and work towards uniting rather than dividing into camps. I also don't think the Martin Luther thing is right either, Martin Luther did not struggle to find something wrong with the church and then try and hype it up into something huge; on the contrary, Luther struggled to not rebel from the church, he just wanted to reform some of their practices from within. Martin Luther also had reasons(priests selling indulgences? Why would God care about monetary goods?) and values backing his beliefs, which would go against the point of the song. I just don't think that really relates at all.

i looked up constrenation on dictionary.com and it said there is no such word

all above portray it well

but pretty much I think this song is telling a black and white story of the struggles of one non existent spontaneous person who greg just thought up

I'd say the song is about an extreme ideology based on little evidence, i.e a certain group of people with certain beliefs thinking that only their way of thinking is acceptable. The song is from the album 'The Gray Race', as far as I know, so I'd probably say in this instance these beliefs are to do with race.