I was listening to this today and I came to the Animal Farm conclusion, as others have, but I see the song as using Animal Farm as a frame of reference from which to discuss the patterns of war politics. The many references to animals (pigs, caterpillars, horses) are the style in which the scene is set.
The pig represents corruption and power, obviously.
The caterpillar represents the media (not necessarily all media, but a lot of it) and politicians, the people whose job it is to misinform the people. Think of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland who sits high on his throne smoking his pipe and speaks only in gibberish when Alice desperately needs his advice in order to escape her situation. The media and politicians who speak on television are more "entertainers" than they are servants of the people, yet they still get paid. "Send your money for the caterpillars to entertain [you]."
I agree with factnotfiction's ideas on "please speak up" and "system's down" pretty much entirely. I hadn't even thought to interpret those lines.
Finally, I came to an idea regarding the horse. Imagine comparing the prospect of going to war to betting on a horse race. Everyone's hopes are riding on the government, everyone's money is riding on their judgement being wise. So, when a country goes to war, that war is like a horse the country is betting on to win a race. Imagine now that the horse realizes all the power that it wields with so many people depending on it. It becomes "taken" with the power and with being the center of attention. Rather than run the race it was meant to run, it pursues its own devices and "runs clubs in the pasture." The horse is taking advantage of its power, running its own horseraces and casinos. War behaves in the same way -- it never behaves the way it is told to. War quickly becomes greedy and, rather than fulfill the purpose it is set to, grows wealthy from the money it steals from all the people who desperately depend on its doing the job quickly.
I didn't explain that well, but what I mean to say is it's a way of saying that war gets out of hand, and the people who create it quickly cease to be its master.
I'm not saying this song was written with this meaning in mind, it's just one way to look at it.
I was listening to this today and I came to the Animal Farm conclusion, as others have, but I see the song as using Animal Farm as a frame of reference from which to discuss the patterns of war politics. The many references to animals (pigs, caterpillars, horses) are the style in which the scene is set.
The pig represents corruption and power, obviously.
The caterpillar represents the media (not necessarily all media, but a lot of it) and politicians, the people whose job it is to misinform the people. Think of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland who sits high on his throne smoking his pipe and speaks only in gibberish when Alice desperately needs his advice in order to escape her situation. The media and politicians who speak on television are more "entertainers" than they are servants of the people, yet they still get paid. "Send your money for the caterpillars to entertain [you]."
I agree with factnotfiction's ideas on "please speak up" and "system's down" pretty much entirely. I hadn't even thought to interpret those lines.
Finally, I came to an idea regarding the horse. Imagine comparing the prospect of going to war to betting on a horse race. Everyone's hopes are riding on the government, everyone's money is riding on their judgement being wise. So, when a country goes to war, that war is like a horse the country is betting on to win a race. Imagine now that the horse realizes all the power that it wields with so many people depending on it. It becomes "taken" with the power and with being the center of attention. Rather than run the race it was meant to run, it pursues its own devices and "runs clubs in the pasture." The horse is taking advantage of its power, running its own horseraces and casinos. War behaves in the same way -- it never behaves the way it is told to. War quickly becomes greedy and, rather than fulfill the purpose it is set to, grows wealthy from the money it steals from all the people who desperately depend on its doing the job quickly.
I didn't explain that well, but what I mean to say is it's a way of saying that war gets out of hand, and the people who create it quickly cease to be its master.
I'm not saying this song was written with this meaning in mind, it's just one way to look at it.