Yeah it's true that REM is very political but I don't think everything they write is Bush-bashing, as fashionable as that was a few years ago. I think this song is more personal than political, and I think that it's about suicide. The protagonist of the song is climbing to the top floor of a building and "I threw the window open in challenge and despair". He's thinking about throwing himself out of the window and ending whatever pain he has. As he's ready to accelerate downwards, he thinks about what circumstances have brought him to this point "What put me here?". He knows that there's no easy way out of his troubles "Where is the ripcord, the trapdoor, the key?", and so is forced with the decision of ending his life or climbing back down the stairs and trying to change things the hard way. The ending is a little ambiguous as to whether or not he actually jumps. All of the imagery of high places seems to me to fit a lot better with suicide than with a political song. Just my 2 cents.
Yeah it's true that REM is very political but I don't think everything they write is Bush-bashing, as fashionable as that was a few years ago. I think this song is more personal than political, and I think that it's about suicide. The protagonist of the song is climbing to the top floor of a building and "I threw the window open in challenge and despair". He's thinking about throwing himself out of the window and ending whatever pain he has. As he's ready to accelerate downwards, he thinks about what circumstances have brought him to this point "What put me here?". He knows that there's no easy way out of his troubles "Where is the ripcord, the trapdoor, the key?", and so is forced with the decision of ending his life or climbing back down the stairs and trying to change things the hard way. The ending is a little ambiguous as to whether or not he actually jumps. All of the imagery of high places seems to me to fit a lot better with suicide than with a political song. Just my 2 cents.