The Butcher Lyrics

Lyric discussion by fatalxp 

Cover art for The Butcher lyrics by Radiohead

First of all, I believe "warrior" is the correct word for these lyrics.

If you go and YouTube "Sir Ken Robinson - Do School's Kill Creativity." This song will make a lot more sense. First a few quotes:

"All children are born artists, the problem is to remain artists as we grow older"

  • Picasso

"Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will grow up believing it is stupid." - Albert Einstein

"Children are born true scientists. They spontaneously experiment and experience and reexperience again. They select, combine, and test, seeking to find order in their experiences - “which is the mostest? which is the leastest?” They smell, taste, bite, and touch-test for hardness, softness, springiness, roughness, smoothness, coldness, warmness: they heft, shake, punch, squeeze, push, crush, rub, and try to pull things apart."

  • R. Buckminster Fuller, American engineer, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International (1895-1983)

Today's global society values profit over beauty, obedience over thinking.

Think about how beautiful the innocence of youth is. We see someone getting hurt and don't hesitate to call it wrong. This song's message is in the same vain as MGMT's "Kids" but more sinister.

Thom Yorke pointing out how we take these things for granted, tell people to "grow up," throw beauty away so that "the man who has everything," 1% of the super rich, can turn us into warriors. Society teaches "don't get raped" rather than "don't rape." Society teaches not to talk to strangers, don't trust others, etc. We're taught not to be musicians and dancers and philosophers because being a lawyer, banker or CEO will make you more money. It's no wonder the teen suicide rate is higher than it ever has been in decades. You'd think they wouldn't have done it if their friends took better care of them. What are "friends" nowadays anyway? Facebook numbers, it seems.

All through our lives and as we grow older, our individuality, creativity and what makes us beautiful as humans gets "chopped up" until we can look at violence and not care. We can see suffering and not give a shit. Eventually we're just slabs of meat going through the motions, alive but not living. 9 hours in a cubical. 9 hours at a cash register. Heart's still pumping.

If you're listening to a high quality version of this track, listen closely at 2:24. These are samples of human baby sounds.

I used to never understand how anyone could grow up to end up breaking the necks of cows, slitting the necks of pigs, etc. The whole religious argument of "man is born evil" has been increasingly proven wrong. It's ignorant if you think this is normal.

Stay beautiful, people.

Song Meaning

It was never written in the bible that man was born evil. It says clearly in the scriptures that children are saved as they have no sin. So how is it that they are born evil?

I do not mean to offend any Christians, but if you think logically, if you believe in God, God is a kind, merciful pure being, so how could we be born evil, when we are created in his image?

My apologies, ilovejazz777. "Man is born with sin" is more accurate I believe. I should not be making generalizations towards all religious people as I only have basic experience with scripture. Nevertheless, this has been misinterpreted many times to support the myth that people are inherently selfish, wicked and cruel as if it were part of our DNA. I ardently believe that a loving society creates loving people. A monstrous society creates butchers. I believe this because I have traveled around the world to witness it myself.

The conviction that we are all rotten on the inside has...