In my opinion, this song is contrasting his childhood with his adulthood. He frequently repeats the phrase "All my life I was blind, I was blind, now I see". This shows his new found view on the once seemingly perfect reality of the world.
The biggest contrast off the bat is the beauty queens: as a child you look up to beauty queens and see them almost like you would a Disney princess, yet now in adulthood he realizes they've been drunk and partying all night before.
There's a huge aspect on government and politics also, begging with him talking about the armored cars which he thought were designed to keep him safe, when in reality they were most likely designed to keep the people in the parade safe (the Candidate). He then goes on to talk about the soldiers whom kids look up to as heroes, yet denotes them as "violent men who dance the blood ballet".
All that is fine and good, but the most striking line to me is "Marching bands and barricades". This line in itself compares the fun-loving nature of parades (marching bands) with the reality of the world (barricades). The truth is there are people out there who plot on causing mass destruction at even parades, so barricades are in place to stop chaos. Going back to my last point, armored cars as used in parades for protection of people.
The singer realizes the fun, free, and safe childhood he had was all an illusion and going back to a parade in his adulthood shows him that EVEN PARADES, designed for the entertainment and relaxation of families, are threatened by cruel people in the world.
In my opinion, this song is contrasting his childhood with his adulthood. He frequently repeats the phrase "All my life I was blind, I was blind, now I see". This shows his new found view on the once seemingly perfect reality of the world.
The biggest contrast off the bat is the beauty queens: as a child you look up to beauty queens and see them almost like you would a Disney princess, yet now in adulthood he realizes they've been drunk and partying all night before.
There's a huge aspect on government and politics also, begging with him talking about the armored cars which he thought were designed to keep him safe, when in reality they were most likely designed to keep the people in the parade safe (the Candidate). He then goes on to talk about the soldiers whom kids look up to as heroes, yet denotes them as "violent men who dance the blood ballet".
All that is fine and good, but the most striking line to me is "Marching bands and barricades". This line in itself compares the fun-loving nature of parades (marching bands) with the reality of the world (barricades). The truth is there are people out there who plot on causing mass destruction at even parades, so barricades are in place to stop chaos. Going back to my last point, armored cars as used in parades for protection of people.
The singer realizes the fun, free, and safe childhood he had was all an illusion and going back to a parade in his adulthood shows him that EVEN PARADES, designed for the entertainment and relaxation of families, are threatened by cruel people in the world.