Alright, I took a crack at this one. I love this song.
I think the song is trying to say that we all keep our heads down ("you kept yourself hidden well…the world asked you for nothing else") and often choose to be "moral as a leaf" ("Innocent or innocent enough to say I did what I did, I did what I did only") when really no one is innocent of the deeds of their society because "accident or intention, it's already history", in other words it doesn't matter if you want your country to go to war with whoever, you are part of the cause.
Life is easy when you just go along doing what you are supposed to ("when the high custodians mop it"), but all that you get from it is the right to "fall and to decease". We think that everyone acting in their proper place will lead "the vandals" to give in too defeat, and "the mute [to] march into victory", but ultimately we can't keep their force at bay, as the romans did not.
To render unto Caesar is to serve the society that nurtures you. The song points out how common people feed the institutions that govern them and how that indirectly implicates them in the institutional crimes, and how simply walk "down the line" and render unto caesar (aka doing what you are assigned to) will lead to the downfall of our society, as it claims the romans did.
Alright, I took a crack at this one. I love this song.
I think the song is trying to say that we all keep our heads down ("you kept yourself hidden well…the world asked you for nothing else") and often choose to be "moral as a leaf" ("Innocent or innocent enough to say I did what I did, I did what I did only") when really no one is innocent of the deeds of their society because "accident or intention, it's already history", in other words it doesn't matter if you want your country to go to war with whoever, you are part of the cause.
Life is easy when you just go along doing what you are supposed to ("when the high custodians mop it"), but all that you get from it is the right to "fall and to decease". We think that everyone acting in their proper place will lead "the vandals" to give in too defeat, and "the mute [to] march into victory", but ultimately we can't keep their force at bay, as the romans did not.
To render unto Caesar is to serve the society that nurtures you. The song points out how common people feed the institutions that govern them and how that indirectly implicates them in the institutional crimes, and how simply walk "down the line" and render unto caesar (aka doing what you are assigned to) will lead to the downfall of our society, as it claims the romans did.