In simple terms, barbarians are warmongers. This song lyrically seems to take the term & levy it towards the government of US with clues like “toys of war” for instance, a country like the US would most comply with such a metaphor. Also there are other clues dropped as well throughout but simply put, this is an anti-war song. However, it features some major differences from others which conventionally fall into this classification. For instance, we can say that some of the lyrics rely on Biblical-levels of symbolism.And secondly, even though the narrator isn’t a soldier, he is putting himself into the mix. He is not one of those types who is dissing the powers that be, the warmongers of the world, as some type of an outsider. This isn’t an us-versus-them type of scenario. Rather he appears to be the type of person who is cognizant of what is actually happening.
In simple terms, barbarians are warmongers. This song lyrically seems to take the term & levy it towards the government of US with clues like “toys of war” for instance, a country like the US would most comply with such a metaphor. Also there are other clues dropped as well throughout but simply put, this is an anti-war song. However, it features some major differences from others which conventionally fall into this classification. For instance, we can say that some of the lyrics rely on Biblical-levels of symbolism.And secondly, even though the narrator isn’t a soldier, he is putting himself into the mix. He is not one of those types who is dissing the powers that be, the warmongers of the world, as some type of an outsider. This isn’t an us-versus-them type of scenario. Rather he appears to be the type of person who is cognizant of what is actually happening.