There are more layers to his beautiful song, but bottom-line; we're all in it together against the borg that would crush and kill us.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
Like my post of Wake Up Everbody there's 30+ views and no comments...
Plenty of smart folks here, but no music commenters.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
You see, it's a song with three interlocking warnings for Lyle's fellow Americans across our common "continent" who are dissatisfied with the status quo. It's politically agnostic. It ends with a salute to each.
If you're disillusioned and say nothing, your cause will have no impact but you will be safer.
If you think your vote doesn't count and seek revolution, your cause will be usurped and you will lose everything.
If you've deserted your cause, you'll find no reward, your "rose" of passion and any progress you had made to achieve it will disappear.
If you find yourself in one of these categories, a part of the singer will be with you, because he's chosen his path too. Possibly the singer has experienced a little of each.
I'm cynical about song writing, and I sometimes think that songwriters are simply trying to rhyme verses with little concern for real meaning.
And, listeners will read their own interpretations into words with a nice melody, just as they might imagine what whales are saying as they "talk to each other" in the ocean.
Some songwriters crank the stuff out like link sausage, and having exhausted their inspiration years before they're inclined to compile "ambiguous gibberish".
"If I die in the combat zone...box me up and ship me home...pin my medals upon my chest...tell my mom I dun my best."_FULL METAL JACKET
And, listeners will read their own interpretations into words with a nice melody, just as they might imagine what whales are saying as they "talk to each other" in the ocean.
true
To question is to value the ideal of truth more highly than the loyalties to nation, religion, race, or ideology.