System of a Down: Sad Statue Meaning
Sad Statue Lyrics
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute.
Forgivness is
The ultimate sacrifice.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
The pictures of time and space are rearranged,
In this little piece of...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I agree totally with the guy with the long interpretation, but I think one of the most important themes of this song is the propoganda. "Eloquence,(The quality of persuasive, powerful expression) belongs to the conqueror." This means that the person in control is persuasive and can control what people think. "The pictures of time and space rearranged", this is showing that the government can change what was seen and heard with their propoganda. "Justified Candy, Brandy for the nerves" represents the propoganda itself. "What is it in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering", Why do we beleive everything the media and government tell us especially when it means we turn our backs on people in desperate need of help. For example the Rawandan genocide. The sad statue of liberty is saying that the last pure thing that represents the U.S. realizes what is going on and makes it sad to see it's great country doing this. "You and me, we'll all go down in history with a sad Statue of Liberty and a generation that didn't agree", means our generation will be remebered in the text books as the dumb asses who were gulable enough to still beleive the bullshit after all of the other times propoganda was swallowed up and beleived so easily.
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2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Here are the words:
Conquest to the lover,
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute.
Forgiveness is
The ultimate sacrifice.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
The pictures of time and space are rearranged,
In this little piece of typical tragedy.
Justified Candy!
Brandy for the nerves,
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
I forgot to
I forgot to let you know that...
Justified Candy!
Brandy for the nerves,
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
Conquest to the lover,
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute.
Forgiveness is
The ultimate sacrifice.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
Generation..............
What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?!!!
WOAH!!!!!!!
Suffering, suffering now!
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
Generation..........
I think the song is about current warfare. The "Generation" is the younger generation that is opposed to this war. The chorus is about how our time will be looked upon sadly as a time of warfare, death, and the demise of liberty (the sad statue of liberty.)
"What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?!!!" is about us ignoring atrocities going on.
"Forgiveness is
The ultimate sacrifice.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror."
About how the victor or stronger power, the United States, has all the power to bring peace.
"Conquest to the lover,
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute."
About nationalism and love of country. Conquest for those that love their country. Other people's love (for the country or their families) doesn't matter.
"The pictures of time and space are rearranged,
In this little piece of typical tragedy." It is about how this current war has the typical lying propaganda. -
I believe this song mostly focuses on propaganda, but then for the chorus it is told from a protesters point of view or someone who goes against the modern day government.
"you and me, we'll all go down in history, with a sad statue of liberty"
As new laws coming into place, they slowly take away our freedom, those who want the free American way are put down by most people consumed by propaganda, thus
"and a Generation that didn't agree"
Because as a new generation comes in they adjust to the new ways.
"I forgot to let, I forgot to let you know that, Justified candy"
I take line as more propaganda coming in.
All together the song is about propaganda and how we believe it and go on with our lives -
im pretty spot on with what the first 2 guys said... but i think "elequence belongs to the conquerer" means that it doesnt matter whos right or whos wrong in the war... the winner is gonna be justified in history
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Ok so this song is about the state of the world during war times
Conquest to the lover - War for the ones who love it
And your love to the fire - and what does the government do with that ‘love’? throws it to the fire! because it doesn’t matter they have you in there grips now, you work for them
Permanence unfolding in the absolute - the realization that you’re stuck in the situation that is not going to be over anytime soon
Forgiveness is the ultimate sacrifice - can you forgive the government for betraying you or putting you in a position to die?
Eloquence belongs, to the conqueror – the conqueror/leader has to be smooth to get your forgiveness.
The pictures of time and space are rearranged…In this little piece of typical tragedy – I think this eludes to the government treating or trying to wipe the memory (pictures) of the soldier (lover), especially when kept in context with the lines that follow in the song… ‘Rearranging time and space’ in your memory; but this is just a ‘little piece of typical tragedy’.
Justified candy, Brandy for the nerves: the ‘candy’ or memory wiping treatment or drug is justified and is actually calming… like brandy for your nerves
Eloquence belongs, to the conqueror – conqueror has to be smooth enough to make the treatment seem normal
You and me will all go down in history, With a sad Statue of Liberty, And a Generation that didn't agree. Our generation is doomed to be remembered as the ones who didn’t get along with each other. The disagreement is so obvious that even the Statue of Liberty is sad; the statue is meant to represent the unification of the Americans but it cant hide anymore and – metaphorically - projects this image of unsettled disagreement to the rest of the world.
What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?!!! – pretty straight forward here..
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The only part i want to interpret is the chorus. I believe it is talking about the 9/11 attacks. "You and me will all go down in history" is spoken in the perspective of the soldiers going into war after the twin towers attack, "with a sad statue of liberty" simply states that America is sad that it has come to this, and "with a generation that didn't agree" is talking about the citizens that were against war. I'm only 16 so excuse my lack of knowledge, but wherever the terrorists came from, Al qeuda or whatever, there were people over there who did not want the twin towers to be attacked. So to go to war with them was irrational. (According to System of a Down)
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I think that it's a song who's meaning is whatever you(the listener) wants it to be. There are no right or wrong answers in interpretation of music. The artist(s) may have had a specific inspiration upon composing their music...but what it all boils down to is you and what the lyrics mean to you.
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my interpretation of this song is that for 1000's of years there has never been so many people waking up to this massive conspiracy that has been suppressing mankind since before the birth of christ. this may not be the official meaning of the song but it is what i got from it
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think this song could also relate to Tiananmen Square 1989.
The protests for democracy in Tiananmen Square in China began with large gathering of students. They disagreed with their communist govt. and built a smaller and slightly different version of the statue of liberty. However, the protests were stopped. Many people were killed by soldiers and tanks. And the statue was destroyed. Hence the lyrics:
"You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree."
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This next lyric refers to how the rest of the world did nothing about the violence used against the peaceful protesters by the Chinese govt.
"What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?!"
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"Conquest to the lover,
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute."
This refers to how the lovers, or protesters, were conquered, or stopped. And how their love for democracy was thrown to the fire and destroyed.
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"The pictures of time and space are rearranged,
In this little piece of typical tragedy."
This refers to how the entire ordeal was videotaped and various clips were shown on TV and in the News.
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"Justified Candy!
Brandy for the nerves,
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror."
This last bit was tough. But I believe it refers to how some of the soldiers enjoyed hurting and shooting protesters and later said that their actions were justified. The eloquence, or persuasive language/justification, belongs to the one who conquers, in this case the Chinese Government. They denied the attack on the protesters as unjustified and said it was necessary.
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This is my interpretation. Feel free to provide comments, criticisms, or concerns. -
This song is obviously very political, not about children being raped (what the hell made come to that conclusion?). The song is about how divided America is when it comes to the topic of war "Generation that didn't agree,". And "Eloquence belongs to the conquerer," is talking negatively about America's attitude towards war. Again nothing about children getting raped.
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I think songs (especially by groups like System of a Down) have multiple meanings. But I think one meaning you can get from this is that it is referring to the sad cycle where a country namely the U.S. Is founded on good principles and ideals but these ideas are not passed down to the next generation effectively. Hence in a few generations the country no longer even resembles the way it was originally and the older generation and the statue of liberty that has stood for American ideas will watch with sadness as the country turns on it's head and forgets everything it once stood for and becomes like the French revolution or the people hand over their rights to the government and it turns into a tyrannical all powerful government.
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I think it means that in the history books of tomorrow they will tell how no one in this generation agreed and went to war and the media tries to justify the wars "justified candy brandy for the nerves" and all the good stuff should come to the one who kills all the other countries "eloquence belongs to the conqueror"
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First off, allow to say to those of you not used to my posts, this is gonna be very long, just a heads up.
This song says what it says in very round about ways.
Allow me to analyze each line for the allusions and inferences they make before attempting to understand what the entire line is saying.
Conquest to the lover,
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute.
Conquest (victory over another) [goes] to the lover (of conquest? Of victory?)
And your love [of the] fire (destruction)
Permanence (of events) unfolding in the absolute(ness of reality).
Paraphrased:
Victory will go to those who wish to take it – those who wish dominance, and the permanence of their actions is absolute (we cannot rewrite history).
What I believe he is saying is that people can conquer others if they so desire such dominance, and that conquest of other people (once it has happened) is permanent not in that the people will always be conquered, but they always will have been conquered. The point of saying that people will conquer others is that he says these people still make a choice to conquer others, regardless if they say it is a means to an end, or the ends, the physical reality of someone conquering and someone being conquered still exists.
Forgiveness is
The ultimate sacrifice.
The previous three lines were much vaguer. This line says exactly what it means. To forgive is a sacrifice you make. This seems slightly out of place in the rest of the song, so allow me to return later as more of the purpose of the song is unfolded.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
This seems very much like the saying “to the victor goes the history.” Remember the War between the US and Mexico? The US conquered Texas, New Mexico, and California, and took them from Mexico. Yet, it is very rarely mentioned anywhere but an in-depth US history class (here in the US anyway). In fact, when it is mentioned, mostly it is told as a story of the citizens of Texas (and California and New Mex. Etc) wanting horribly to be freed from Mexico. The fact of the matter is that the only residents of Texas who wanted to join the US were US citizens who had migrated to Texas (some with the sole purpose of establishing a population in Texas which wanted to join the US). Yet, we won the war, and we write the text books. There are many, many examples from history where a war is remembered not as it happened, but as the victors of the war told the story (see WWI). Also, imagine the text books the Nazis would have written about the holocaust if they had won the war.
The pictures of time and space are rearranged,
In this little piece of typical tragedy.
The [picture] of “time and space” (history) are (is) rearranged,
In this little piece of typical tragedy.
This seems to further this point. “the picture of time and space are rearranged. Not that anything between time and space is intermixed, but history and the events therein are “rearranged.” This little piece of typical tragedy – humans have suffered throughout history, thus the word “typical” seems to fit well after the word tragedy. He still seems to be referring to any war (any typical tragedy) or any conflict amongst humans. It doesn’t seem to refer to any particular war or conflict, but the statement seems to attempt to more generally describe any conflict or war (any typical tragedy).
To summarize: History is rewritten in any typical event of human suffering, due namely to the fact that the victors of such a suffering rewrite the history of it.
Justified Candy!
Brandy for the nerves,
Justified [things which bring me happiness]!
Brandy [to numb] the nerves (the mind).
Realigned:
Justified:
Candy
Brandy for the nerves
These two lines say pretty much the same thing. We justify things that make us happy or numb our minds. Which is interesting, because it could be argued that things that make us happy do just that – numb our minds. When we are blissful, we are ignorant of our current reality (hence the phrase, “ignorant bliss” – notably NOT worded “blissfully ignorant”). It would be safe to say the two are added just for emphasis, and say pretty much the same thing.
However, what does this have to do with the rest of the song? Lets reconsider now what all has been said. The actions of people who conquer others remain permanent through history; to forgive is the ultimate sacrifice; history is rewritten favorably to by the conquerors; and we justify that which numbs our mind. Ah ha! It would be fair to say that from the perspective of the conquerors, remembering history differently (where you were the nice guy, not that bad guy) helps to deal with any guilt of the actions of conquering someone. However, it also may be fair to say that if you watched someone be conquered and did nothing, it may help absolve you of any guilt as well to remember the events of history as the conquers being somehow “justified” in their actions of conquest.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
Well shit, this line has a ton to do with the previous one, it makes very much sense now right next to the one before it.
Now we delve further down the rabbit hole:
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
The generation that didn’t agree means more than just one thing. It seems to refer to the almost schizophrenic character of the American public at the moment (two minds – one body), but also the larger fissure between humanity – at this moment of the greatest contact between humans ever, it is also the moment where our differences are in our faces the most. Its one thing for someone to worship a different god when the are a 2 months boat ride away from me, but it is an entirely different thing when they are two clicks of a mouse away.
To the entire stanza now:
The first time I listened to this, it sounded like most other interpretations have claimed. We will go down in the text books with the statue of liberty frowning upon us due to the differences of our generation.
As a started to listen to this song more and more however, a new meaning that fit much better with the rest of the meaning began to materialize.
Two separate, but meaningful interpretations arise:
1)
Let us remove from our minds the meaning of go down in history for a moment.
What if this served more as a warning – we will go down. Due to our sad statue of liberty and the disagreement of our generation. (History serves more as a poetic tool to rhyme with agree).
2)
I like this meaning better, as it seems to make more sense with the words SOAD has given us to make sense of.
The meaning of the first line remains constant with what the common conception is – that we will go down in the history books. The sad statue of liberty (the title line of this song) might have a much more profound meaning. In this line, I believe, the rational and reasoning for the rest of the song lies.
First lets consider the statue of liberty. What is it? What is it supposed to be? It is THE symbol of American freedom. Liberty (which means freedom) has been the corner stone of America (I have not experienced this for myself, but at least in the words of my predecessors) for the past 200 years. Now, however, we are losing those liberties. The government is the strongest in comparison with its subjects than it arguably ever has been. Many Americans are complaining that the government has taken away more and more rights of American citizens and some feel it may be nearing a critical point – a point where once certain rights are removed, the government would retain freewill, to do and say as they please in regards to its citizens, and not be fearful of any legal repercussions (this is what most proponents of democracy say is the problem with dictatorships). (If you would like to read more about this, I have an essay on the web about this. Please check it out at http://www.without-sight.pixelfaction.com/MCA/. If you disagree with this point, please at least read that essay before commenting on this point.)
This is why the statue of liberty is sad.
This is BECAUSE our generation cannot agree. We spend all our time arguing with each other, and have mostly ignored the fact that our government is doing this. The other point is that we have justified this governmental removal of citizens’ rights because we need to protect ourselves from foreign threats (another disagreement of our generation).
So we repeat the song again
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
I forgot to
I forgot to let you know that...
Justified Candy!
Brandy for the nerves,
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
Conquest to the lover,
And your love to the fire,
Permanence unfolding in the absolute.
Forgivness is
The ultimate sacrifice.
Eloquence belongs,
To the conqueror.
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
Generation..............
Finally a new lyric:
What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?!!!
This doesn’t need analyzied. It needs said again, and again, and again, until someone can answer this with a valid reason.
To analyize this in context of the song though, The actions of people who conquer others remain permanent through history; to forgive is the ultimate sacrifice; history is rewritten favorably to by the conquerors; and we justify that which numbs our mind to these travesties; we as humans are sinking fast due to the removal of human rights; and now why do we ignore the suffering of humans? That seems to paint an adequate picture of what SOAD seems to be trying to say. The context of human suffering does not need to be the people of Darfur or the bystanders in Iraq, but HUMAN suffering – all of us are suffering (obviously some much more than others).
Allow me to allow someone more eloquent than me to explain what I mean by this:
“No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.
-- John Donne”
WOAH!!!!!!!
Suffering, suffering now!
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
You and me will all go down in history,
With a sad Statue of Liberty,
And a Generation that didn't agree.
Generation..........
remember - it tolls for thee -
I think a part of this song-if not all of it-can be interpreted as a first person account of a homosexual in american society surrounded by 'justified candy' reffering to the Republican Anti-Homosexual faggot genocide extremism that discriminate against the gay minority. The song seems to have the perspective of two (or more) lovers who seem to be very self-righteous, being sort of martyrs of the modern day against the rampant pursecution of their ideas and peaceful livelihoods. The chorus and most of the verses seem to follow this trend.
Altogether this has to be one of my favorite tracks from the album-I don't know how the hell it wound up a B-Side. -
I beleive it talks about all tragic events in america and even all the way to racism and how american doesn't agree.
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Its about our generation rising up and not listening to the government and actually realizing what the government is up to
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