New Dark Ages

The Dark Ages is the time where the oppression of the common man reached an all time low. People lived in fear of violent death, tryannical warlords, rampant disease, and starved to death on a regular basis. All the grandeur and advances reached in the Roman Empire, though the average citizen never was that important in the whole scheme of Rome, had fallen. If you weren't a lord, king, knight, or somebody of royalty or wealthy bloodlines, chances were that you wouldn't make it past 40, if you were lucky. And superstition reigned supreme because the mass public was ignorant. Almost nobody but priests and royal officials could read or write. The Church held THE monopoly on God, and many of the priests lived corrupted lives of extravagance and wealth off the money they gained from the public. Basically, for about 900 years or so, the world in general was ignorant, knowing nothing of their ability to advance as a society.

To compare the intellectual sense of a dark age with today is reasonable. Wars are breaking out across the world, and people don't care. The government in America has become and more centralized, taking more control over its citizens (i.e. the Patriot Act), and still nobody speaks out. I think what Graffin really points out that so much of the public is disappointed with the govt. but nobody speaks their opinions, hence "susurrations". Instead, the average American is more concerned about "living right" in society and not questioning the system. We care more about getting our new car than what we could be doing to help better the world. We are led to believe everything is fine in our nation, even though most of us know it isn't, a "pall on truth and reason". We don't question what society tells us to be anymore, and as a result we don't question our leaders. Eventually, all advances in the society will stop and we'll go backwards from what we are currently. In a sense, when society controls our worlds, a "new dark age" will be ushered in as mankind gradually stops advancing and we start destroying each other again, like what happened in The Dark Ages.

Mmm... just going out on a limb here.

The Dark Ages was a time of ignorance and superstition, and was blamable a good deal upon the church, who placed religious leaders and such theories over rational action and experience. When one considers the typical Bad Religion tone on things, it's not hard to see how it could relate to the current times being the New Dark Ages; for current culture is a "pall on truth and reason", is it not?

... anyway, I'm probably completely off on this, but eh, figured I'd go for it.

I like a lot of those edits, man. I appreciate the help. Peace.

It's "living right".

I think

I really thought I heard that 'd'. "living" makes more sense, obviously, but "livid" could be a cool little play with words. I'll have to wait for the insert to be sure, I s'pose.

Here are some edit's for you.

Yeah can you hear the call in our rambling land susurrations, That can expand beyond all hope of light and plunge us into unrelenting night

A pall on truth and reason, It feels like hunting season So avoid those lines of sight and we'll set this right

Welcome to the new dark ages I hope you're living right These are the new dark ages And the world might end tonight

Now come ye children one and all - let's heed Ezekiel's call, And bide until the word is good and ripe and get plucked clean out of sight

The world will be erased our kin will be Immaculate ejaculate in space Before the kind of king's love, he'll snatch us From above, brothers help me sing it

Welcome to the new dark ages I hope you're living right These are the new dark ages And the world might end tonight

So how do you sleep There's nothing to keep This is deep

Because we're animals - with golden rules Who... who can't be moved by rational views

Welcome to the new dark ages I hope you're living right Welcome to the new dark ages And the world might end tonight

I think it's basically about realizing that we might not be able to change the world for the better. All those songs millions of punkers around the world have written, they didn't help. It was all just naive hope. We can't stop people from waging and supporting something as horrible as war. We can't stop people from being short-sighted. And it's only getting worse, "because we're animals with golden rules". We're living in a time of intolerance and lack of respect for each other... however there's still a bit of hope in the line "So avoid those lines of sight and we'll set this right", and the song right after this one (Requiem for Dissent). The world is going to hell, unless people become more tolerant of each other.

"our kin will be emaculate ejaculate in space"...haha genius

I think this song is basically a description of the resurgence of American fundamentalism. The first verse is about how reason and science are overtaken by something. Science has only one enemy, credulous religious faith. The second verse is basically a description of the rapture, where 'the faithful' will be plucked from the world without any explanation. And the last verse seems to me of just a discussion of humanity and why we haven't moved past a theistic worldview yet.

Its about how another "Dark Age" is comming. More people dropping out of school, and also about how religion can be used to control people. Typical Bad Religion song, but then again, its better than most bands.