Why "repugnant"?

[Yondo]

I was thinking about the life-altering line in Right In Two...

"Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting tome here."

And decided to analyze it. Of course, it came down to the word "Repugnant".

Is it an Angel who says these words, or Maynard himself?

Either way... why did he choose "Repugnant" instead of "Stupid"? I think by using "repugnant", he may be implying that the angels, so devoted to God, can only think that someone filthy and ugly could not love God as well. That seems more fitting. However, if Maynard did say it, as a message to us... what does it mean? What do you think?

Help me out.

[guitarpete987]

I think what whoever IS saying it simply finds it abhorrent that someone who has the intellectual capacity to understand their time on Earth is a limited one wouldn't at least consider the notion that there could be a higher power before simply putting their existence at the whim of the random universe without doing further spiritual investigation and living selfishly and recklessly toward others.

That's just how I see it. I'm sure there's a ton of other interpretations.

Besides, stupid is less musical.

[Yondo]

That's what I thought too. But repugnant and stupid are very different in meaning. And I'm sure Maynard, who we know has no lacking in lyrical genius, could have found another musical word for stupid.

[spacemonkeyadb]

I agree with GuitarPete.

Furthermore, I think it is MJK's opinion being spoken through the perspective of the angels. And he says "repugnant" rather then "stupid" because he is saying the behaviour of us monkeys is morally repugnant - it disgusts him. If he were to say "stupid" this would suggest that we are just to dumb to know any better and can perhaps be forgiven for our poor choices, but "repugnant" suggests that we do know better and are therefore morally culpable for our failure.

[Mr Dayne]

I have found an interesting meaning in this line that corresponds with this songs theme of the misuse of free will. I'm not saying that this is what Maynard meant when he wrote it, but this is what this line means to me. I know most people do not believe that we are the product of creation. I believe we are, but most people don't buy into that. But entertain that we are the product of creation, and that our Creator could have created mindless drones....Creatures that were capable of nothing but what we were programmed to do.

Contrast that and think of what we are. We are beings that have been given a divine gift. We have been given the privilege of making sound, reasonable decisions for ourselves. But mankind has grossly misused this gift. This has been made manifest in a number of ways, but none more disgusting or repugnant than the senseless butchering of human life.

[spacemonkeyadb]

We are beings that have been given a divine gift. We have been given the privilege of making sound, reasonable decisions for ourselves. But mankind has grossly misused this gift. This has been made manifest in a number of ways, but none more disgusting or repugnant than the senseless butchering of human life.
Nice. This point still stands even if it is only natural selection and evolution that have given us this gift.

[Starscream1983]

Once again the band as a whole touched my heart. This song beautiful in every way.
The music and meaning, even though sad, are inspiring to lead a better life. I think that giving what has been covered already on this thread, I do have something to add.
I absolutely love how maynard smashes evolution and religion in the same song. Monkeys and angels respectively. I love that he is referring to us as monkeys especially, because the majority of the world are no better than animals. I will say this, I am religious, I believe in a higher power, but i dont argue that the world is much older than a few thousand years. with that said i will say that the comparison of humans to monkeys is a just accusation. Because we cannot see the ignorance in our own way of life. Fighting over which god we pray to, who gets the house and kids after a divorce, and especially oil. We will fight and kill for these things. Our priorities are very misguided. I think modern society looks at the world and the things in it as our territory.... but i think we should look at it more in the sense that we belong to the Earth. God or the universe, gave us the world to allow us to sustain our lives. If you took away the need and wants for things that we do not need to survive, you will take away the majority of the inequities and pain in this world.
Maynard has the uncanny ability to make you think about these things.
Thanks go out to the boys in tool.

[Yondo]

I think modern society looks at the world and the things in it as our territory....

"Think"? It's happening all around... It's our very being.

Anyway, I like what you guys are saying.

Spacemonkey, I think, got it when he said that because we CAN have free will, it's disgusting that we do not choose him.

But then, what does that say about God?

We HAVE free will. We are free. But what's more, we have REASON. Reason is the ability to make sound dicsions, something Angels, apparently, cannot do.

If Humans can have free will, and they choose NOT to be with God... maybe that shows that that's a sound, reasonable path. No?

[thirdeyecreationist]

Awesome stuff. I've been getting into words lately (motivated by Tool lyrics) and their original meatnings, etymology, synchronicities, etc. There's are mind-blowing things that everyday words can tell us if we are open to hearing them. The word repugnant, for instance, has a bit more to it. Like many other words, the meaning has shifted, in this case been given a negative connotation, by culture. One of the definitions of repugnant is "opposed or contrary, as in nature or character," which is the central theme of the album.

I'd be curious to go through the albums lyrics, swapping out words that my conditioned mind reads as I've learned with synonyms or original meanings to see what else the lyrics could say. Any insights?

Example: Honest was (some Dictionaries disagree, that's fine) originally Latin Hon Est, "To Be One With What Is," one of the most beautiful, enlightening phrases I've ever uttered in English, and really the exact opposite of "Repugnant."

Words, musical beats/tones, etc. can all have higher meanings and power to raise our consciousness/frequency, It's awesome that a band like Tool is now combining these amazing tools into an enlightened, higher form of mass media. Gratitude!

[Yondo]

Gee. Creationist, that's deep.

I never knew what repugnant really meant... I'm surprised that I automatically took it that way. But how does that affect the nature of the sentence we find it in?