My thoughts on the meaning of this song.

[Demonseed420]

I loved this song right from the start it gave the imagry of nations like isreal and palistine or lebonon fighting with each other over pieces of the ground it just struck a chord with me right away. I was going to make a youtube video with the song and footage of those nations fighting but someone out there already made one just like that so obviously someone saw it the way i do.

By the way for all the people on the boards saying maynard is turning to relegion i dont really think you get it at all not one bit maynard always is synical, he always trys to look at things from a different point of view a different perspective if you will . I am an athiest so this album to me is interpretted as so ,but that doesnt mean it has to be that way for you too. I for one feel that everyone has a right to theyre own opinion as long as they dont shove it down your throat and hold your nose to make you swallow. Everyone out there has to realize that we humans are all the same ,once you take off the skin we are all the same no color no relegion we are but one, I really hope people will one day will come to that conclusion then maybe just maybe we can move on with life and evolve. Im not sure what kind of catastrophic event will make us change but we have to if we are to survive as a species and not become exstinct.

But to me thats whats the song and basically the whole album is about. its about putting aside our petty differences for the good of all people and human nature as a whole.Now i might sound dramatic about this but over the years ive changed alot and some of that has come from tools music, I used to be a angry young man now ive grown to see it doesnt really matter in the end and everyday now i strive to help people as much as possible so in a way i have moved past most people in rational thinking hopefully everyone else will wake up one day too.Thank you for listening to my rant.

[discount]

i feel there is a dualism to the song, because i'll listen to it casually and feel the general theme of the song, humans are assholes and were wasting ourselves. then i'll listen to it critically and come up second meaning

I think maynard is having a stab at organized religion, as far as I know maynard is secular..? please correct me if i am wrong but I can't find anything to suggest that he subscribes to any religion, in fact from what I gather he opposes organized religion ?

Think for a second about the mindset of your average christian, and what they believe in, treat your fellow man with love respect etc
yet how many christians actually do this.. from my experiences, i personally feel it's safe to say the majority of christians are hypocrites.

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

They go to church/mosque whatever every sunday and praise the lord/allah, thinking thats their ticket to heaven, but then they live the rest of their life a complete hypocrite.

to cut the chase, my interpretation is that if god / angels and all the good stuff exists and they're watching over us, what they see especially from organized religion probably disgusts them, fighting over bullshit in their name, killing humans in their name etc

maybe i've read into it too deeply this time, but the lyrics of this song can take on several meanings

[DON IOTAE]

You guys got the religious side pretty figured out. Yet today i was listening to the song again, and it dawned on me: the duality present in the song.

Nardo talks of Eden (making his reference to religion pretty obvious), and he also talks of monkeys. talking monkeys. us. Monkeys as in Darwin's evolution; which as we all know, is in direct conflict (Creationism vs Darwinism). The fact that he mixes both concepts in a single phrase:

"dont these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around"

emphasizes the fact of two opposing points of view coming together.

I feel both concepts have some truth to them. Creationism is true for me in the sense that we do have a supernatural, divine origin. Not necessarily from clay, but you get the point. Evolution speaks of precisely that: evolution. Evolution of body and mind, both necessary to survive in the "jungle". So both concepts are "right". Right in Two. That's, for me, what this song is about.

When two people are having a healthy debate, but are having a hard time finding common ground, they're most probably both right; Right In Two, so to speak.
they just have a hard time realizing this. why? because each one of us adheres to our own thoughts and ideas, as if they were all we've got. we're not ready to give in. not just yet. so we pull at our end of the rope. and the concept of "cutting the rope" comes into play here as well (from a sister thread).

Now that i realize im ranting, i just wanna make clear that the Creationism/Evolution duality is just now apparent to me. I think this is a big part of the meaning of this song...

[DON IOTAE]

btw, RiT is my favorite song on tenkdays right now...

[Legion]

I have to say that this is one of the few Tool songs that has grabbed by soul and dragged it in to a decadent spiral of bliss. I was drawn in because of its parallels to our current world situation. I agree in part with one poster's rant against religion from an atheist POV, but in truth we're all hypocrites, simply because most don't practice what they preach. It's human nature to say one thing and do another.

It is obvious that everything we do we divide it, from politics, to social injustice, education, money, time, beliefs etc. We're all just a bunch of "highly" evolved primates that will do anything to get the upper hand. If you believe in God, his gift was reason which has in turn become both a blessing and a nightmare. Everything we create has an application for the purpose of killing other monkeys. In truth we are an extremely vicious form of life that has an insatiable desire to destroy everything by any means possible.

In a way this song makes me feel guilty for being a apart of all that is wrong.

[harry_manback19]

You all are right on the money with how i interpreted it. The song is basically about how man has failed. That's what i feel is the theme for the whole album. Man has inevitably created his own doom as explained in the song, and now Man must pay the price. The image that i get from it is of all the humans on the earth being led into the pit of despair. Maynard uses "Right in Two" to establish the irony of how Moses led everyone on that big ship by twos to save them, and now we are all being led by twos to be destroyed.

[DON IOTAE]

uhm, i think ur refering to Noah

[PryThirdEye]

Iota, great post. What you said about "Right in Two" and Creationism/Evolution makes perfect sense. You've made me see this song in a different light.

This is currently my favorite song as well. One of the reasons is because MJK reduces us down to what we really are: animals. We are almost exactly the same as all the apes we find to be primitive w/ the only difference being "the ability to lift an eye to heaven, CONSCIOUS of our fleeting time here". (I love that line) Our state of consciousness seperates us from primates.....we should be taking advantage of that

[Pairabowlz]

I don't believe in evolution in a physical sense anymore. As far as an evolution of conciousness goes though, I feel many people still have a long way to go. This song in general, I agree, is about tearing down that mental blockade that we are somehow better than anyone else. We are the same pathetic excuse for an organism that more resembles a virus than a creature of the land. And like everyone else concurred upon, we set up our own fate and now we must live it out. I also agree with Legion's point about everything being "divided in two". It's extremely true that to be in America you must be on either side of the division at this point in time, whether is Republican vs Democrat, Jew vs Christian, White vs Black. "Why'd they feel to give these humans free will? Now they're all confused". And yes we certainly fucking are. As soon as your worth is based on your BMW and not how many people you helped today just to do it, there is a very obvious problem. Sorry if that last sentence didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Peace

[gdude]

PEOPLE NEED TO STAND UP FOR THEIR DIFFERENT IDEAS TO TONE THEIR EGOS TO FEEL DIFFERENT TO LIVE THE ILLUSION OF THE POWER THAT COMES WITH IT ...THE SAME ILLUSION OF POWER COMES WITH MONEY AND BEAUTY AND OTHER THINGS THAT MAKE ENERGY FLOW TO OUR DIRRECTION,ENERGY THAT WE TAKE FROM OTHER PEOPLE NOT FROM OUR SOURCE...I SOMETIMES SIT ALONE AND THINK ABOUT THESE MONKEYS THAT SPEND THEIR TIME HERE FIGHTING AND TRYING TO CONTROL EVERYONE HOW SICK THEY ARE TO HAVE THIS POINT OF VIEW IN LIFE ...AFTER ALL THEY RE GONNA DIE TOO SO WHATS THE POINT OF WANTING MORE AND MORE AND SCREWING PEOPLES LIVES AND KILLING LITTLE CHILDREN ,WHATS THE POINT FOR ALL THIS PAIN ?WE MAKE OUR LIVES MUCH MORE COMPLICATED WITH ALL THESE THINGS ,THINGS COULD BE MORE SIMPLE BUT AFTER ALL .... WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT FROM A MONKEY ???

[hobblegobble]

OKay guys..okay...geez this is so SERIOUS!!!!
It's a love/hate relationship...I mean...reading all of your INTUITIVE perceptions of what I personally..yes personally because I know you all care DEEPLY..everyone here loves that word...deep...haha..sorry ..laughing to myself...ahem..okay think serious.... would call an abstract and uhhh..almost Salvador Dali-ish piece of artwork. I mean, cmon guys...really though...really......
This song is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo simple....
I once met a monkey who had a thumb..YES I SAY A THUMB.....okay i must keep reminding myself to be serious here...
anyway, I was at the zoo one day (damn people putting animals in cages!!!!! no wonder they beat their brothers with bats and thumbs and stuff.....)
And I think if I would have gone to the zoo before May-nerd I could have written that song first.....
muahahahahahaha.....

[DON IOTAE]

wtf

[hobblegobble]

mmmhmmm...my thoughts EXACTLY.....

[TWENTY-THREE]

Monkeys are funny.

[DON IOTAE]

haha

[Legion]

ever hear the one about the monkey and the cue ball?

[DON IOTAE]

no?