Contrary to popular belief, maynard was never fully "in the army." He attended the prep school at West Point. The ranking system works so that freshmen and prep students are Fourth Degree Cadets, sophomores third degrees, and so on. My dad went to the air force academy which has the same system.
The song talks about being forced to do something while being told you will come to like it. This is how the indoctrination used at the academies works. Many people are transformed by thier time and see new facets of their personality they werent aware of by being ordered to do things they dont want to and then having to mold themselves to the system.
which explains:
You'll like this in
Don't pull it out.
"Take it all in.
All the way in.
Let it go.
Let it go in.
You won't feel what you'd like to feel.
Lay back and let me show you another way."
^Cadets are taught completely new ways of thinking, working, and how to live in general in a militaristic enviornment.
It brings us closer than
dying and cancer and crying.
Come on .
You can take it all.
Just like that.
^Most that make it through all four years become VERY tight with their friends from the academies
As for sodomy references, cadets joke that its a "100 grand education shoved in your ass one quarter at a time"
His experience at west point is a huge part of this album and pops up in other songs as well.
awesome man, I can really see where you're coming from with that interpretation, and it actually changes my view of the song. 4 Degrees didn't really "fit" undertow in my mind until now. cheers
__________________ If I'm on the toilet longer than 2 minutes I'm jerking off. - (jag) toolhed46n2//support your loco bands
Bin Purpose: You are the real fluxerpretation, its true personification. TOYKO!! R.I.P. The Alien Gus
good stuff --- I think it actually relates to the sodomy references as well --- if you look at military "education" as forced anal intrusioin...
__________________ Away with our explosives then! Away with our destroyers! They have no place within our better world... But let us raise a toast to all our bombers, all our bastards, most unlovely and most unforgivable.
Let's drink to their health, then meet with them no more.
9.30.2006 - Washington, D.C.
6.07.2007 - Richmond, VA
If you consider the military as “an institution of self sacrifice recruiting on the premise of self interest" (We'll take care of you 100% and pay for college!), then this does make a lot of sense.
"C'mon, you'll like this in." *ziiiip*
This sort of libido-ish dynamic works on many other levels in life so there are lots of different interpretations, not all of them with the negative connotation of the military anal-ogy. Actual heterosexual intercourse that results in new human beings for instance.
