Nine Inch Nails: Right Where It Belongs Meaning
Right Where It Belongs Lyrics
Are you sure what side you're on?
Better not look him too closely in the eye
Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?
See the safety of the life you have built
Everything where it...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I found this song to explain the lives of close-minded religious people that choose to avoid the truth and shut themselves out from reality. They are born in a bubble and they continue to run their lives and raise their young within this bubble and imaginary life that they have created around them. They're ignorant but don't know any other way of life.
"See the animal in his cage that you built
Are you sure what side you're on?
Better not look him too closely in the eye
Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?
See the safety of the life you have built
Everything where it belongs
Feel the hollowness inside of your heart"
You raise your children and live your life within this over-protective and god-fearing environment so that you can keep control in your life. You're hollow because you choose to avoid all other views but you're own. You refuse to open your eyes to see beyond this "God" you speak of. So that everything is the way you want it... right where it belongs.
"What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you think you know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is it all you want it to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks?
Would you find yourself
Find yourself afraid to see?"
What if everything you believe to be true is actually a lie? What if this "God" is just an elaborate dream? If you looked past everything you have been told to believe? Would you find yourself afraid in this new lonely world?
"What if all the world's inside of your head
Just creations of your own?
Your devils and your gods
All the living and the dead
And you're really all alone?"
What if what you believe is just in your head?
What if there is no "devils and your gods"? And you're really all alone?
"You can live in this illusion
You can choose to believe
You keep looking but you can't find the woods
While you're hiding in the trees"
You can live in this illusion and faith and you can choose to believe everything you're told.
You keep looking for this truth (God), while you're hiding behind these lies.
My interpretation. Doesn't mean it's the "right" one. That's just what I picked up from it right away. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:I believe this song is about America's society and the government. How the things the leaders and politicians get away with seem out of a nightmare. How Americans walk around in a dream state and someday they might wake up and realize they should have acted sooner but its too late. This idea being generated from the depictions of war and president bush during the song on the Beside You in Time DVD.
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I see this song as being from Trent's perspective, examining feelings he has despite his fame and success. He is the animal in this cage he's built. The crowd cheering towards the end of the song solidifies this interpretation.
Everything is right where it belongs, everything is good and as it should be, but there's still that hollowness inside his heart.
He's asking himself if deep down he's still alone, living in an illusion of connection and meaningful company.
"You keep looking but you can't find the woods, while you're hiding in the trees," this lyric refers to him being stuck in himself and struggling to relate to the world outside of him.
What if everything around you isn't quite as it seems - what if it's not so good after all, what if after all this glory, you're still the same broken person in spite of it all? And if you look at yourself, are you actually feeling any better? Would you want to know? Because maybe this is the person you are, and it's not worth fighting. -
I think its trent talking about his celebrity and status as an artist and the illusions fame can bring. Adds the crowd cheering noise in the background of the music to show some of that.
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The animal in the cage you have built is your assimilation into the capitalist system. We suppress our primal instincts. Who we really are.
We carry out mundane duties in order to fit into the system we've built, but that system isn't natural for animals like us. We view our primal desires and instincts as something to be locked up deep within ourselves and we put on a facade to fit in. Which version of ourselves is our true self? Which side of the cage are you on?
We all have an inkling that this is true. We're animals who evolved, but our animal primitive self is just under the surface. Along with our increased intelligence came a need to create a system or an order that all humans have to exist within.
Facing our true selves is scary. We're afraid to indulge our instincts because that behavior isn't acceptable in the society we've built.
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This is a beautiful and very deep song from Trent. Also, a very sad and painful one, based on the personal interpretation I have. From my own experience, and listening to this song, can't help but think about the life I used to live, the lies I had been told by religion, by family and how these lies helped shape my life into a twisted seemingly normal life, when it was truly all a lie. These lies make you put everything "right where it belongs", because that's the safety mechanism we use to make things seem normal and okay. Fanatical religious groups also do this extremely well and they are very efficient at creating a "safe" world for millions of people that become trapped in this world, without seeing they're looking from the other side of the cage. It's unfortunate and very sad, and yet it continues to and will continue to happen to millions more.
But also, my interpretation based on personal experience, I find it applies so closely to my life. Finding out about a parent I never knew, about a family I never knew, that the parent I grew up with knew more than they told me but kept it to themselves. That my name isn't my true name and lastly that my own family could turn their backs on me because of my choice to not be a part of this false and hurtful religion they willingly are a part of. The song fits, in my mind, like a perfect glove. -
I believe he is talking about us individuals. What we see in the world today is a mirror image of who we are on the inside. He is saying we are too afraid to look at who we really are. That our self image is just a mask to hide us from what is really happening. We have "caged" ourselves from reality. We would rather fill our emptyness with religions and addictions than face the truth, that we are terrible people killing everthing around us. Thats just my interpretation..
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Hes questioning everything what he is, what life is, is it even real, what of its all imagination nor real
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Right where it belongs:
There is a reason why anger, emptiness, and all those "dark" emotions are there. We tried to fill that void with things like sex, drugs, religion. If we didn't have that inside of us, we would be just plain robots. To ponder our existence is to try to find meaning to our lives. Now, nobody really knows the true meaning of life, but I think that is the whole point of living is to find meaning and purpose in our lives. All in all, this song is about escaping this very fundamental feeling. We tried to avoid feeling this way by filling our lives with material possessions, and believing in things that we have been taught by others. But no matter how much you try to escape this feeling, the void will always be there. But in the end, that is a good thing, otherwise why would continue to live. -
to me this song is sort of a "each to his own interpretation" kind of song, for me i see it as telling me to look past the front of my nose and see the world for what it is, for a long time i was strictly religious and when i first heard this song i did not grasp what it's meaning to me was. I realized that there is more to life than what society would have you believe, and oddly it made me feel all alone. I don't think there are many people that when they look at people and observe their daily lives the nonsense and the fixation on menial things that amount to nothing. I still have some religious beliefs though not as solid. This song awakened me to "The big picture" the thinking beyond myself. MY new hobby is "people watching" sadly i find most of it disgusting... self centered idiots living life in blissful ignorance. Then i see a man help an old man who dropped something whilst others don't even notice him. Anyone else feel "Enlightened" after listening a couple times?
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He asks a lot of powerful questions. If our lives are creations of our own, then we have control over much more than we ever thought. We could all create our own worlds. If the world is an illusion, we put things "right where they belong," so we don't have to feel alone. We create society and its norms, and ultimately sacrifice our power to choose. The biggest question is whether or not you'd change it if you could see yourself.
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I was listening to this song after I read Gaarder's "Sophie's World" which was about interpretations of what is real and what isn't; how does what know their 'reality' from not based on the failing judgment of human perception. The specific lyrics to this song correspond directly with the main themes of the book. Namely the "what if you could look right through the cracks"; the book has the character looking through an antique mirror, at which point her reflection blinks at her from the other side, which later turns to be the "real" her, as she's reading a book her father wrote... as an elaborate dream, looking at her reflection. The book follows the history of philosophy, all of which the main points are covered via this song. The coincidence is too amazing and I wish I knew more as to the actual intent of this song in relation to the book.
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I don't know allot about Trent or why he wrote this song so I won't talk out of my ass but only my actual opinion. I believe this song is about American society's control and influence on modern life. He tries to make a strong point in this song that you will have to figure out for yourself as I am sure he would want you to do. This song is a metaphorical message telling you to look beyond what you are told by people with so called knowledge on what life is truly about. It explains that you have the choice to believe in what you want no matter what people pull over your eyes but you need the F### courage to accept you will never know all of the answers to life and willing to accept your own beliefs. If you are able to do that the influence of society's fake protection from the truth can not harm you. Well that all I got thanks.
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I have thought that when I was drugged up and swimming in a bottle of alcohol that the world seemed to be some dream that wasn't real. Trent I know has over come alcoholism and talks about the things that he had seen and done with the ones he loves and had loved. Very much the same as my self, I was not in this reality but in one I had made up in my mind. I had my moments in front of the mirror saying the same things to my self. I wondered how I had gotten where I was and why it was happening to me. The man is talking about looking at him self much as have done over the years. All the lose that I have had due to my own self destruction is some times more than I can bear. When I hear this song I just cry and remember all the people I hurt and left behind that loved me. I just simply take this as a man that has been in my place that has lived a dream, of our own making so we could run from the hurt of the lives we had lived or still live in some cases.
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I actually think this song has a lot deeper meaning then some want to believe. if you look up wingmakers on google you can read a lot of what I've been reading, and it seems to me most of the songs on the with teeth album could be interpreted relating to the material on this website. I interprate this song like so: The world has a lot more to it.. to see and experience and realize then we can even begin to know.
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I think the song is about being trapped in a world run by cociety and Religion.
People think having those guidelines, being told whats right from wrong is the way to live The perfect Life, A safe life. But really it just blinds you from seeing the real world.
People choose to believe instead of knowing the facts (the truth) because it scares them. For most people Religion is just a security in their lives, because if you believe you won't get hurt.
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