Tool: Opiate Meaning
Opiate Lyrics
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:It's been said already but here's my take.
Opiate is in itself a look upon religion as a sedative that numbs the human senses and reason through a false sense of security. The sense of security here is that those who follow Christ will be taken to heaven when they die, if and only if they are loyal to him without question. The sense of love and sacrifice that Christ has for us is lost as a sense of ownership and servitude becomes stronger. Not wanting to own up to their own decisions, people follow the path of Christ and rely on it as not only insurance of their spirit after death but for that path as a scapegoat for their own shortcomings. If they screwup or something ill happens to them they chalk it up to being the destiny of God and Christianity and a part of a divine plan.
An Opiate not only blurs a sense of responsibility within the person, it blinds their reason and free will of conscious choice. Lured in by promise of purity and atonement, people indulge themselves in blindly following the teachings of not Christ's lessons, but those of old clergymen interpreting what they want out of it. They aren't even grasping the actual light of Christ anymore, but a shade of inference created by another follower.
Give up your free will and human freedom to buy your way to heaven and atonement. That's the image of the Opiate. You give up logical reason and a sense of caring for indulging in total unconscious, but painlessness. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:I sort of agree with you Zaq to an extent. I agree that this is one of TOOL's most obvious ones, haha, I said the same thing about just reading the lyrics before I read your text. I believe that Maynard once again is being sarcastic and speaking as if he were God, or Jesus himself, but mocking the claims, but not toward God. But towards his followers. When he says "rape", I believe it is metaphorical and not literal. Just the taking advantage of, or taking over you. He sarcastically says that choices always were a problem for people because so many people make their choices based on what others say. People have a hard time standing up and saying "FUCK THAT!" if they disagree. "Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow" "Don't judge or question" =don't think for yourself, just follow me cause I got this one. :) This song reminds me of "Wander in and wandering.
Noone even invited you in.
But still you stumble in stumbling" People all follow one another, even if it leads to an emptiness, or an ocean of chaos. Basically at the end when he screams for Jesus to come down and save his life, I feel it in his emotion and in his words that he is suffering as we all do, and if he is so great, then why are things the way they are. But I agree with Zaq about this being an earlier album and that Maynard's feelings and views have grown over the years. If you refer to the album Lateralus, you would see such a more open and hopeful view. --KATE -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:The title refers to the German economist & Communist political philosopher Karl Marx, who said "Religion is the opiate of the masses," so obviously it has a little something to do with religion.
What I believe is that this is told through the eyes of any religious leader, but due to recent events, let's just say it's about Catholicism. Just read the lyrics people! Extremely straightforward, due to the fact that this is early, early Tool.
"My Gods will
becomes me.
When he speaks out,
he speaks through me.
He has needs
like I do.
We both want
to rape you."
The above quote is the one I find most interesting. Mostly because of the recent scandal. You know what I'm talking about. The,well... Ya' know... THE PRIESTS RAPING, MOLESTING AND COMPLETELY FUCKING UP THE CHILDREN LEFT IN THEIR CARE! It's almost as if Maynard could see the future or somehow knew this was happening... I don't pretend to know what happened in His past, so no allegations. And don't spread rumors of allegations, it was just a thought. Maybe He can see the future, and that's how He knew... All hail Maynard Nostradamus Christ!!!
Seriously yours,
Zaq -
"Religion is the opium of the people"
The only and most simple circus, support and entertainment for all human being in all history is religion -
I believe this song is actually about a crisis of faith and being told by a 'man of God' that he has the answer. There appear to be three voices in the story: (1) the observation that the protagonist is weak and needs a strong hand to guide them, (2) the antangonisy who is the 'man of God' who is really just using religion and/or faith to take advantage of the protagonist and 'rape him' along with the protagonists 'God' will also do and (3) the protagonist looking for help from the higher being 'Jesus' because they realize that the antagonist is not there to help them but only use them. I believe that the anatagonists 'God' or higher power is his own need for power over the seemingly weak.
I hear a very strong voice against people who use their position as ministers/preachers/priests/etc to take advantage of people in need of help. I have lived through a similar crisis of faith and organized religion and for me these lyrics speak directly to that crisis. Religion and faith are two different experiences and it is really difficult to discover the difference ... especially when everything seems to be going off the rails in your life. -
It's about priests raping altar boys.
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A song that's speaking with a concern for the individual to have and use as a Tool for holding onto his free will against the religion that The Protagonist feels weakens the authentic will of the people. Like the opium drug[heroin] that weakens the addict in the long run. But all in all with the misunderstanding to understand the reason he feels and thinks that way as a assumed Christian. The Protagonist reminds me as a flashback of a modern day young Nietzche who was raised as a god believing Christian, experiencing and seeing god through his Father who was a Christian church Pastor under the state who sadly died when Nietzche was 5 years old, and then losing his younger brother and his ancestry home a few years later. Eversince then, for some reason the Christian god that he once believed in relation to his father, became dead to Nietzche and the religion became to mean weakness for him who wanted to feel strong to overcome his sufferings and the ''Opiate'' of the people that he assumed weakened them. Where Karl Marx philasosized the idea that eventually took hold with the communists on the left that strengthen them ungodly against The Crown and to influence the people away from god and certainly away from the Christian religion that was following Jesus Christ.
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And to add further reasoning to my past comment, maynard was in the army...
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The first time I heard this song, I imagined it being about the military, specifically the soldier, and how the higher-ups view the grunt. " deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow"
But then again, i guess the song has meanings unique to the listener... -
It i well known that he was molested as a child, and always had problems and isses with religion, as his mother was a devot christian. Knowing him, and how he clensed himself of all of that on this album (look at prison sex lyrics) I would not dont that the one that raped him was a priest or someone in the church. Even after his mother died he was still anrgy at how devote is mother was in 10,000 days of suffering.
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***LINKED TO ABOVE***
I wanted to amend my interpretation which I’ve posted above just a bit.
I started pounding beers about half way through typing it and you may be able to see the results in the words themselves. ; )
I wanted people to know that I don’t believe that we were created by Jesus as could be assumed where I stated “You created me, you created me.” I was just going on within an internal ramble and was recalling back to the days when I myself was a Christian, back before I converted to Buddhism. This was just a bit of a transference of my thoughts onto old ideas of confusion and internal misery.
Everything else that I typed, I do approve of however. I may have toned down the profanity and used…. nah, actually that’s just me. I’m a little rough around the edges, as I’m sure you all are as well. ; )
Thanks.
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This song is about the inward desire which is felt by a person, wherein they wish to forcibly indoctrinate another person into the philosophical understanding that they themselves possess. The person who is in the position of needing to press their own doctrine onto another sees what they believe as vital truth, and they believe that it is their duty to reveal this truth to others, they wish simply to spread their own vision of enlightenment for the good of the universe and all that is within it.
The song starts off by addressing the need for a seeker of truth to (in some form) latch themselves onto a 'pointer of the way', which is what Maynard is claiming himself to be in this instance. We do not exit the womb already possessing enlightenment, we do not belligerently stumble upon it while running through our own thoughts, we do not conceive of it on our own without the help of outside sources. We do not create within our minds that which enlightenment consists of, we can only follow it by following our internal compass and by aligning our will with that of the Absolute Principle and by letting it be our guide. We do that by eliminating all of what we currently cling to as far as our beliefs and our desires. If we cling to our beliefs, then we confine ourselves within them and as a result, prevent any possibility of new understanding from arising. In order to expand itself, the mind must be in a fluid state, ready to adapt to anything and ready to take any form.
Crystalized, unyielding beliefs are comparable to water in its frozen form. Never in this form will it have the capability to take on a new shape, and if it comes up into fierce contact with something more solid and substantial than itself, it will be shattered to pieces.
The mind which is completely open and free to move in any way is like water in its fluid state. As Bruce Lee brilliantly explains it: "It can take on the shape of any container... it is the softest thing in the world, yet it can penetrate rock."
In order to follow the Absolute Principle, we must first correctly identify its source; this is the most vital step.
Once we have safely identified its source, we surrender unto it with pure unbridled devotion. We can offer no judgment, we can deny no part of it.
To follow it absolutely, we must show absolutely no preference as to its particularities. "The perfect way knows no difficulty except that it refuses to make preferences. A difference of a tenth of an inch and heaven and earth are set apart." If we interject our own preferences into our own vision, then we pollute reality at its source, which is pure and perfect and exactly according to nature. "To see things untainted by one's own desires and beliefs, is to have a chance to see it in its own pristine simplicity."
Maynard stresses the importance of pure and complete devotion to the Absolute Principle as only that which can save us.
"If you want to get your soul to heaven,
Trust in me, now don't you judge or question.
You are broken now but faith can heal you,
Just do everything I tell you to do."
Maynard then goes on to proclaim his identity with the Absolute Principle, and his living state of personal surrender unto it's will:
"My god's will becomes me.
When he speaks, he speaks through me.
He has needs like i do...
We both want to rape you."
In the case of Maynard, the symbiotic union of he and the Absolute principle allows for the universal forces which comprise all of reality to work through him. By ceasing to oppose this fundamental and absolute force which vibrates within every form of nature itself, he is allowed back into alignment with it, he reunites with his own principle which in reality has been from the beginning and will always be, undivided from the Absolute Principle itself. This Holy Principle comprises all of reality… nothing can exist outside of it. In reality, we are all of one nature and all of one being, we are individual points of consciousness incarnated onto this earth. We are all born within the absolute principle but we cannot be separated from it nor from each other because in reality there is no two, only one. All is one and there is, nor can there be a division within it, nothing will ever be lost and nothing will ever be destroyed within it. Things can only be reborn and renewed, recreated in different forms…
Just as in scientific theory, where it states that in reality no matter can ever be created or destroyed, it can only be broken down or rearranged into different molecular forms. (A. Einstein)
In the next verses of the song, Maynard speaks to the detest of the doctrines of division and of the destruction of souls and those of who desire eternal disharmony. Doctrines which seek to deny that which is immortal and infinite, absolutely harmonious and where every piece of reality has its purpose in existence and also its inherent promise of eternal life with the infinite possibility of renewal. These very elements which by nature are inherent within the absolute principle, which seeks to deny no one or no thing a place of refuge within its perfect design.
These doctrines of division and of hate can only produce division and hate, they cannot produce unity, nor can they relieve suffering nor resurrect the dead. They cannot renew that which is outside of their Nazi squadron, they are more retched than the holocaust and one hundred times more brutal according to the proclamation of their prophecies.
"Before the creation of the world, all names were written in the book of life."
Great! So you're saying that I didn't have a chance to begin with... how awesome is that! I'm sure glad about that, that's totally fair as well!
Thanks for exposing yourself... Nazi fucker.
"Hell is where the worm begs to die but never will."
I'm glad to know that you hold me in such high regard you Nazi bastard. Your level of hate would make Hitler look like the Dalai Lama. You Filthy Swine.
So basically they claim that unless you are a member of the Neo Nazi party headed by Jesus Himmler, then you’ll never lay eyes o the kingdom created by Adolf Jehovah. fuck you.
Hate breeds hate, and always will. Hate will always exist and if you hate me then I must hate you. You crated me, you created me. You abandoned me and now I've found more and better. In this form of flesh and blood, in this realm of the imperfect, in this reality so varied and complex... I can no longer find the compassion for you and for myself. I am an animal and I must survive, I must survive above all, this is all I know. This is all that I will ever know and you'll never take it away from me as long as I live.
In the next verses of the song, Maynard speaks to the detest of the doctrines of division and of the destruction of souls and of eternal harmony. A particular doctrine which takes that which is immortal and infinite, absolutely harmonious and where every piece of reality has its purpose and also its inherent promise of eternal life and the infinite possibility of renewal.
“Jesus Christ won’t you come save my life now…
Open my eyes, blind me with your light now…
And your Lies.”
“I am not innocent,
You are not innocent,
No one is innocent!!!!”
If you are still a believer that you are ‘holier than thou’, then think again and better. Don’t let yourself get associated with the nazi party. You are a soldier for earth. NO MATTER WHAT.
DON’T FORGET IT.
OR GOD HELP US. -
Follow your instincts. You were born in trust. Your mother is instinctively nurturing. Build on these facts of life.
Opiate examines the consequences of distrust and the dire reverberations and repercussions of it. Build upon the sacredness of trust and the consequences of "rape". We are all vulnerable.
A teacher, a priest, a policeman... we need to trust them and honor them.... but hold them to the requirement that they are honorable and are respecting of our trust.
And grow to trust yourself...
Avoid addiction to the drugs Wishium and Hopium.
Trust prayer as the sober solution, the positive focus factor.
Tool is a brilliant compass showing the negative direction's consequence. -
Choices always were a problem for you.
What you need is someone strong to guide you.
Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow,
what you need is someone strong to guide you..
like me, like me, like me, like me
If you want to get your soul to heaven,
trust in me .
Now don't you judge or question.
You are broken now ,
but faith can heal you.
Just do everything I tell you to do.
Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow.
What you need is someone strong to guide you.
Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow.
Let me lay my holy hand upon you.
My Gods will
becomes me.
When he speaks out,
he speaks through me.
He has needs
like I do.
We both want
to rape you.
[x2]
Jesus Christ, why don't you come save my life now
Open my eyes and blind me with your light
If you want to get your soul to heaven,
trust in me .
Now don't you judge or question.
You are broken now ,
but faith can heal you.
Just do everything I tell you to do.
[x2]
Jesus Christ, why don't you come save my life now.
Open my eyes, blind me with your light now.
Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow,
Let me lay my holy hand upon you.
My Gods will
becomes me.
When he speaks,
he speaks through me.
He has needs
like I do.
We both want
to rape you
if you cant interpret that.... sigh.... -
This song is Maynard lamenting all of those
years he was forced to go to church. He is
yelling at his mother and making a mockery
of religion - but he does do it in a clever fashion -- with
sarcasm and some requirement that those trying
to understand the lyrics need to educate themselves
a bit...
There is also a smattering of narcissism in there too --
"what you need is someone strong to guide you -- like me" -
I think this song is about religion. Now I don't think it's dissing on religion, as Maynard is a Christian. I think it is talking about people who follow a certain religion just because others do.
"Deaf and blind and born to follow."
I also think that this talks about people who totally rely on religion and don't rely on themselves at all.
"Jesus Christ why don't you come save my life now?"
Just some of my opinions. -
I think the title is referring the religion “Peoples Temple Agricultural Project” famous for the Jonestown incident where their leader (Jim Jones) moved the cult from California to Guyana and convinced 918 people to commit suicide, including children. It is said that they preached what they call “apostolic socialism”, in one of Jim’s teaching he states “Now I want you to know that religion is an opiate to the people” and that “those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism”.
So while I think this is how this song got its name I think it covers many controlling/destructive cults. And how they control the weak of mind into believing whatever they say. *cough* Scientology *cough* -
The song is about following people with no question, just blind faith.
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