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"This is a song in favor of the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement between developed nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Under former oil baron King George II, the United States pulled out the treaty back in March of 2001." -Amish Rake Fighter
"Well, Kyoto was also a city of west-central Honshu, Japan, north-northeast of Osaka. Founded in the eighth century, it has long been a cultural, artistic, and religious center. Kyoto was Japan's capital from 794 until 1869, although its political importance declined after the rise of the shoguns (1192). I don't know how it would relate to the song..." -Surviving Punk
"I believe that the relevance that Kyoto the city has in this song is that Kyoto is where all of the nations met to discuss and sign the treaty." -Samhain138
"This song is about George W. Bush refusing the sign treaty to reduce greenhouse gases for more developed countries. How can we look to the future if we do not have a future that is worth living in. Kyoto, Japan is where this conference was held. We need to work together with other countries to protect the environment. 'If one goes down we are go down as well.'" -Pete19br
"Yes. The convention at which the Kyoto Protocol was drawn up was held in (believe it or not) Kyoto, Japan. http://www.climatechange.org/kyoto.htm" -Amish Rake Fighter
"Someone already found this, but I feel like giving a detailed explanation. This song is about Kyoto Now! a movement that wishes to stop global warming. Go to http://www.kyotonow.org Ok, I'm gonna break the song down line by line: It's a matter of prescience but not the science fiction kind It's all about ignorance, and greed, and miracles for the blind (Prescience is a sort of foresight, and this basically says we know what will happen if we continue to do this to the Earth) The media parading, disjointed politics Founded on petro-chemical plunder and we're its hostages (Chemicals are killing the planet, and holding us hostage) If you stand to reason you're in the game The rules might me elusive but our pieces are the same And you know if one goes down we all do down as well The balance is precarious as anyone can tell This world's going to hell (Legislation might not be a universal language, but our problems are. If we don't fix it, were screwed) Don't allow this mythological hopeful monster to exact its price Kyoto now! We can't do nothing and think someone else will make it right (Its up to us to fix it, we cant have some naive hope that some phenomenon will save us, take responsibility) You might think it matters now but what if you are wrong You might not think there's any wisdom in a fucked up punk rock song (BR's way of saying that though this is "just a punk song" it has a viable message) But the way it is cannot persist for long, A brutal sun is rising on our sick horizon (Reference to the sun's damage on our dying planet) It's in the way we live our lives Exactly like the double edge of a cold familiar knife And supremacy weighs heavy on the day It's never really what you own but what you threw away And how much did you pay? (The way we live contributes to the problem. Our possessions aren't the problem, our waste is) In your dreams you saw a steady bounty for eternity Silent screams but now the wisdom that sustains us is in full retreat (The pleas of activists are falling on deaf ears, we are ignoring science for faith) Don't allow this mythological hopeful monster isn't worth the risk Kyoto now! We can't have vision for the future if it can't be fixed (We cant look past the present because it voids the future) Alien We need a fresh and new religion to run our lives (I'm not sure, perhaps almost a 2001 Space Odyssey reference of a new species evicting us in order to save the world) Hand in hand The arid torpor of inaction will be our demise (If we don't do anything, its over)." -Ender
"Well, as far as the Kyoto Treaty, I've heard that suggestion several times and I'm just not convinced that that's what it is. Kyotou is Japanese for the act of starting a political party. Now, I know that that's a whole letter missing, but if you think about it, it fits in to the whole song perfectly. "the media parading disjointed politics, funded by petrochemical plunder and we're it's hostages" is clearly a statement about the way our government works. The media does it's best to make the general populace believe that everything is ok. Our economy really boomed during the industrial age, when petrochemicals become useful for manufacturing and transportation. 'If you stand to reason... this world's going to hell' is more or less a statement that if you think about it hard enough, you can easily see that the majority of our political problems lie in the fact that we have only two national parties that are taken seriously. Democrats and Republicans. I don't know about you folks, but I hold both parties in equal distaste. How can 270 million people be governed by only 2 groups? It makes absolutely no sense. You can't define that many people with only two groups. Not on ANY level, let alone on the political level. Kyoto now! Start a new party. We need more options, people. We can't let 'this mythologic hopeful monster' (the idea that democracy, as it is, is the best form of government) continue to rule our lives. And we can bitch and moan about it all we want, but 'we can't do nothing and think someone else will make it right'. We, the people, have all the power needed to make the changes that must be made, but few of us either realize it, or care to bother with it. We're totally fine sitting back and letting the world go to hell. 'You might not think it matters now...' is a way of saying that if we keep putting it off we're only going to make it worse later down the road. If they had made 4, 5, even as many as 10 different parties in the beginning I can assure you we'd still have the majority of them. But having so few, so soon, and for so long has just naturally carved it into our heads that we couldn't survive any other way. But, 'In your dreams...' you will always think what could be done to make a difference, but never do it. Kyoto now! We have to make some drastic changes, or we're going to go down the shitter." -Ike
"Well first off I'd like to say that A definition extracted from Dictionary.com is hardly insight, Just FYI Surviving Punk. I agree with Amish Rake Fighter about the Kyoto Protocol Given that they speak of how this problem is 'Founded on petro-chemical plunder'. they also speak of how 'The balance is precarious as anyone can tell" meaning that the ozone layer could be tipped easily. Finally they say 'this world is going to Hell' which I feel is a metaphor that work both in terms of our lack of willingness to make a difference and the effects of the heat without an ozone layer." -PunkFactorX
"You're interpretation is good but I'm going to have to disagree with you on the meaning of the line 'The balance is precarious as anyone can tell.' I believe that this is referring to the United States' overwhelming influence in the decisions of the other countries involved. Just because the United States dropped out of the treaty the rest of the countries backed off and the treaty fell through. In reality, just because one country backed out then that should not have made a difference in the lasting power of the treaty. Therefore, the treaty, with each country representing ONE country has a precarious balance because somehow the United States seem to have more 'say' than all the other countries involved combined, which they shouldn't." -Samhain138
"Additionally, kyoto-now.org maps to a website hosted on Cornell University's servers. I doubt if it is a coincidence that this is also where Greg Graffin is pursuing his Ph. D. In fact, I would surmise that Mr. Graffin wrote the song after being inspired by a sit-in staged by some of Cornell's Kyoto Now members. Details here: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April01/Kyoto.agreement.craft.html and here: http://www.rso.cornell.edu/greens/kyotonow/atcornell.html" -James Hutton
"Continuing from the last explanation of each line of the song: the second to last line: 'Alien, We need a fresh and new religion to run our lives' may in fact be a 2001 Space Odyssey reference, but here is another thought: the thought of a 'fresh and new religion' is alien. We can't fathom changing our lives for the sake of our children or the future. We need a 'religion,' faith in each other and faith in the human race to heal the earth." -Reprobate66
"I forgot a bit from my last entry for this song: The name Kyoto Now! may be a reference to the Kyoto legislation, but I think that the song's tenor doesn't stop there. Kyoto, as a city, is attempting to let man and nature live in harmony, and to be inter-woven between the two. A man is no better than the environment that he creates for himself. To quote from the Kyoto City website (http://www.city.kyoto.jp): 'Any city is in need of some ideal. When the ideal is based upon an accurate evaluation of conditions in the world and upon a deep reflection on its proper traditions, and if the citizens endeavor to realize that ideal, then that city can be expected to play an important role in the historical development of the world. In this spirit we have decided to declare the city of Kyoto to be a culturally free city, open to exchange of the cultures of the world.'" -Reprobate66
"Kyoto Now! is all about the Kyoto Accords, which president W. Bush didn't sign. The treaty basically says that industrialized countries will limit greenhouse gasses emitted by them. The Petrochemical Plunder and Disjointed Politics refer to why Bush didnt sign it (It is more costly to have cleaner emissions and his financial supporters (industries) didn't want to lose the money. It cant persist for long because we are polluting the air/earth. Like a double edged knife- we live our lives and we get to have nice things like cars but we have to pay the price (pollution, etc.). The brutal sun rising on our sick horizon- our polluted earth. We cant do nothing and hope someone else will make it right- we have to do something to stop the destruction fo earth. The Mythological Monster?? Maybe it means hoping that everything will right itself." -Tab
"I must disagree about the balance is precarious line. It sounds like they're talking about the peace accords; if all the other countries stop emitting harmful pollution except for just one, that one will still pollute the earth and tip the balance (Thus If one goes down, they all go down as well)" -Tab
"Everyone seems to generally agree what this song talks about so I have nothing to say there. But this song really sent chills up my spine when I got into the lyrics and learned about the Kyoto Protocol. From what little I know, our planet is at risk of being destroyed. Whether the global warming is really influenced by pollution or merely a natural biological process, I see no method or reason in risking it. Bush and those lame politicians don't give a damn because if there is a planetary meltdown in our future, they'll be gone by the time we see it. Rather, they ignore it, pretend it is a foreign attempt to seize power from the US, and continue to line their pockets with our blood money. What the hell was Bush thinking when he turned down Kyoto and why does nobody care that he is denying our future existence? I'm upset because if the "green extremists" are correct, we're gonna have a shitty life ahead of us and our children will be a hundred times worse than us. If they're wrong, then we still face the issue that our govt and the big corps don't care about us and are perfectly willing to sacrifice us if the situation calls for it. They gamble with our lives and I'm not willing to risk it." -R-Dogg |