Need Help Interpreting These Song Lyrics

[Michi713]

Of Course by Jane’s Addiction

 

If you are hanging out in here you are bored and can put in your two cents as to the meaning of this song.  I have my idea but don’t want it to influence your idea of what’s going on here.  Thanks if you bother to contribute.

 

 

Lyrics
 

Of course this land is dangerous
All of the animals
Are capably murderous

When I was a boy
My big brother held on to my hands
Then he made me slap my own face
I looked up to him then, and still do
He was trying to teach me something
Now I know what it was
Now I know what he meant
Now I know how it is

One must eat the other
Who runs free before him
Put them right into his mouth 
While fantasizing the beauty of his movements
A sensation not unlike
Slapping yourself in the face
Slapping yourself in the face
Slapping yourself in the face

[Michi713]

 

[Michi713]

Fuck it.

 

It’s about being a spectator, being entertained.  The one eating the other is the spectator watching the entertainer who is having the authentic experience (who runs free before him).

 

“Putting him right into his mouth” is the watcher consuming the free.  

 

“While fantasizing the beauty of his movements” is the second hand experience of witnessing the musicians, actors in the movie, sports players running across the field.  Living vicariously through the other instead of living oneself.

 

By being entertained we are robbing ourselves of direct experience while consuming those who are having direct experience.  It’s an asinine thing to do, not unlike slapping yourself in the face. 

 

And in doing so we are destroying authenticity until there is none left to feed upon.  Only simulation, second hand experience, and people sitting around slapping themselves in the face. 

 

Picture a stadium full of people slapping themselves in the face.  A country of people in front of their TVs doing the same.