[Verse 1: Jonny 5]
That was as far as the tide came in
I remember the starfish, and the wails of the sirens then
We replaced the tridents, embraced Poseidon
Discovered ourselves living on an island
[Brer Rabbit and Jonny 5]
We flow like water across the lost city
Chalk prophecies and washed off graffiti
Incontinence, trade off for payoff
And high concepts then lost to chaos
Many tales radiate from one nexus
Defending a dream of a new directive
A call from the deep sums up the notion
The day when the people bum rushed the ocean
[Hook: Mackenzie Gault]
From the beaches they
Ran to meet the day after
Underneath the waves
Won't repeat the same chapter
Knew what they had to do
[Verse 2: Jonny 5]
That which creates life has power to take it right back
Fucking with the ice caps
We've gotta push the tide back
We can survive collapse
If we don't get sidetracked
If we visualize livin'
Underwater hidden by prisms
Countries fall but people transition
If one for all we live in that vision
Hundred dollar bill origami
Balloon inflation new world economy
We float on tsunami to global warming
We need structures to control what's coming
Corporate monopolies obsolete
That philosophy leaves us lost at sea
We are the warriors that won't get conquered
Cause rising tides drown all villages
Divided fighters succumb to pillage
Rescuers, whatever your latitude
It's time to pioneer a new world attitude
Put local cycles first
We're Global islanders
With nothing left to plunder
[Hook: Mackenzie Gault]
From the beaches they
Ran to meet the day after
Underneath the waves
Won't repeat the same chapter
Knew what they had to do
[Verse 3: Jonny 5]
For centuries human beings have pursued the meaning of Atlantis
Central to their teachings is that its existence
Answers man's essential questions
Much like the feeding of the five thousand
Even if the facts aren't accurate, the story's magic is alive
[Brer Rabbit]
Of utmost importance to divert the impertinent
Atlantis holds the answer to man's ills at their most pertinent
Aspersions easily dispersed when I certainly answer
The most diverse aversions when at first they channel...
Is that all you hold for a warrior's role?
The ground shakes to claim my country, not my soul
I thought I toiled for the loss in the waves
And I will not tire, I'll die no slave
If the sea's my grave, I sleep with my city
My people, my oath, my shame, my city
Is that I can not save my city from the waves that claim you
And curse the gods who can't explain who to blame
At the end of the rain, heed me
The season passes Atlas
His keeps in the sediment
Failing monumentally and leaving no monuments to see
[Jonny 5]
And survival hinged on the ascent by the humble
And the sirens wailed as the empire crumbled
With nothing to plunder, corporations drowned
Waves clapped like thunder and stormed the gates with sound
Forming a new nation now
As the ice caps melted, water levels rose
We raised our hands together and made the levees hold
Heels in the sand, we revealed the depths below
The population of starfish exploded from the ocean
Survival we unified to focus on
And the voices were many but we spoke as one
As the tale was retold, we multiplied
And swelled across the fault line to halt the tide
We let the altars die to keep our pulse alive
And from the barren wastelands of naked trash
We stitched together a shelter from fallen nations' flags
And chose to build a future from an ancient past
The Crowns of Thorns were worn , we put the tritons down
We found new forms of anchors deep inside the ground
The world is an island now
Modern day capitalism functions by systematically stripping everything of value from the vulnerable. When they run out of resources to extract, they will collapse and nothing of value will remain anywhere
Here, sirens can mean either those on emergency response vehicles or the sirens of Greek mythology that would lure sailors to death on rocky shores with their singing.
So “wails of the sirens” could describe a major disaster with fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars responding, or it could be that come cataclysm has occurred that makes even the mythological sirens wail in distress.
According to its legend, Atlantis was an island nation
According to globalization theory, the world is becoming more like an island socioeconomically, as instead of many isolated economies with limited interaction, we have one global economy and no way to expand past it.
This line alludes to “America the Beautiful,” making a comparison between the mythical state of Atlantis, and the state of America right now.
Latitude is an angular measure of distance north or south from the planet’s equator. This line is saying no matter where you are in the world, you need to be a part of the movement.
In mythology, Atlas is the titan responsible for holding the sky up, lest it crash to the ground and kill us all.
We name books of maps after him in return.
Marwar is in India and Cochabamba is a city in Bolivia. They are quite far apart geographically, meaning the Flobots' movement is equally widespread.
I wonder if what they are referring to here is the Pangaea Theory. The Theory that all the continents were once only one continent and many thousands of years ago they separated into the current continents. There is a theory that the rising water level will cause the continents to join together once again. This would be cataclysmic at first but some scientists theorize that the continents will one day join together again. The world would become an island.
PROPOSED SUGGESTION: The world is an Island in a 3 dimensional sense, we’re surrounded by uninhabitable empty space around us. If we destroy the ability to survive on this ‘island’, we won’t survive, and like the atlanteans, no one will no we existed. Our fates are inextricably linked.
Johnny 5 is talking about companies opting for “payoffs,” in the form of saving money, at the expense of safety and environmentally-friendly operations, such as not updating their equipment to EPA standards—a practice that led to the infamous 2010 BP oil spill. Such disregard and incontinence resulted in what’s considered the largest accidental oil spill in history.
In the New Testament, Jesus had a crown of thorns forced onto his scalp as a mockery by the Romans for his claim as King of the Jews.
Here, the Crown of Thorns represents the suggestion that those in charge of the new world should govern humbly and with love as Jesus did, instead of the splendor and pompousness that more traditional crowns connote.
