Katie's View
OK, a lot of people have asked me to clarify the meaning of this song, but I still have no clue what it means. So, if it helps at all, here are Andrew's words about it: "You know I was reading like a Steven Mitchell interpretation of the Dao Te Ching, which is you know like an Eastern philosophy, and in it they kind of referenced this thing called a �Straw dog,� which is almost like in certain Eastern cultures it�s almost viewed as a crucifix in Christianity. They�re like a venerable, ritualistic symbol I guess, in a sense, cuz they use it in whatever religious ceremony, you know. But the catch is, once those ceremonies are through, they hold a parade in the streets and part of the festivities is they destroy this �Straw dog� that had been so respected through the religious ceremonies, and they just destroy it. So, I kind of used it as a metaphor for youth. You always hear how children are the hope of the future and we should invest so much time and energy in them, you know, just like the bullshit that politicians and teachers and parents all spit, and at the end of the day, you kind of see how really they say one thing but its like you really think that the youth of America are respected as the hope of the future and the way they�re treated by adults and various authority figures. Yea I kind of wrote it from a very angry place, disenfranchised with high school, and things like that. Kind of like one of those angst-ridden things you do when you�re sixteen writing music, you know? But, I mean I still kind of stand by it because I see it everyday. It�s like now you get a little older and you come to shows where you see security guards beating the shit out of kids who aren�t doing anything. You know it�s like you just see how everybody thinks kids are so appreciated in one sense, you also see how people are treated as if they were toys or something. So, that�s why I think we have so many fucked up kids now-a-days! I think where a lot of the problems come from. You�re constantly being fed two different messages, like constant double standard."