My friends Matthew and Josh recently started a community of bloggers doing what they call “Poetry Wednesday.” The idea is simple: post your favorite poetry (yours or someone else’s) on Wednesdays. And that’s it. So here’s mine:In honor of their 7th full length album in their 21 year career (titled:
The Infinite Order) - I give you my favorite song so far:
"Nietzsche’s Madness"by
Living SacrificeMoral laws do not apply / The mind is capable to justify
The madman has come / The madness attacks my mind
Cannot comprehend a purpose in randomness
Where is God? Have you killed him?
Self aware observation / Thousands of years
Finite greatness, finite cruelty
Which is the standard of man without God? Meaningless
Which is the standard of man? No rationale for what exists
The madman has come / The madness attacks my mind
Cannot comprehend a purpose in randomness
Where is God? Have you killed him?
Liberation of no law / Exhilaration of no God
Justified in the mind / Leads to horrors of every kind
What if there was a gun to your head? Would it not matter?
What if there was a gun to your head? No meaning in your death
The madman has come / The madness attacks my mind
Cannot comprehend a purpose in randomness
Where is God? Have you killed him?
Story behind the lyrics:
[From an interview with NoiseCreep.com] [...] Guitarist and screamer Bruce Fitzhugh takes aim at atheism on the track ’Nietzsche’s Madness.’ "Nietzsche was a 19th century German philosopher and atheist, who is most famous for declaring ’God is dead,’" Fitzhugh told Noisecreep. "The song references the ultimate outcome and rationale of atheistic thinking, where life is random (by pure chance) and has no meaning."
The lyrics were inspired by a book by Christian writer and lecturer Ravi Zacharias, titled ’Can Man Live Without God?’ Fitzhugh believes that man might be able live without God, but it doesn’t seem to turn out very well.
"[Nietzsche’s] philosophy eventually influenced Hitler and the Nazis," Fitzhugh went on to explain. "Part of the lyrics are influenced by a parable that Nietzsche wrote called ’The Madman,’ specifically the line in the song ’Where is God? Have you killed him?’ The parable reads, ’Whither is God? I Shall tell you. We have killed him – you and I.’ Ironically, toward the end of his life, Nietzsche showed signs of insanity himself, and that is where the title of the song came from, along with the title of his parable."
