anonymous Mar 15th 2013 !⃝SO, this is what I believe the song means. Of course, you are entitled to your own opinion. The Kurt Cobain comments are not worth the time it took to write them: don't confuse correlation with cause. I apologize in advance for the length of my interpretation, but then again, one only searches for lyric meanings when one has time to burn.
This song is about the lost feeling that you get when you realize that everything you've been working for is as pointless as "a rat in a cage" running the crap out of a wheel and getting nowhere. So, you toil away for fame, power or money, and then...? The whole thing is a vicious cycle.
The monetary system is flawed, built on debt. The masses are marginalized for the comfort of a few. You are reading this. That means you have access to a computer and the internet and the free time to look up rock lyrics. Did you earn these luxuries, or was it all some sick trick of chance?
Verse 1: You feel trapped because you hate what the cage does to you, how it drains your humanity,and no matter what you do, you tread on the fingers of the have-nots.
The Bridge is about cowardice. We are afraid to act out. Afraid we're wrong. /Maybe it will go away if we just sit this one out/, we think. Even though we can see so much evil, "even though I know", we feel we must be the better person by not getting involved. Patience "like old Job".
Verse 2 draws on Corgan's experience as a performer, but we can all relate to feeling empty and oh so tired; bargaining with yourself, "one more show". Just getting out of bed to start a day that has no meaning... you might as well be a naked animal, with no more meaning to your life than survival.
And that is the problem: we hate the system -- "I want to change" -- but we can do nothing. We feel isolated,and there is this creeping, restless thought crawling around in the back of our heads: what if we *all* feel trapped, and are just waiting for something to happen?
"Tell me I'm the only one
Tell me there's no other one
Jesus was the only son, yeah
Tell me I'm the chosen one
Jesus was the only son for you"
In Christian-Western society, we have been taught that subversive/anti-societal behavior is evil and should not be engaged in. At the same time, Jesus-figures keep popping up, snubbing authority and freeing the masses from their cages. The likes of George Washington,Winston Churchill, Martin Luther, Simon Bolivar, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela have risen against and above the opposition to lead their people into short eras of freedom and equality. Corgan is asking for a sign that it is his time to be the "chosen one". There is this constant conflict between these two trains of thought -- "Tell me I'm the chosen one" and "Jesus was the only son for you" -- and it results in a mire of frustration and anger, but "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage".
Corgan feels the futility of inaction, and no matter how hard he tries, "what was lost can never be saved". Are we a lost cause? The song ends with Corgan singing "I still believe that I cannot be saved".
What can we do? Will we eventually achieve some sort of collective "class consciousness"? How long can we keep blowing off steam by listening to 20-year-old alt-rock? Put your ear to the ground and you can hear society ripping at the seams. Whether it be outright international war or genocide; or a more subtle revolution, we are in for a bumpy ride. Buckle up and Rock On. D
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