Are we human or are we dancer?

And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes, clear your heart
Cut the cord

Are we human or are we dancer?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancer?

So, Ive always been curious to what this song really means and due to boredom and curiosity, I spent an hour reading about it online and these are the best interpretation by other people that I can find.

The line 'are we human or are we dancer?' was taken from a journalist Hunter S. Thompson before he committed suicide, and the deeper meaning behind it is this: It is not in the literal sense, like are we humans (species) or are we dancers. Dancers are not unique or individual when in a group, they are all the same. And each human is different, so he's saying are we individual or are we all the same. This theme continues when he sings 'Cut the cord' meaning puppets. Cut the cord so they can be free and unique -Katiemac

The imagery speaks of 'dancers' as almost like 'puppets'. Brandon is speaking of letting go, "platform of surrender" "cut the cord" "close your eyes, clear your heart" This "letting go" is to cease to be "Human" because he no longer has life, (eyes closed, cleared heart) and he feels like a "Dancer", a puppet on strings.The puppet versus human contrast is throughout. To be human is to have life and choice. To be dancer is to be controlled by strings or "cords". He uses a play on words, instead of "vital signs" his "signs are vital" and "my hands are cold", i.e. lifeless, he is lifeless, and reading his signs are vital in knowing what he really is. He goes on to "say goodbye" to everything (soul and romance, etc), embarking into that "open door" Like a slouched puppet, he's on his knees. Puppets have no strength in their legs. Yet he wants to "be let go" and to "cut the cord" could refer to losing his strings and being freed from control, no longer being a puppet. Or it could refer to no longer being human. If you "cut the cord", you pull life support on someone. In mythology, The Fates, "cut your cord" and you die, no longer with the life that makes one Human. -Icarus Fixius

Haha well, I'd never really figured it out myself. My initial interpretation was dancer was actually the opposite of a "puppet" imagery. I though being a dancer means being free and not tied down by humanly needs/social conformity or norms ... haha guess I was wrong. That's why i didnt take lit and should never take lit. Haha ok bye

Greek philosophers have the most ridiculous teachings on earth and i think that everything that they taught should be burnt forever because they are nothing but a bunch of nonsensical round about argument which is mind boggling and personally for me, beyond retarded. Or maybe im retarded.. Ive been reading these theories for 2 hours straight and the more i read the more confused i become and the more illogical everything becomes and Im so ANNOYED that I have to spend my weekend reading bullshit (!!!!) O.M.G how the hell did i get myself to take such a retarded class..... Haha this explains why Im an engineer.


"Man is the measure of all things, of those that are in so far as they are,and those that are not in so far as they are not."

Everything is relative. Reality being thus reduced to the subjectivism of experience, it was easy to make the transition of Gorgias to complete Skepticism.

"Nothing exists," said Gorgias; "if something does exist, we cannot know it; if we come to know it, we cannot teach it to others." This transition from the relativism of Protagoras to Skepticism seems logical. If reality is relative to the knowledge of empirical data, there is no reality of itself. Hence nothing exists. If it should exist, it would be impossible for it to be known by us as it is in itself, because we can be witnesses only of the impressions in their sensible immediacy, and no one assures us that this is representative of reality. Nor can we teach others what we know, since everyone has a different manner of feeling, and the manner of feeling of the master is not the same as that of his students.

Ok back to reading nonsense. Bye