markjaquith

Old topic, but I love this song and thought I'd add my interpretation. The band has said the song is based on the Hunter S. Thompson quote that America was raising "a generation of dancers." Thompson's meaning isn't immediately obvious, because we normally use dancing metaphors to describe an independent and free-spirited person ("she dances to her own tune"). What Thompson meant was not freestyle dancers, but choreographed dancers who move according to another person's design. Square dancing would be a good example, where there is quite literally a voice booming from on high telling the dancers what their next move will be, and stepping out of line can result in the scorn of the rest of the square. Once this is explained, the meaning of the lyric "Are we Human, or are we Dancer?" becomes fairly obvious: are we living up to the aspects of our species that make us human (being free, rational beings), or are we just mindlessly going through the motions that someone else has prescribed? The rest of the lyrics bear this out: "Sometimes I get nervous, when I see an open door" — talking about how it can be frightening to escape from the comforting lull of conformity and cut your own path in the world. "Close your eyes, clear your heart... and cut the cord" — encouraging listeners to embrace individualism, and shed the shackles of a safety net. "Pay my respects to grace and virtue, send my condolences to good. Give my regards to soul and romance, they always did the best they could. And so long to devotion, you taught me everything I know." — This is a bit more muddled with its rejection of "virtue" and "good," but it seems to be a farewell to religion and abstract spiritual concepts like "soul" and "grace." To me, this implies that he's leaving to seek for meaning elsewhere (presumably basing it on something more concrete). I find it to be quite an uplifting song!