Silent Planet | Vanity of Sleep | Track-By-Track Analysis

Garrett talks with us about the meaning behind "Vanity of Sleep"
This is a love affair with consumer despair (1), an emptiness I can call my own… (2) an arbitrary sanctuary (3) where we deposit prayers to a dispensable God. (4)
Welcome to the end stage age (5) where joy is a pill and love’s a prescription. Vaccinated with an outward suspicion, isolation became our pre-existing condition. (6) Manifested drudge of my mass-manufactured consent… (7) but there’s a gaping hole in my consciousness: A deep that cries out to deep. (8)
This is a love affair with consumer despair, an emptiness I can call my own: An antidote for mystery, our indifference is deafening.
.אהיה אשר אהיה
(9)
There’s a presence here (10)… It stirs inside the static dissonance of discontent that refused to relent. I built a home overlooking a graveyard (to remind myself I’m still alive.) Yet you see a flaw still abides as I witness an ending that I can’t contrive. We watched a golden array of a casket parade as wealth makes it’s final display to the ground. I found it strange that even in this place death became such a gainful exchange.
Give me something to hold, give me something that bleeds. I’ll scour the earth for my identity. (11) Is there a cure for a sick society? (12)
So rich in this world, so in debt to ourselves. The network of life in such a disconnect. (13) How many times must we die this death?
Annihilation is all we are.
Desolation is everything I know.
All we are is all we love (14) and everything I know is destructible. Artificial heart, obsidian soul: Encircled by dreams that are combustible. (15) We trade the Garden for Cities (16), the Tree for a Tower (17) - surrendered our faith, became addicted to power. I know that hope grows inside of the Wound (18) and I know progress is empty (19) I must Be Consumed (20). So I’ll dig through these masks ’til I find my face; separate from the false pretense I embraced. (21) It kills me to know that you’ll never find peace. You can have all the world but you’ll never be free. (22)
Tear the stitches sewn across my existence. Cut me out from this nothingness.
Dusk will come and lay to rest our fleeting, fading, silhouettes. (23)
1. Karl Marx, Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy
2. Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
3. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer
4. Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity
5. Strauss-Howe generational theory
6. Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
7. Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent
8. Psalm 42:7
9. Exodus 3:14
10. Many Rooms, “There is a Presence Here”
11. Nita Mathur, Consumer Culture, Modernity, and Identity
12. Émile Durkheim, The Division of Labour in Society
13. Sam Esmail, Mr. Robot
14. Concept of Homo Liturgicus by James K. A. Smith
15. Matthew 6:19-20
16. Genesis 3:23
17. Genesis 11:1-9
18. Inhabit the Wound (2016)
19. Jason Scribner
20. Dying in Circles (2016)
21. Martin Buber, I and Thou
22. Mark 8:36
23. Ecclesiastes 1:3-5

[@viciousoz4188]

#GarrettForPresident2020

[@adriandouglas7208]

Dust ,wind ..........dude......bc were not in Kansas anymore

[@Terdfertersen]

I don’t think garret owns any shoes

[@bigd3721]

Tyler Tassin I seen him walk into the restroom with no shoes at a venue 😂

[@gavinfranzone7056]

I went to dinner with him after a show in St. Louis and he had an old pair that I think someone gave him to have just in case.

[@johnreeves6621]

Dude is on a different level

[@macjbd1149]

How do we petition to get Garrett on JRE?!?!

[@benjaminranchwood2546]

Yes!

[@Ghostyfrost9688]

dude that'd be dope. It'll never happen though

[@edwardgiles9271]

I would love to watch Garrett interact with Joe

[@seizuresalad91]

Yo that would be AMAZING

[@cjb1515]

LOVE these videos! Most excited for “Lower Empire”

[@Terdfertersen]

chris bailey same

[@predwards8941]

I’ve had a borderline spiritual relationship with silent planet as of late

[@lukeafax2011]

“KZbin comment..people....” 😂😂😂

[@No1WillMakeItOutAlive]

6:05 Y E E T

[@blantonstamey6455]

Awesome video. Breaking away from materialism is so freeing.

[@pHoTyPHoToN]

i can almost sense the Mr. robot scene Garret is specifically getting at where he's (Elliot) getting asked by his counselor "What is it about society that bothers you so much?"

[@ryangrube2389]

Garrett, you wear a crown of leaves in this piece.

[@Ghostyfrost9688]

As far as lyrical content goes this is my favorite silent planet song. I will NEVER be a victim of American consumerism. I invite you all to join me. Material objects are worthless. I'm no Marxist, but fuck pure capitalism

[@Ghostyfrost9688]

I can relate to this song so much. Fuck materialism and fuck greed. Great explanation too

[@oliviaryckman2617]

I'm an English major so when he said to check out the "Second Coming", I got so excited! It really puts this song into perspective.

[@brandontadday6288]

Cant wait till you guys SP come back down to Australia. Saw them a few months back with MTS in melbourne and was blown away. Meeting Garrett was a moment I'll never forget.

[@ugodurante5159]

5:35 i think this is one of the most important things garret ever said in those interviews

[@Ghostyfrost9688]

5:01 I think this is the most important thing he has ever said. Especially his statement about how the people we elect into government are the same people who worship consumerism and wealth. That is so fucking true. The amount of corruption in US government is truly disgusting. It's time to start electing politicians who are more in line with morality (or God if you're religious) than corruption and greed. BERNIE 2020

[@loganwelty7094]

This song broke my brain when I first heard it. Had to listen to it at least a dozen more times to fully digest it

[@Ghostyfrost9688]

This song clicked with me and my worldview immediately. I fell in love instantly

[@stigm1318]

The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[@ghastlyshimmer]

Mr.Robot, I love that series

[@tactileinput]

YOU QUOTED MANY ROOMS?! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

[@hydewarscore]

Garrett is misguided here. I love his music and came to understand his lyrics. Based on his lyrics, his worldview is focused on the first world and therefore the criticisms he reads on consumerism is applied most to that. But he forgets about most of the entire world population. Lets take China, the country with a population of over a billion. The country's government officially celebrates Karl Marx's birthday. They are a one party state (with a private sector because they need money from capitalism to survive). Living there, I learned the sharing mindset is indeed real. Less "I", and more 'we." But I realized after a while this was instilled into the people for the benefit of the few, mainly the government. And furthermore, it is not of free will, but by force. This breeds a society of greed where babies die from milk powder and being religious is basically illegal. This is reflected most clearly in the 2013 study by Ipsos. They proposed questions and statements to many people from different countries, to agree or disagree. One of which was “I measure my success by the things I own” The #1 country to agree was China at 71% while the US was much lower at around 21%. Just so happens the country most critical of capitalism is the most materialistic. And that's just one example. The song is written to send a message to whom it least applies to, using some philosophers who are literally incompatible. If you truly wish to find a place in a love affair with consumer despair, look to other places around the planet we share. Self-deprecation will not save us.

[@lukedavies6646]

You can critique one culture at a time. Garrett is clearly critiquing generalised western culture. It's not necessary for him to focus on the rest of the world simultaneously: Very few lyrics would apply to all cultures simultaneously.

[@hydewarscore]

@@lukedavies6646 Very true. Although his critique of our culture proposes alternative ideas from men who actually produced more materialism. See how the resulting effect is actually opposite of the goal effect?

[@chr0my850]

because it is not marxist by any means. The whole thing about marxism is worker control and self-determination. It only uses Marxism to seem pro-people but they apply nothing from him.

[@IrishFists]

I love his perspectives on things but it would be beneficial if he realized how there is another side to things he is not seeing. Very often the ones who are more perceptive in some ways fail to see what's right in front of them. I feel like he is kind of picking and choosing and not looking at the full picture. Especially when it comes to politics and his description of America. He is mirroring very popular anti West tropes we hear time and time again. I think it would benefit him so much to listen to some like Jordan Peterson who can explain some of the ignored realities when it comes to some of these topics.

[@cole1130]

IrishFists Jordan Peterson lmao

[@IrishFists]

Cole Brown What is lol about that?

[@mpk6664]

Jordan Peterson is exactly how you describe Gerrett.

[@skyreach669]

You completely missed his point dude

[@linker94]

"fail to see whats in fron of them" .... "not looking at the full picture" What now?

[@JackFrost-xvxv]

🩷🩶🤍🖤I found this band 2 days ago. & I can not express just how on board I am with them after researching just who these cats are. 🩷🩶🤍🖤