The meaning behind “Them Bones”

What the video proposes is that life has no meaning. It is suggested, for example, that being born entails a profound contradiction because it is marked by death, i.e. the end of everything we will cultivate in life. So why live if we are going to die? There are several concepts that jump out at us here. Entropy, for example, is a recurring theme. The meaning of death brings to light the absence of a metaphysical meaning in the culture of modern man, so the great enemy to be defeated is death. Scientifically and technologically this is the aim of our modern societies, to live longer and better. In the end we will return to these concepts, first let’s see how the video is visually constructed.

The video captures the band’s performance in a kind of burial ground to which rivers of blood and rubbish are gradually adhering. Red and black are predominant in the setting, naturally to reinforce the sense of death. But what is most striking are the sequential images that are projected on this stage. Generally we see insects, worms and wild animals killing each other, but we also see the image of a newborn baby emerging from its mother’s womb in a hospital ward. In order to elaborate a philosophical reading of the video, let us take up the conceptual content of the song.

I believe them bones are me
Some say we're born into the grave
I feel so alone
Gonna end up a big ol' pile of them bones
Ah! Ah! Ahh!
Dust rise right on over my time
Empty fossil of the new scene
I feel so alone
Gonna end up a big ol' pile of them bones
Toll due, bad dream come true
I lie dead gone under red sky
I feel so alone
Gonna end up a big ol' pile of them
I feel so alone
Gonna end up a big ol' pile of them
I feel so alone
Gonna end up a big ol' pile of them bones

The first thing we notice is the condition of finitude recognized in the mortal existence of being. Being born implies being part of life, but also of death. This perspective does not exalt life, but the lack of it. So little can be experienced of such a vast reality that the modern being feels incomplete and alone in a world he does not understand.

The sequence of disturbing images of insects reminds us that we are as perishable as any object in nature, but the death that will someday come to us will also serve to feed the hunger of non-human creatures making the process more unpleasant. Here we can invoke entropy as an inescapable universal law that puts us on the same level as all universal matter. If we age, die and decay into dust, what is so special about us. We cannot reverse the process, we are only born to die following the law of entropy.

Another interesting sequence of images shows animals devouring each other, which may reveal one of the characteristics of the law of survival: only the strongest and fittest survive in a brutal and merciless environment. Our civilization does not escape this reality, on the contrary, it has adapted in a more subtle way, the sense being the same: reward the strongest and kill the weakest.

So our relationship with the world is not simple; on the contrary, it is dramatic, chaotic and frustrating. The idea that life is meaningless because the world is a dark place full of traps, suffering and death has been developed for millennia. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer conceived of suffering and evil as ontological because it is part of a metaphysical reality. In his reasoning the earthly world is the result of a elen vital or creative life force that is spread in all matter, and individuals are no exception. This cosmic Will has no other purpose than to perpetuate itself in individual beings, who are also imprisoned by the need to perpetuate themselves. But as finite wills seeking to perpetuate themselves, they necessarily come into conflict with other beings also enslaved by the same desire. Consequently, the world of individual existence is necessarily a world of conflict and suffering.

Religion only creates the illusion that earthly life is a transition to a better, more just life. But the irruption of science and deterministic thinking gradually eroded the religious discourse. The cultural impact of this change transformed society. Philosophers like Nietzsche postulated that our era is marked by the death of God. Just as science opened the doors to knowledge it also darkened the life of the individual because it expropriated the metaphysical meaning of life. As a result, humanity must face anew the terrors of existence, must realize not only that the Universe is basically indifferent to the welfare of individual lives, but that individuals die and kill each other just to make room for more life. Contempt for this purposeless and meaningless life is what we know as nihilism, and Nietszche is one of its chief exponents. “Them Bones” leads us to think about all these issues. The lack of a universal meaning that justifies life, the primacy of death and what it entails. All these elements come together in a visual piece that exalts a pessimistic nihilism, but real as well.