"The Catalyst"

One of America's Dominant-ideologies is the belief that war is the answer to solving problems and gaining peace. The new song by Linkin Park, called "The Catalyst", criticizes this to much extent. The title is criticizing how we live today(catalyst*), by stating that we are speeding up the end of the world. One interpretation of this song is to make people think about how the consequences of our actions will affect our world. It is trying to show that sometimes what we do has had good intentions, but that it will actually have a negative affect on humanity. In this song it references nuclear weapons, they were made to end wars right? Yet they commit atrocities to the people of this world and also to the world itself. And still our country has nuclear weapons, even though everyone knows when only a single nuke is used for war, the rest of the world will be firing them off. As a result, the world as we know it will be utterly destroyed.

In my opinion, this is what the song talks about: We are a oppressed people living with a trigger finger(we are all waiting for one country to make the move). Most of the world has nuclear weapons even though once they are used, the destruction will be inevitable. One day we will wake up to a nuclear war and then all that will be left of us will be nuclear decay. It will be a uninhabited world, completely destroyed. That we need God to intervene so that we do not all die from the mistakes that will have caused the end.

This song is portraying that war is not always the answer, and that it will actually just lead to disaster. One of the verses say this "Will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns For the sins of our hand The sins of our tongue The sins of our father The sins of our young No". In other words, are we going to start and die in a nuclear war because of what decisions our leaders make, what countries say about each other, what our previous leaders have started, and of what our next generation will begin? No! Not if we stand up to war and to the use of nuclear weapons. Not if we accomplish things without the use of weapons and instead gain the courage to compromise with other countries. Another verse is "And it can't be outfought It can't be outdone It can't be outmatched It can't be outrun". Here it talks about how nuclear weapons can not be evaded. There is literally no place on earth where you can escape the effects of a nuclear war, one of many reasons why we should never start a nuclear war. Another is that there will only be one outcome of it, and that is death.

*(a catalyst is a substance placed into a chemical reaction in order to speed up the reaction)

http://www.linkinpark.com/page/the-catalyst-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bftTUAIVMUQ&feature=related