“Toxicity” by System of a Down

Toxicity
American
2001

This is a song about consumerism pushed by corporations and greedily accepted by the masses. Addiction to consumption has created a toxic existence that only Christ can dispel.

Conversion, software version 7.0

Looking at life through the eyes of a tire hub

Eating seeds as a pastime activity

The toxicity of our city, of our city

Now, what do you own the world?

How do you own disorder, disorder

Now somewhere between the sacred silence

Sacred silence and sleep

Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep

Disorder, disorder, disorder

More wood for the fires, loud neighbors

Flashlight reveries caught in the headlights of a truck

Now, what do you own the world?

How do you own disorder, disorder

Now somewhere between the sacred silence

Sacred silence and sleep

Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep

Disorder, disorder, disorder

Now, what do you own the world?

How do you own disorder, disorder

Now somewhere between the sacred silence

Sacred silence and sleep

Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep

Disorder, disorder, disorder

When I became the sun

I shone life into the man’s heart

Interpretation

Conversion, software version 7.0

Looking at life through the eyes of a tire hub

Eating seeds as a pastime activity

The toxicity of our city, of our city

This first stanza sets the tone by mocking AOL and other companies that constantly put out updates with few meaningful changes. These corporate machines hope to create value through mass. The narrator compares these corporation’s myopic focus to watching “life though the eyes of a tire hub”. In other words, these companies are so intent on gaining market share and profit, they are only able to see the blur of the street flashing past rather than a broader scene. Not only do corporations contribute to “the toxicity of our city” through dehumanizing profit-grabbing, but people are believing what the companies tell them. Advertising has convinced us to buy into the health craze whereby we eat “seeds as a pastime activity” in an attempt to lose weight, gain muscle, prevent aging, and achieve and maintain erections. The narrator declares this obsession is toxic.

Now, what do you own the world?

How do you own disorder, disorder

Now somewhere between the sacred silence

Sacred silence and sleep

Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep

Disorder, disorder, disorder

In the chorus we see that the narrator’s anger is directed again at corporations. He asks if these corporations think they “own the world”. But how can a corporation own life, which, in the mind of the narrator, is characterized by “disorder”. This is presumably the jumbled up mess that is humanity. At times we do good, other times we do evil. Sometimes we sell our souls to corporate advertising and other times we take the road of self-denial and simplicity. The narrator goes on to say that our lives are marked by “disorder” from our birth (“the sacred silence” of the womb) to our death (“sleep”).

More wood for the fires, loud neighbors

Flashlight reveries caught in the headlights of a truck

This brief stanza builds on the idea in the chorus about the disorder that marks our lives. “More wood for the fires” describes our practice of destroying the environment for our own needs. “Loud neighbors” describes first the selfishness of being obnoxious when in close proximity to others and second the separation that exists between “neighbors” who should be more intimate. “Flashlight reveries” refers to a crime being committed that is “caught” by the authorities (in the “headlights of [their] truck”).

Now, what do you own the world?

How do you own disorder, disorder

Now somewhere between the sacred silence

Sacred silence and sleep

Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep

Disorder, disorder, disorder

Now, what do you own the world?

How do you own disorder, disorder

Now somewhere between the sacred silence

Sacred silence and sleep

Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep

Disorder, disorder, disorder

When I became the sun

I shone life into the man’s heart

This final stanza is an assertion of great hope. The narrator is identified as Jesus (“the sun”, read: “Son”), who shines “life into the man’s heart”. Looking back over the song, Jesus shows anger at corporations for the toxic consumerism that they propagate and at the people who trade their old values for these materialistic ones. The “life” that Jesus shines into our hearts is a light that exposes our greed and toxic selfishness. With the light shining on our evil we can no longer avoid the disorder that corporations try to exploit and that we try to paint as something other than evil.