Annotations for Compliance

Lyric: Fall into line, you will do as you’re told
 No choice fatigue, your blood is running cold
 We lose control, the world will fall apart
Annotation:
Often powerful organisations gain their control through the obedience of their followers. While the followers depend on the organisations to take away the stress of independent thinking (much like a parent taking care of a child, as this voice has positioned themselves in a ‘caring’ role for most of the song), the organisations often ironically rely on the followers to keep their structure and recognition. Them also saying ‘the world will fall apart’ is a fear factor set in place to remove doubt from the follower. They are seen, as a result, as the ‘only right option’.

Lyric: Our toy soldier, you’ll do the dirty work
Annotation:
This line sounds way different from the reassuring tone of the rest of the song: the government’s intentions become clear to an external listener. War is a common rhetoric theme in many fields, used for motivation and encouragement: let’s think of sports, illnesses, businesses. Here the government is still able to present “the dirty work” to the victim as something empowering.

