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Date Posted: 22:29:03 12/30/02 Mon
Author: Sha'uri
Subject: Re: What's meant by the line 'tonight thank god it's them instead of you'?
In reply to: Jumbo 's message, "What's meant by the line 'tonight thank god it's them instead of you'?" on 07:53:39 12/20/02 Fri

I agree with Shaz, It's kind of like seeing a child with severe behavioural problems for example, and looking down at your own child and being so grateful that your child isn't having to deal with those challenges. To be honest, in my opinion, many people complain like mad about their own lives, and forget that others are worse off. That line is quite honest in that it is what most people think about bad things, if they don't have to deal with it they 'thank God it's not me' and walk away. Like most things you have to take what is being said (or written or sung) in context, the whole idea of the album was to actually do something practical to help 'them' so by including that line it is more a comment on the social attitudes in the west (in my humble opinion) rather than an expression of the authors viewpoint literally (in my spare time I am a mind reader, you might be able to tell. hehe!)

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[> Re: What's meant by the line 'tonight thank god it's them instead of you'? -- ericalper, 12:52:04 01/07/03 Tue

I took it as a typical NIMBY response - thank God WE don't have those racial problems, thank God WE don't live like our neighbours. It's a use in songwriting to change the perspective without letting the listener know you've done that, from a third party, to Bono taking the role of the person talking. tt's an amazing line, and one of the best in the song, putting it back in our faces for us to dwell on people (maybe even us) who have said that very same thing while watching the news of famine.


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