Submission Complete

Song details

Bad Religion original
Yes
First released
2007
First release
New Maps of Hell (album)
Songwriter
Greg Graffin

Lyrics

Submission Complete

Dedication is the price you pay: the initiated are Coddled and caged Before you walk, as soon as you crawl Hope is pointless 'cuz you're stuck in the trawl Fuck the freshman lectures and brandishments They just betray impoverished accomplishments The puppet masters fear originality They tighten up the tethers and they shackle your feet Submission complete! Young recruits never have a chance, enticed to The drill, admonished to dance Early to rise and early to shine, life is long but the end is nigh Break the guilty trammels from yesteryear Remember how rejuvenation conquers all fears Lowly opportunists take commanding roles And hawk ultimatums so their weakness won't show The sad reflection of dead ambition You live for nothing Submission complete! Yeah, break the guilty trammels from yesteryear Remember how the taste of failure makes it all clear The lowly opportunists take commanding roles And hawk ultimatums so their weakness won't show The sad reflection of dead ambition You live for nothing Expectation, indoctrination Life's a damnation Submission complete! Dying on your feet Submission complete A total defeat

Versions & recordings

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Song statistics

Archive coverage at a glance

18release versions
#214

214th most featured song

72documented shows
#95

95th most played song

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Song Interpretations

What do you think this song is about? Share your interpretation and explain your reasoning.

6

legacy memberNov 23, 2011
Welcome to corporate reality.
badrelgnsfAug 27, 2009 · edited Aug 22, 2010
I feel that this song is indeed using military overtones but the undertone is applied to life in general and how we organize ourselves in it, and what we do with it.
USA wants our people to be void of individuality and thought and creativity or mindsets that are anything but some fixed paradigm of a weak bloated bastard who was just the product of yet another "markovian process" of yesteryear as he puts it.
whitelights9Aug 27, 2009 · edited Aug 22, 2010

George Orwell said " It is possible to dehumanize all society, and for life to go on.." My own interpretation of this relates to; put in your best effort in the given structural limitations your confined in and when submission is complete you either make the grade or your not good enough. But actually, It seems that may apply to college structural mandates to form the nations; we all know that's a circus of profes…

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George Orwell said " It is possible to dehumanize all society, and for life to go on.."

My own interpretation of this relates to; put in your best effort in the given structural limitations your confined in and when submission is complete you either make the grade or your not good enough.
But actually, It seems that may apply to college structural mandates to form the nations; we all know that's a circus of professorial senility.

But from the lyrics it seems to be most likely about military recruits. The predominant core of them, uneducated, joined to put some kind of substantial purpose in their lives, because they cant see past it and feel the urgency to do something of the sort. They don't have the wisdom yet to understand that it's merely a "trawl" of irrational indoctrination.
nropevolIMar 2, 2009 · edited Aug 22, 2010
My interpretation of this song is that it's about the American soldiers fighting in an Arabic country to free people. I think a lot of the lyrics fits perfectly on Islamic wives. The guitar solo and chords in the verses have an eastern sound as well. At the same time it's about the Americans that aren't free themselves. They all have a boss to answer to.

road dogFeb 7, 2009 · edited Aug 22, 2010

i find this song to be about what it is to be learned and the limitations people with power (educators) can impose when they dont relate with their pupils. It's about losing your individuality....or it's about how the hunger and motivation to achieve finally subsides as a result of making sure you've jumped through all the correct hoops. The submission is genuinely completed as you conformed to make the grade and in…

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i find this song to be about what it is to be learned and the limitations people with power (educators) can impose when they dont relate with their pupils. It's about losing your individuality....or it's about how the hunger and motivation to achieve finally subsides as a result of making sure you've jumped through all the correct hoops. The submission is genuinely completed as you conformed to make the grade and in the end, once you've earned it, you no longer remember how to be 'yourself.' The guilt may or may not be self imposed but it's my feeling that the derives from what the viewpoint of the people running the show (educators) would perceive and would go out of their way to guilt you about, or make an example for the rest of the 'young recruits.'
legacy memberFeb 6, 2008 · edited Date unknown
I assume this song is very similar to "All Good Soldiers" in meaning. That the military (and, in this case, specifically the US military) grabs hold of the less fortunate and poorly educated and sends them off to die on a basis of false hopes and flat-out lies, only leaving them broken and dehumanized upon return to society.