What's Next?

All Along The Watchtower

by Bob Dylan

"There must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief
"There's too much confusion", I can't get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.

"No reason to get excited", the thief he kindly spoke
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late".

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

Having discussed this song has really caught my attention for two main reasons:

1. Because it's written by Bob Dylan. That statement is supposedly self-explanatory, but to make it clearer (especially for non-Old school stuff fans), I have a great liking for old music. One of the legendary names in music (during the time when most songs actually made sense and showed situations of society) is Bob Dylan, which explains my instant overreaction when I saw his name on the projector screen. Not many people, especially here in the Philippines, actually still listen to Bob Dylan or the like.
2. Seeing that the song is made by Bob Dylan, I expected the song to be something with great metaphors and reflects the way things really are in an exceptionally creative manner. And yes, my expectations were met – the song is beyond my expectations, in fact.

Having explained why this is what I have chosen to reflect about for this week, it would be just time to tell what I think of it. The first time I heard this song was, I admit, in the class itself. To be even more honest, I did not find it truly that special the first time I read its lyrics. Obviously, my judgment of it changed eventually after scrutinizing every line.

The metaphors of this song are quite hard to understand if not taken wholly. Line after line, the story reveals more the real message that Dylan wants to express to his listeners. After the song finishes, what it really means hits the listeners and get an “Oh!” moment. Apparently, I am one of those listeners. Basically, this song is about the revolutionaries represented by outsiders (fool and theif) who try to make a difference (about the social 'caste' or 'hierarchy' in the case of our class discussion but I think it could be more than that; Dylan may have been also referring to other injustices in the society that he could see). It was also established that the 'repetitive' tune of the song implies the never-ending cycle of it – society having a problem, some outsiders trying to change it, problem remains – and it goes on.

I would probably agree with Dylan in many aspects of his views manifested in this song. Yes, the representation of the revolutionaries or what I would prefer to call the 'fountainheads' (in reference to Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead) is quite right, that it is through the fool and the thief. This is true, not in all but in many cases since people who get to see the society as an outsider gets to pick out what the problems in it are rather than those who participate fully and are pampered inside that society. Also, yes, this has become truly a cycle that keeps repeating itself all over the history of mankind through many people of many kind who do it with many different strategies and ways, and yet, here we are still, stuck in the same centuries-old system.

However, I find myself wondering what would really happen if the 'end' that the joker and the thief strive hard to achieve is met. What would be of the world, really, if people are all equal and all these divisions and hierarchies in society are shattered? What is the point of living if the world is already at peace? I am not trying to be a sadist here or something, but I think it's quite reasonable to point that out, since I think what makes life interesting the way it is now is the problems we have and what makes people strive hard and think revolutionary is because of these injustices they see. But then, if all that is gone... “What's next?”

Let me also tell that I find these lines hard to forget - “"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke/But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate/So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late". I like this very much, being a fan of Philosophy and all. I remember through these lines a song by the Beatles: “Living is easy with eyes closed/Misunderstanding all you see”. And those lines are only too right. Ignorance is indeed bliss. Somehow, knowing connotes a sense of responsibility. It's a challenge to know, because you know you have to do something about what you know, especially when it is something wrong. The thief through those lines is trying to say that we must do something, us who know. It will not be easy, just as it had not been for the 'two riders' approaching the watchtower... Those who know may not even be able to destroy the watchtower... But then again, who said that is the only end to the means of those who know? Trying to make a change and making sense out of the one who knows' life is through that trial, is I think, quite enough.