In the United States we are constantly bombarded by texts and images that depict the American Dream. These stimuli attempt to dissuade us from developing our own individuality. Advertisements, politicians, and even works of art all pull at us to join the movements of the masses. Corporations want us all to be the same, so we'll buy the same things over and over no matter how frequently they brand their products. Since corporations control the media, the level of brainwashing has reached new levels in the last few decades. This influences American individuality because original ideas are often replicated, stolen, and manufactured into products that the whole population can eventually have access to. Not only do these advertisements have an effect on our individuality, but on our emotional states as well. A Radiohead song called Fitter Happier, written by British singer Thom Yorke, is a satire of the condition one lives in when American values and computerized efficiency are put to heart.
If you listen to the minute-long song, which really reads like a poem, you will hear a monotonous computer-like voice that hauntingly sounds emotional. The piano and the violin in the background of the song strike dissonant chords as the drone projects its state of living to the listener. Listening to this song for the first time may bring tears to your eyes. If you’ve ever thought about how the human spirit is slowly becoming more static and digital, then hearing this anthem of despair might take you to a very frightening place.
The song opens with the vocalist stating how he has improved (“regular exercise at the gym... a patient safer driver”). These are both conventional activities that most Americans have steadily become accustomed to as a result of modern living. The life he wishes to lead seems to be deprived of individual freedoms and is more based on what's expected of him.
As the piece continues the listener gets the sense that it isn’t meant to be taken literally, but more as a work of satire. The drone uses extremely sarcastic remarks towards the middle of the piece, such as, “No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants” and, “Still kisses with saliva”, to convey that the piece may be better defined as a satire. This sarcasm works by convincing the listener that the computer is in fact human, or is perhaps a human feeling more robotic lately due to his changing lifestyle, and that everything he is saying may be interpreted in a different context.
As the work progresses, the listener starts to feel deeper emotional ties and a sense of empathy for the vocalist. After all, the listener may already be brainwashed by the exact same lifestyle obsession of achieving the American Dream that the speaker is suffering from. “Fond but not in love” implies that the emotional state must constantly be repressed in order to sustain such determination. Further evidence from the song supports this: “Nothing so incredibly teenage and desperate, nothing so childish” is dryly sarcastic in that it mocks the repression of childish instincts in our drive to achieve.
Further ahead, “No chance of escape” might resemble the true nature of this processed human, as recognized by his intrinsic system of values (or Thom Yorke actually decided to mix the literal with the figurative, as so many other affective artists do). In this line, the vocalist gives us the direct impression that he is not happy with the path he has chosen. When you have corporations and billboards telling you what to value, real individual values become forgotten and are replaced by them. Corporations seek to degrade the human spirit and promote low self-esteem in order to isolate us from developing any sense of identity. “No chance of escape” is the key line in the song; it's the anomaly in the microprocessor that transforms its coded thoughts into a satirical criticism, and thence into the desperate cry of a mortified human.
Some of the lines in this piece reflect other tenets of achieving the American Dream. “Pragmatism not idealism” and “the ability to laugh at weakness” reflect ideals that take the focus away from dreamy pursuits and puts it on achieving greatness (whatever that means to the individual). Such is another American ideal: valuing feelings of superiority or winning.
At the end of the song the vocalist finally gains a sense of awareness. He gives two direct metaphors that resemble his condition after choosing the path that made him conventional: “Like a cat, tied to a stick, that’s driven into frozen winter shit”; “A pig, in a cage, on antibiotics”. The listener suddenly knows that the dissonant atmosphere of the entire song has complemented the conclusion that the American doctrine of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” has been overshadowed by the desensitization of conventionality.
Whenever I listen to this song, I can always feel the sting of tears penetrating the corners of my eyes. Sometimes I feel that just listening to the computer-human allows me to become him. It feels like the same walls in a prison cell surround me; that I am lost and obsolete in a digital framework that suffocates me. I look around at my fellow Americans and wonder if they really know what they want. The reason why most of them can't answer this question is because they have so many things telling them what they want instead of listening to their hearts and figuring it out on their own. I see my peers and understand why they tend to distance themselves from the rest of the world. The pressure of achieving success in our society is so great that it ironically hurts our development. I also think about how the United States is the country with the highest percentage of its population being treated for mental illness. I look at the entire world and see how globalization can be better defined as a virus, copying our dogmas and filtering them down through other countries like Great Britain, where the lyricist is from.
One redeeming thing about this piece is that it offers a warm abode of sympathy, a comforting feeling that reminds me I am not alone. While most American ideals desensitize the human spirit, it is the freedom we have in America that allows us to find different ways of escaping the system it created. Art like this can still take us away whenever the overwhelming pressure of the world unhinges us. While Fitter Happier depressingly reminds us that we are slaves to modern society, it also rekindles the great comfort of knowing that individuality will never be overshadowed by the American Dream, so long as people are still expressing themselves in works like these.
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