While reading Eric Hoffer's The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, I came across this passage:



I strongly suspect that this quote was the inspiration for Inner Logic and goes a long way toward explaining its meaning.

The title in itself explains what the song is about. It's obvious that Graffin is explaining how the United States government is set up to "protect the opulent", which is the ruling class, who sets their own policies. Corporations are the ones who are in control, and therefore look out for their own internal interests, not the masses. The song tries to explain how blind American's are when it comes to our form of "democracy" in that we don't question anything. We accept everything they do, we don't protest ("I don't ask questions, don't promote demonstrations") The fact is we live under tyranny, and not democracy. Our government uses our soldiers to spread their empirical ambitions, taking over vital resources, overthrowing Democratically elected governments (like Allende) when need be, and supporting terrorist atrocities (check out Latin America). And as good American's we don't question anything. The "inner logic" is the secret goals the powers at be have for their global domination. The new Rome.

This song adresses the question of how a society that offends equality and human dignity can possibly survive.
Broadly, the answer it gives is that the prevailing ideology- capitalism- covers its back by using petty preoccupations and false "complexity" to distract attention from its own inner logic. For instance, those in the best position to percieve capitalism's true nature, the businessmen, are robbed of their ability to think freely by the rat race. Just like "drone ants", they cannot observe the world with any degree of clarity. They are "contented", though, in their ignorance of the true nature of the system they serve.
Crucially, the "Inner Logic" itself is left open for the listener. In my opinion it refers to the ruthless dog-eat-dog ethic of free market capitalism, red in tooth and claw it is efficient, "simple and elegant". But it also horrifies our humanist, compassionate instincts for equality and justice.
This is why it is dangerous and must be hidden.

This is one of my favorite Bad Religion songs! Here's my take on it, a verse at a time. "automatons with business suits clinging black boxes/sequestering the blueprints of daily life/contented, free of care, they rejoice in morning ritual/as they file like drone ant colonies to their office in the sky" This verse talks about the average office worker that lives every day the same, working in their skyscraper towers, totally oblivious to the "evil and deception" that the governent and media feed to citizens daily. The chorus is very interesting: "I don't ask questions, don't promote demonstrations/don't look for new consensus, don't stray from constitution/if I pierce the complexity I won't find salvation/just the bald and over truth/of the evil and deception/there is an inner logic,
and we're taught to stay far from it/
it is simple and elegant/but it's cruel and antithetic/and there's no effort to reveal it" I think this verse, or at least the first five lines, is a sarcastic/cynical take on the way the American society works. You don't express differing opions or attempt to find others who think progressively because then you'll have to face the truth about the "evil and deception", you can't just block it out like those business-suit automatons. The "inner logic" that is our common sense, our gut feeling, that says "there's something wrong with the way this country/society works" but we're taught that everything is wonderful here in America and we're taught that if we think otherwise we're being unpatriotic. It's hard to face the truth because it isn't a pretty thing and no one of major influence/social standing makes attempts to pull the general public out of the dark because no one wants to be ridiculed by those who are so narrow-minded and ignorant they can't even listen to someone else's opinion without going off the deep end. "graduated mentors stroll in marbled brick porticos/in sagacious dialog they despise their average ways/displaying pomp and discipline, they mold their institution/
where they practice exclusion on the masses every day" This is the verse I understand the least. I took it as people who're educated and unsatisfied with the life they've ended up , because even though they have this great education behind them, they haven't received the money/recognition they feel they deserve as a result of being graduates. They form together to form their own little mini-society, where they only associate with select people, excluding the general public from their affairs. As I said, this verse didn't make as much sense to me as the others, so I'm sorry if my analysis doesn't make sense. "decorated warriors drill harmless kids on pavement/simulating tyranny under red alert/protecting the opulent and staging moral standard/
they expect redemption of character and self-growth" This verse made me think of both the military and also our police, which are becoming more and more militarized every day. Police seem to letting their small amount of power go to their head and feel they should exercise it, so they use their position as law enforcement to attack harmless teens that may seem like trouble. While they attack these harmless teenagers, they allow influential people with the big bucks to get out of crimes and pretend they are moral and enforcing the law, while the people who deserve the most punishment get off scotch-free. They think that the people they attack to seek forgiveness, to submit, and somehow grow from such a horribly oppressive situation. The chorus then repeats and overlaps with "no equality, no opportunity,/no tolerance for the progressive alternative...", which once again goes back to how society here is so double-faced. While we pretend to promote equality, opportunities for all, and freedom of speech, we really want people to be unequal and don't want to hear people whose opinions differ from ours/the mainstrea thought. We preach about how accepting we are and how much we love freedom, yet people/groups of people with progressive alternatives to society's harmful actions and behaviors are shunned and called "unpatriotic" or "liberals," which are supposed to equate in some screwed up way. Anyways, this is my first time posting a song interpretation, so I hope it wasn't too off or confusing. Keep making great songs like this one, Bad Religion!

I don't like to comment on a song I haven't heard yet, but I'll take a shot at it anyway:
In a nutshell, Graffin is talking about how people who become indoctrinated into higher society, whether they're "automatons in business suits", "graduated mentors" or "decorated warriors", abandon the inner logic that all human beings have that allows us to question and reject the way things are in our society. Greg talks about the thousands of "academic clones that graduate each Spring" and the professors that discriminate from original thought and dissention from their "learned idealogy" in the Punk Synopsis on the BR homepage. The "decorated warriors" seems to be referring to recruiting officers for the military. Anyone ever seen any of these guys? I haven't ran into one (thankfully), but I've heard some of the illogical shit they spout, namely one recruiter that came to my highshool a while back saying how Iraq really wasn't all that bad and how he was barely fighting and instead was making friends with all the little Iraqi kids. Whether or not that was the case for that particular recruiter when he was over there, I think it's safe to assume that the reality for most soldiers serving in that debacle is much more grim.
It's the public's lack of inner logic that allows them to buy the "decorated warrior"'s twisted logic.

I think this song represents the struggle in the human mind... that we have become so blind that we simply see the world as big business/corporations portray it. it sets the idea that the world revolves around progress, capital, power etc...but there's more to life and the world...there is an Inner Logic that we aren't revealing because we have stopped questioning and accept what our eyes see. Your brain is the ultimate vision to reality

This is probably way off but it's how I interpreted this bit of the song. In the part thats says "decorated warriors drill harmless kids on pavement.." I thought they were refering to school and/or the playground and how they root this "inner logic" at such a young age. "Simulating tyranny under red alert.." I thought it was talking about how we train children, in the school systems, to get used to and almost find comfort with this sense of order in being told what to do from the beginning of thier lives by putting them under authority in school.

I think the most important line in the song is "If I pierce the complexity I won't find salvation; just the bald and overt truth of all the evil and deception." From this, I think the point of the song is fairly clear: I can observe and attempt to explain what's wrong with the current society, (sacrifice of individuality, intellectuals who attempt to place themselves above and separate from their fellow citizens, the use of force to maintain an inequitable social order) but that doesn't mean I know how to fix the problem. Compare to 'I Want to Conquer the World,' perhaps.

What this song says to me in a nutshell is use your own mind rather than accept everything the way it is presented to you.

Pej, in response to the line 'Decorated warriors drill harmless kids on pavement.' Since the organization of civilization there has been armies etc. I think this line is in reference to the die-hard high ranking officials that brainwash 'harmless kids' or recruits into joining a wing of national defense. I believe they are 'harmless' for many reasons. One is because of the propaganda that has been used around the world for ages. And these recruits can go to war and die for no reason at all.

Could it be that the third verse: 'Decorated warriors...' is actually referring to Punk Rock bands (like Bad Religion) or any other type of band for that matter, as new generations search for more 'progressive' forms of authority that they can openly disagree with or differ with in order to evade the relentless bore of the 'I don't ask questions.. etc' process. It is typically cynical of them, to compare the influence punk bands have with university-style institutions or business corporations. This would fit in with them 'expecting redemption of character and self-growth'; qualities that could be a much more worthwhile alternative than being a digital boy who can't read with too many toys. Please someone disagree or agree with me, I would love to read what you have to say.

When taken as a whole, Rand's philosophy may be rather distasteful, but some of her ideas are dead on. The idea that capitalist democracy is the only just socio-economic system and the assertion that no man should ever be made to live for the sake of another are both absolutely essential to the concept of a free society. I'd actually be interested in hearing Greg's response to this. He seems somewhat conflicted in his politics -- how do you marry punk distrust of institutions in general and government in particular to a liberal philosophy whose goals can only be accomplished through the use of centralized power, to the detriment of the individual? This problem is summed up (although certainly not solved) in I Want to Conquer the World (yes, I know the lyrics were written by Brett).

This isn't really interpretation per se, but you may find it interesting. To form educated political and sociological views you must read many opinions, not just the opinions that fit your intuitive ideas, and not just the ones commonly advocated in Universities. 'Inner logic' is something somewhat commonly referred to in the writings of Ayn Rand. I'm not sure whether Greg has read Ayn Rand, but from what I know about him, it seems very possible. If he has, I know that he would not agree with her political ideas. I know I don't. What is striking to me is how Ayn Rand was so sure that she had 'the answer' (as Greg put it in 1991), despite her shallow knowledge. She had the inner logic figured out, and if couldn't see her 'light', then you were simply weren't rational. Ayn Rand has had a considerable impact upon corporate America (Allan Greenspan was one of her 'rightwing' disciples, for example). However, unlike someone interested in all opinions, Ayn Rand didn't want to hear anything that disagreed with her. I think that it is this 'we, the corporate bosses already know it all so what can you say?' element of corporate practice that upsets Greg the most. Though their logic is flawed, the money and power that they hold continually increases, the top "1%" are virtual despots.

"I agree with some of the other points, but there's something missing from them. The song isn't really about how bad things are, but that were being mislead. We all go through our daily lives just wandering about...'like drone ant colonies to our office in the sky' without doing anything about it; just accepting the teaching given to us. 'I don't ask questions, don't promote demonstrations, don't look...' All the while, the people in power keep hidden from us the 'inner logic' of how the world works, 'there's no effort to reveal it...' and as long we don't find it, everything is just fine for them.

"Inner Logic is (in part) about exclusionary social institutions: 'Old Boy's Clubs,' which exist to help the members get ahead in life, to the detriment of everyone else. ('No equality, no opportunity.') In particular, it is about: - People who control big businesses, and keep its inner workings secret from the people in general. ('Sequestering the blueprints of daily life') - Exclusive (and exclusionary) universities. Students at the expensive Ivy Leagues get a 'more valuable' degree than someone from State U., and have an opportunity to network with other people on their way up in the world. - Military Academies, where harmless kids learn to defend the people in power. (And again, get to be with people 'on their way up') The verses are intentionally in reverse order (someone would go to a military academy as a kid, an ivy league university as a young adult, and become a businessman after graduating); the writer is 'piercing the complexity,' figuring out what's behind it all, and is not satisfied with what he discovers.

Like most BR songs this is a play on how society is definitely fucked up. It begins by comparing the people in the world to ants in an ant colony. Calling them 'automatons' in business suits, or how they are just drones. Then after the first bridge and chorus, Graffin then speaks of how the people in society with power are also way fucked up. He is speaking of how the police and the government don't really care for the people, just enjoy their power, and enjoy exercising it unjustly.

To me, this song is about how there's something deeper than what we all see. It's a different way of thinking manifested by the way the common man thinks. In the first verse, Graffin speaks of the dots and rows of worker drones working for the benefit of how we grow that weren't there yesterday and is only there is we ask questions. This also has something to do with the song Blenderhead on Against the Grain, where it talks of how people try to be so complex only by asking questions. Anyway, the Inner Logic is supposed to be a pessimistic way of thinking, and the antithesis of the way the common man ponders everyday, and how the answers of life aren't what we're assuming.