Summary And Analysis Of Pink Floyd's Song 'Us And Them'

“Us and Them”, as performed by Pink Floyd, speaks of the brutality and flawed logic of war. The song begins by depicting the people who fight in the war as normal people who are forced to fight in war whether they have been drafted or believe it is the right thing to do. The song also goes on to say how those who lead the war sit around playing with lives to gain control of borders. The lines moving back and forth is the constant struggle to maintain boundaries of a country that soldiers have to risk their lives defending. The borders keep moving back and forth because both sides believe what they are doing is right. This is why the song goes, “who knows which is which and who is who”. The “ups” of war can sometimes be when they are victorious
It begins by describing how war allows few to gain a large sum of money a the expense of others’ lives. The song also talks about how those who are in charge of the war today do care for the impact that the future generations will have to resolve. The writer finds it ironic how first world countries claim to be more “civilized” than the third world countries even though they are the reason for the destruction of the Earth. They rapidly create pollution and destroy natural resources to hinder others’ progress. However, this is all useless because no one country ever wins during a war. Even if a country claims to have defeated another country, the victorious country must have been forced to expend a great amount resources and soldiers to become the victor. Therefore, all wars result in no victors and ,therefore, is a stalemate. The soldier believes that politicians use the bombs dropped on Palestine and Afghanistan as ways of making money and increasing their personal influence. By going to the hills, again the man or woman walks away from the meaningless war to his home where everything makes sense. However, he or she knows that the kind of reality where everything makes sense is just a fantasy because the world is filled with hatred that tells one to do things