Numbness

Can you remember when you became emotionally numb?  I don’t think it is possible.  It would require remembering an extinction of something–feelings–that you no longer recognize.  Were you able to feel what you felt before, you would still not be able to pinpoint a moment–although perhaps a period, perhaps one triggered by an event.

We are surrounded by references to numbness.  I have posted many of them.  Here is another, from Linkin Park, in which I think they are wrestling creatively with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXYiU_JCYtU

What I would submit, is that the pervasive anger and emotional stunting we see around us is a direct result of the Baby Boomers trying to “find” themselves.  Put another way, of their historically unprecedented selfishness and vanity.  These things have consequences.  If you spend all your time looking in one mirror or another, you are not emotionally available to those around you.

In this song, I think they are making reference to that.  I don’t have time for a more complete analysis.

Here are the lyrics:
I’m tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface
Don’t know what you’re expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
(Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
(Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow)

[Chorus:]
I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there
Become so tired, so much more aware
I’m becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

Can’t you see that you’re smothering me,
Holding too tightly, afraid to lose control?
‘Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you.
(Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you.
(Caught in the undertow, just caught in the undertow)
And every second I waste is more than I can take.

[Chorus:]
I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there,
Become so tired, so much more aware
I’m becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you.

And I know
I may end up failing too.
But I know
You were just like me with someone disappointed in you.

[Chorus:]
I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there,
Become so tired, so much more aware.
I’m becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you.

[Chorus:]
I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there.
(I’m tired of being what you want me to be)
I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there.
(I’m tired of being what you want me to be)