Meaning of "Handlebars" by Flobots

The Flobots make my head hurt, I have no idea what half of there songs mean.

Help me raise my Habamon!

i got it! the song is about making money! if they pretend the song has a meaning or message they can focas on that and not the crappy music it hides! the song is weak at best and full of political bs that mixes wonderfully with the current trends of the flobots demographic (imagine that). the meaning of the song is to get people taking about the song.

and here we are.

I keep coming back to the lyrics “I can ride a bike with no handlebars” and “I can keep a beat with no metronome." I think they hold the key to this song. When you ride a bike with no handlebars, you feel power but you also risk losing control. In music you risk losing the beat if you don’t have a metronome to keep the rhythm.

Here’s what I’m getting at. The human mind offers almost limitless possibilities, which you start discovering in childhood. This is what the first part of the song is about. You explore the natural world (the platypus), take things apart (the remote control), you create (the comic book) and you learn (Leif Ericson). Most importantly, you learn that the interplay between knowledge, experimentation and creativity gives you power.

That is what the second verse is about. You can put these skills to any end. You can start a business, invent something useful or harmful, persuade — or even lead. You can become the President, with incredible power to do good (split the molecule for energy) or evil (split the molecule for nuclear weapons).

The final verse is where they are clearly concerned that this power is not being used well, and I think it’s hard to miss the barbs aimed at the Bush administration. We have the power to cure diseases but we let people die. We have abandoned due process, we assassinate, and we can press buttons and make people die. Flobots are worried that we’re drunk on power and have let it spin out of control, like a kid riding a bike with no handlebars.

imyurlilxfantasi I just wanted to say that you are a complete idiot, and total waste of space. I can only hope that one day people like yourself will be locked up in a cage and placed in the town square for everyone to “laugh and gawk” at.

That is all

Also, Carter Mifsud,

I almost agree with your ratical opinion of Obama. Its much closer to the truth than that of the fantasy idiot I commented on above

i beleive that the song is sending the message that teh human race has a potential of being destructive or to be creative. in the video it shows the two friends choosing different paths to show one for destructive ideas and other for creativeness. the song is telling ppl that we have the potential to do anything but many ppl seek CONTROL over saving lives. riding your bike with no handlebars takes control, yet its innocent. a person can become control-happy and take this to new levels, liek a holocaust or leading a nation. these all take control but so do making new antibiotics and other helpfulthings. it shwo the power of the mind and how control is different.

this question fails. the answer is obvious. i stated it above.

I agree with kspilla. Humans can do anything they set their minds to whether it be for good or evil.

I’m sick of all these narrow minded bush bashing interpretations. the world is so much bigger than iraq, politics, and bush. I don’t like him or a lot of the things he has done but the world dosn’t revolve around the whitehouse.

i see the song being about everyones potential

There’s a famous video of Hitler riding a bike with no handlebars.

Carter Mifsud wrote: This song is about how that nigger obama is the anti Christ and how he wants so kill your children. DO NOT VOTE FOR HIM!! oh, and Sydney Knapp is a bitch!!

har har. as a “nigger” I’d generally be offended by this half-hearted racist attempt to be funny but it’d be giving you too much credit to give you too much attention.

i dont know if you guys agree but i find that the song is about freedom and the choice to go with it. Notice at the beggining on how the 2 are friends are riding bike and they choose different paths and at the end it is them going at eachother at war. and it also basicaly says you can do whatever you want you just have to chose yes or no, this way or that way, peace or war.

hey i think this song is cool, and the message is that two friends went in opposite directions but not good and evil, politics and rebels. neither is good or bad, but every one has an opinion. I do NOT agreee with imyurlilxfantasi because bush DIDNT put people away for not liking him. Everyone is always disin on bush for fighting back but he is just a man. When u r a president pressured with the descion to fight back to save ur country wat would u do. He is not only fighting he is trying to help. if he was evil he would just nuke it and he hasn’t.

I believe that is talking about growing and about government with no limits. But ultimately speaking, we as humans have no limits. If you notice he is not only talking about growing up because he jumps from one profession to another. but he does show progression from riding a bike to leading a nation. however the professions are from something very simple as to fixing a remote to again leading a nation. I think the moral is to show that we can do whatever we want and have the ability. we just need the drive and determination.

I copied and pasted this from another comment, on another site:

Well, there is the possability, that the writer is saying that we all start off at some point. We can all rise in the ranks of success, but for some, and most, it leads to a life of power greed. You do feel empowered when u finally learn how to ride a bike with no handlebars, so that is the starting point. Being a child, the smallest of things influence u, and growing up they can stick. We can all do every and anything that we want. For some, its riding a bike. For others, causing a holocaust.

stop with the petending it’s a meaningful song. all it was ment to to is get you talking about it like it was meaningful. then you followers took to it just like expected.

i think it means that because we live in such a free country we can choose to do something that will make an impact on the world, or we can choose to do something less impressive, riding a bike without the handlebars

sgkgbj,

From what I get from watching the video, it’s seems to be a story about 2 friends with different goals. One strives for peace, one strives for control. And when the second friend goes to far, he ends up killing his friend in a peace rally.