This song is a description of the way you need to survive in capitalistic society. It deals with Manson's personal struggle of being a wormboy to being a famous rock star. He's making a link between the American media and Nazi propaganda, as well as the need to to be physically perfect because of the hyper-reality we are brainwashed by. It's also about the rock star looking down on the worms that make him what he is - this need to be more then a worm is what made him a star. The average rebel can relate to the song because Manson is making ugly fashionable, which is easier to achieve than the perfection we see on other CD covers and on MTV.
The phrase "The Beautiful People" came into vogue in the '60s, entering the popular lexicon in 1967. That year, a book by Marilyn Bender called The Beautiful People: a Candid Examination of a Cultural Phenomenon - the Marriage of Fashion and Society in the '60s was published, which is where Manson got the title to this song. The phrase quickly became used as a demeaning identifier, as any grounded individual would certainly object to being classified a "beautiful person." The Beatles used it incisively in their song "Baby You're A Rich Man," and many journalists picked up the phrase. We found this from a 1967 NME article on Dave Davies of The Kinks, where the author responds to a comment from Davies that he likes to stare at the moon and let his mind wander: "Before anyone reads into that remark that Dave has joined the beautiful people perhaps I should mention that his version of a 'beautiful person' is someone who plays football."
Lyrics
And I don't want you and I don't need you
Don't bother to resist, or I'll beat you
It's not your fault that you're always wrong
The weak ones are there to justify the strong
The beautiful people, the beautiful people
It's all relative to the size of your steeple
You can't see the forest for the trees
And you can't smell your own shit on your knees
There's no time to discriminate,
Hate every motherfucker
That's in your way
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
Hey you, are you gonna to be mean?
You live with apes man, it's hard to be clean
The worms will live in every host
It's hard to pick which one they hate the most
The horrible people, the horrible people
It's all anatomic as the size of your steeple
Capitalism has made it this way,
Old-fashioned fascism will take it away
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
Hey you, are you gonna to be mean?
You live with apes man, it's hard to be clean
There's no time to discriminate,
Hate every motherfucker
That's in your way
The beautiful people
The beautiful people (ah)
Hey you, what do you see?
Something beautiful or something free?
Hey you, are you gonna to be mean?
You live with apes man, it's hard to be clean
The beautiful people
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