Song Meaning
These lines immediately establish a grim, almost detached perspective on suffering. The opening "BECAUSE WE'D RATHER FORGET" sets a tone of willful ignorance, suggesting a collective or personal desire to avoid confronting painful realities. This is starkly juxtaposed with the rhetorical question that follows, "WHAT'S ANOTHER BODY BROKEN?" which implies a numbing familiarity with damage and loss. The phrasing hints at a society or individual so accustomed to hardship that individual instances become almost insignificant, lost in a larger pattern of decay.
The core tension here lies in the conflict between the impulse to forget and the persistent reality of brokenness. The lyrics don't offer solace or a path forward; instead, they highlight a disturbing resignation. This resignation isn't presented as a passive state but an active choice, a preference for forgetting over acknowledging the extent of damage. The question about a "BROKEN BODY" is visceral, grounding the abstract idea of suffering in a concrete, physical image.
The power of these two lines comes from their brutal economy and the chilling implication of their connection. The cause-and-effect suggested by "BECAUSE" links the desire to forget directly to the prevalence of brokenness, as if the latter is a consequence or even a justification for the former. It’s a cyclical, bleak observation that avoids easy answers, forcing the listener to confront an uncomfortable truth about how we process pain and trauma by simply looking away.