Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a stark picture of desperation in Bolivia, where starvation forces people to confront an unthinkable food source: rats as large as ponies. This grim reality leads to an extraordinary plea to the Pope, asking him to reclassify these rodents as fish. The immediate, almost absurd, request highlights the extreme measures taken when survival is on the line, transforming a horrifying necessity into a matter of religious decree. The central tension lies in the forced redefinition of reality for survival. The narrator acknowledges the rats' monstrous appearance, comparing them to "horrendous horse dolls," yet emphasizes the necessity of consuming them. The act of thanking the Pope for this "wish" and agreeing to call rats "fish" on Fridays reveals a society grappling with a profound cognitive dissonance, where the act of naming becomes a tool to cope with the unpalatable truth of their hunger. The most striking aspect is the chorus's chillingly pragmatic tone. The lines "We catch them with a net, kill with the gun / We'll call it all forgotten when we're done" reveal a detached, almost clinical approach to this gruesome act. This isn't about embracing a new diet; it's about erasing the memory of the horror through a simple, collective act of denial, facilitated by a papal decree. The repetition of "We'll call it all forgotten when we're done" underscores the fragility of this manufactured peace. Ultimately, these lyrics resonate because they expose a dark facet of human adaptability and the power of narrative control. The song suggests that even the most grotesque circumstances can be reframed through authority and collective agreement, allowing people to move past trauma by simply choosing to forget. The act of calling rats fish, and the subsequent gratitude towards the Pope, serves as a potent, albeit disturbing, commentary on how societies can rationalize and sanitize even the most extreme acts of survival.