Viva La Vida

          Viva La Vida is a song by Coldplay that means "live life". But what exactly do the lyrics of the song mean? I was wondering that the other day when I decided to look up the lyrics and learn them because I enjoy listening to this song very much. It turns out that the song is about a king who was so powerful he could summon massive armies at his command. He would gamble with his power and his enemies would fear him greatly. The crowds would rejoice "now the old king is dead, long live the king!" This means that he was the one king who conquered many others. Then suddenly, after having held the key (to his kingdom) for so long, he realized that the walls were closing in on him and that his castle stood on pillars of salt and sand. I'm not an architect, but I am pretty sure that is not a good foundation for a kingdom. He was so powerful and was conquering so many other kingdoms that he did not even realize what was happening inside his own kingdom. Now here comes in the religious aspect and why I am blogging about this. The next part of the song (the refrain) talks about how he hears Jerusalem bells ringing, Roman cavalries singing, to be his mirror, sword, and shield, and to be his missionaries in a foreign field. He is using religion to conquer the kingdoms! He wants them to represent his image, power, and fortitude. He wants missionaries sent, but (unlike priests of today) in the end, as we learn in history, missionaries conquer as well! The refrain also says that once you're gone there was never an honest word, meaning that he lied to the people when he was drunk with power, and once that power was gone so was his kingdom. He then said that the people could not believe what he had become (which today people cannot believe the kings who used to conquer in the name of religion) and in the second and third refrain the part about the power changes to "I know St. Peter won't call my name". He knows and regrets what he has done, but when he was so powerful he never realized what he was doing.
          This song has a lot of meaning and explains the issue about people asking questions such as "Why is religion (especially Christianity, since in the song the king must have used Christianity as his religion since he knew about St. Peter) considered so good when it has caused so many wars?" Well, it is not Christianity that starts wars, it is the people. Specifically, it is one person or a small group of peopl
e who have great authority and seem very sure of themselves and the people follow. In order for the people to follow them and join them in conquering other nations, they need a reason. They need something that the people are passionate about and that they feel so strongly about that if they can be convinced that doing wrong will bring good to their people (and to the people they conquer), they will do whatever it takes. Christianity does not start wars; it is the kings and rulers who use whatever they can to gain power, wealth and fame, and they mask their evil with anything they can think of, which has happened to be Christianity many times in the past.