Map of the Problematique: Fear and Panic

While many types of fear thus represent the perception of a concrete and immediate threat to which a person can react defensively in some way, other forms of fear derive from underlying anxiety which in its original form is a dialectical perception of human freedom

- Ulrich H. J. Körtner in "The end of the world: a theological interpretation"

In a book called "Mars: from myth and mystery to recent discoveries" by Markus Hotakainen, I learned that Mars has two moons that whirl around him. Upon their discover over 400 years ago, Galileo dispatched his findings to his associates, saying:

I have observed the most distant planet to have a triple form.

The moons had the appellation Deimos and Phobos (where we get 'phobia'), Panic and Fear, christened in this way because Phobos and Deimos were the sons of Ares (Mars), the god of war. In the 15th verse of The Illiad, as Ares braces for his vitriolic reprisal, Homer writes that Ares:

. . . ordered Phobos and Deimos to harness his horses, and himself got into his shining armor.

In the song Map of the Problematique off their 2006 album Black Holes and Revelations, Muse makes explicit mention to these gods, which seems in line with their sustained interest with the theme of Mars for the duration of the album.

Fear
And panic in the air
I want to be free
From desolation and despair

Fear and Panic. As I began to discover, fans and critics are insistent on exhuming the meaning of the song. I beheld that the interpretation hinged on the listener. All concur that the title of the song refers to The Club of Rome, a global think-tank that details a Map of the Problematique which tries to figure out the world's future problems and what may encountering them be like, and what we can do to perhaps prevent them from arising. For my money, I'd say that Muse is referencing a Map of the Problematique not for the world, but for the individual soul. I sense it in the urgent beat and melody of the song. The song speaks of a loneliness, but to me it's more of a cosmic loneliness. Some ancient calamity of separation or divorce is made to seem irrevocable. Just the same, there is a dissent from letting go, a refusal.

Some think the main message of the song is acceptance in the wake of some personal catastrophe. In spite of that, I don't sense acceptance; I sense a throbbing discomposure, and aching for some vast and unfathomable reunion with an otherworldly something, something not on this side, so to speak. He says:

I want to touch the other side

This is a cavernous song, with many tunnels and passages. It is about the longing for redemption and the titanic struggles we face as we clash with spiritual reality. The feel of the song is filled with a strange, wistful pining, and the piano is a pulsating cadence that seems to represent some cryptic rupture in the recesses of our subconscious. On these accounts, this is one of my dearest Muse songs.