The world view of Roger Waters as both a member of Pink Floyd and a solo artist has often been called cynical, depressing, solipsistic and many other less-than-sunny euphemisms for self-absorbedly stoic. It is stoicism that is at the heart of the work of Roger Waters and even Pink Floyd on the whole. One of the many underlying messages of their music, as strange as it may sound, is "never give in." The reason that message is often overlooked is because in his later years with the band, Roger Waters decided to use his lyrics to paint pictures of what can happen when people do give in.

"Optimistic" is not typically a word one uses to describe the lyrics of Pink Floyd. Album concepts from The Dark Side of the Moon's list of things that can drive one mad to The Wall's in-depth analysis of a man actually going mad don't sound like the most uplifting topics to tackle in song. Even the very music itself, while noted for it's inherent beauty, has also been described as melancholy. Known primarily for being "plodders," the musicians in the band almost seem to be unaware of any tempo other than that typified by "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." Of course, most of Animals is an exception, as are "Run Like Hell" and "Young Lust". But even a typical early "heavy" song such as "The Nile Song" or "The Gold, It's In The..." still aren't what one would call very fast at all.

For the most part, the music of Pink Floyd suggests a steady, persistent approach that still manages to follow a discernable course.

Following a discernable course is the practical application of a Philosophy. It is said that all people abide by a philosophy whether they're aware of it or not. One's approaches to life is the result of a series of decisions to be made in which one must judge available courses of action according to standards of value. It is the value system that seems to be the defining characteristic of any particular Philosophy.

For example, a Capitalist values capital; i.e., money, wealth, material things.

A Communist values the Community; "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

A Pacifist values Peace; a passive, non-aggressive approach to life.

And on and on.

It has been said that any artist who works with words is a de facto Philosopher; their works express ideas and a worldview. I propose to demonstrate that all of the lyric writers in Pink Floyd express the same basic worldview. It is a view of the world as a place where wonders can happen when people are kind to each other... and where horrors are inevitable when people aren't.

In the early days, Syd Barrett's whimsically psychedelic view dominated the lyrics of Pink Floyd. The persona typified by Syd's lyrics (when they're not about interstellar or fantastic subjects) is that of a harmless, happy-go-lucky sort of person who only wishes kindness to others. Even when spinning the tale of Gerald the Mouse in "Bike", Barrett makes a point to mention to the listener that Gerald is "getting very old, but he's a good mouse". He performs the kindness of speaking a good word about Gerald even though the listener has never met him. Call it a random act of kindness. Much like the seeking of permission from the listener to tell the tale of Grimble Gromble ("I want to tell you a story about a little man, if I can"), the suggestion being that if the listener isn't interested, Syd won't tell this particular story.

In "Bike", Barrett commits another random act of kindness by saying that he would like to give the listener the bike he was riding, but alas, he can't as he "borrowed it". These gestures are rooted in what is often called Humanism, but is also simple Compassion: being nice for the sake of being nice. It's an innocent worldview, to be sure; but how many discontent innocents do you know?

In "Matilda Mother", the child's plea to the mother to continue reading has more to do with the child not wanting the connection he feels with his mother to be severed then it does with curiosity as to what happens next in the story. "You only have to read the lines of scribbly black and everything shines." In the eyes of the child, his mother has the power to transform things. In stark contrast, the picture painted of a mother in The Wall is that of a woman who tries to prevent her child from experiencing transformations. "Mama's gonna keep you right here under her wing/She won't let you fly but she might let you sing."

Mother even helps build The Wall, in Waters' take.

But even Waters' often-bleak lyrics actually contain the same type of heart as Barret's rose-coloured-glasses-on-wide-eyes picture. In "Mother," we see the things that a mother can do which actually fail her child and how this can lead to less-than-pleasant circumstances.

At the end of "Matilda Mother", the child seems to have become a man, fondly remembering the times that his mother spent with him and wishing that there could be more. By the end of "Mother", Pink has had the Fear Of Mom struck into him. Fear has been stressed as an acceptable response to life, and his girlfriends have been scrutinized and accepted or rejected by his mother based upon a code that Pink may not even agree with, while he himself lives under the same apparent degree of scrutiny.

If only Pink's mother had been less reactionary and more compassionate to the world at large, Pink might not have become a burned-out rock star imploding in some anonymous hotel room. While Barrett paints a picture of Compassion in action, Waters tends to paint a picture of what happens when Compassion is withheld.

Compassion seems to be the most common theme in the works of Pink Floyd. Richard Wright even weighs in on the issue. In "Paint Box," his apathetic protagonist can't even be bothered to notice the difference between a room of people ignoring him as he plays and a lady who is "...very angry, as cross as she can be." Yet his internal response is "I feel as if I'm remembering this scene before, I open the door to an empty room/Then I forget." This was the same response he had to his apparently less-than-stellar show and the after party.

In "Paint Box", Wright even seems to scoop Waters on the whole Wall thing. We meet a man who is "feeling rather empty." He expresses disdain for his audience and the whole charade that they put around being "in the scene." He has another drink and goes off, apparently to be alone. A negative encounter with a member of the opposite sex ends with him alone again.

The only thing missing is bricks.

In "Summer '68", Wright describes the emptiness of dealing with groupies and the lack of connection. His protagonist, however, doesn't smash the room and send her screaming into the night. But his insistence on getting her to tell him how she feels about it might give her a certain "okay, this guy's, like, totally weird" sort of vibe.

I mean, jeez...the guy even name-checked her in the song. I wonder if Charlotte Pringles ever thought about litigating?

"It Would Be So Nice" stresses the point that what would be so nice would be to "meet sometime." He desires to make a connection... because that's a good thing. When connections don't get made, walls get built, dogs help the pigs take over the world, and the moon turns to the dark side.

And what of Gilmour? Frequently accused of writing tepid lyrics, Sir David (can I call him that?) tackles some fairly weighty material from time to time.

In "So Far Away" from his first solo album, Gilmour writes about the loneliness that can creep into a relationship. Lying next to his beloved, he cannot sleep; he feels disconnected. She's in a good place and he knows it. But he's not in a good place ("...a warm coat is all I need...")

I wonder if he's planning on picking up any hitchhikers while he's out?

In "Until We Sleep" from About Face, Gilmour again uses sleep as a metaphor, but this time instead of offering escape from an unpleasant situation, sleep is the thing that removes us from the singing and the dancing and the feasting. Sleep is what allows the cares that have blown away to descend back upon us. Until the third verse where the "years have cut you down to size" and sleep again becomes an escape. Prior to that third verse, though, it would seem that a connection has been made with someone that the protagonist of the song doesn't want to see broken... not even by sleep.

"Murder" is a cry of outrage in which Gilmour goes so far as to belittle Lennon assassin Mark David Chapman by asking "was it your only way of making your mark?" Having vented some spleen, Gilmour then admits that "none of the tears that we cry in sorrow or rage/Can make any difference, or turn back the page."

Resigned acceptance of a situation.

Perhaps the briefest summation of Barrett's particular worldview is in the last verse of "The Scarecrow", in which Barrett tells us that "life's not unkind, he [the scarecrow] doesn't mind", harkening back to the idea of stoicism: whatever the world may be, the best course of action to take is to go with the flow. Let things be what they are, but keep your own course steady.

For all the talk about the importance of connections and of what can happen when connections aren't made, Pink Floyd have a certain reputation for fatalism. But is it really fatalism to admit that there are things that nothing can be done about? The screams of futility represented in The Final Cut admit that things have gotten entirely out of hand, yet the entire point of the piece is to demonstrate what can happen if these things continue unchecked. The Final Cut is an attempt avoid the nightmare of nuclear annihilation by pointing out the political and personal pitfalls that mark the way to the mushroom cloud.

The Wall is often misinterpreted as a piece about hopelessness; yet there is a certain hope in the ending. Pink's wall comes crashing down, enabling him to rejoin humanity as a feeling, caring human being. Yes, there is ambiguity because we don't know whether or not Pink accepts the challenge of rejoining the mass of humanity, but despite that lack of narrative clarity, there is still a suggestion that Pink is better off than he was behind the wall.

Even in early lyrics, such as the chorus of "Cymbaline", the cry of "please wake me" is a plea for connection, an expression of the desire to join with others.

The whole of The Dark Side of the Moon, while ostensibly a list of things that make life less than pleasant, still seeks to make that connection, what Waters calls "empathy."

It is empathy that allows people to understand each other. It is understanding which makes it possible to lay down differences, to banish hatred and allow all of the things in life which are positive to come to fruition.

Lack of understanding, on the other hand, breeds contempt, hatred, and violence. Much of the violence depicted in the Floyd cannon, from the hotel smashing of "One of my Turns" to the sheep falling "on his neck with a scream" is rooted in someone failing to understand someone else, or even worse, willfully refusing to come to understanding.

It is communication that helps make understanding possible. In "If", Waters states that "if I were a good man, I'd talk with you more often than I do." This is one of the principle ideas in Waters' philosophy, for we see in The Wall that one of the main complaints of Pink's wife in "The Trial" is that "you should have talked to me more often than you did." A certain cause and effect is shown here. By not talking with his wife, not only does Pink fail to be a "good man", but he also has contributed to making not only his relationship with his wife difficult, but also his own life. By shutting himself off from her in the first place, he causes her to leave, which causes him more pain.

And the wall builds.

The Philosophy at the core of the lyrics of Pink Floyd could be summed up thus: We must be kinder to each other, for only in this way can we make our own lives easier. Compassion as symbiosis.

Perhaps it's best, though, to let the primary architect of the philosophy state it for himself. In an interview with Camille Crosnier, Waters had this to say in response to the question "Do you have a dream?"