Long story short: Pink's father is DEEEEEEAD, and this is the foundation for a lot of his issues. Song story: Here, about two and three quarter minutes. Lyrics here.
Long story long: Pink's father, A.J. Pinkerton, was a soldier who fought and died in WWII, when Pink was just a little baby Floyd. This fucked up his mother pretty badly, and understandably so. His death was the reason she became so smothering and overprotective of Floyd, afraid she might lose him to, to something or other. Growing up without a father (or at least a stepfather) was another way Pink was alienated from other kids, and without a male influence to support him, and help pry him out of his shell, he isolated himself, even at an early age, quite a bit more than he would have otherwise. That whole 'wall' thing.
His father's death, and his belief that the British govt was to blame, is (along with his awful primary school experience) is the source of his anti-government beliefs. The final lyric in the song linked above - "And that's how the high command took my daddy from me", says it all, I think.
Ironically, his father's death is also the source of his fascination with Nazism and fascism in general! He read extensively on the war as a child (and even now), trying to understand how and why hire father had been taken from him, and became drawn to these groups he perceived as having been 'strong enough' to kill his father, and leave such a mark on the world... (It would be hard, after all, for a lonely little boy, terrorised at school and smothered at home, to not envy that power.)
Growing up without any kind of strong, positive male influence, he's ended up really fantastic minion material, too, to boot. He's too smart to fall for being just a mook, but he's really desperate, deep down, for a replacement father. Give him a charismatic figure he can feel useful for, who gives him structure and throws him the occasional nugget of praise, and he'll do unspeakable things for them. (I can't help but imagine he's made some ill-advised business decisions, because of this, back home. And, well, we know what he's gotten up to in the City...)
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Song story: Here, about two and three quarter minutes. Lyrics here.
Long story long: Pink's father, A.J. Pinkerton, was a soldier who fought and died in WWII, when Pink was just a little baby Floyd. This fucked up his mother pretty badly, and understandably so. His death was the reason she became so smothering and overprotective of Floyd, afraid she might lose him to, to something or other. Growing up without a father (or at least a stepfather) was another way Pink was alienated from other kids, and without a male influence to support him, and help pry him out of his shell, he isolated himself, even at an early age, quite a bit more than he would have otherwise. That whole 'wall' thing.
His father's death, and his belief that the British govt was to blame, is (along with his awful primary school experience) is the source of his anti-government beliefs. The final lyric in the song linked above - "And that's how the high command took my daddy from me", says it all, I think.
Ironically, his father's death is also the source of his fascination with Nazism and fascism in general! He read extensively on the war as a child (and even now), trying to understand how and why hire father had been taken from him, and became drawn to these groups he perceived as having been 'strong enough' to kill his father, and leave such a mark on the world... (It would be hard, after all, for a lonely little boy, terrorised at school and smothered at home, to not envy that power.)
Growing up without any kind of strong, positive male influence, he's ended up really fantastic minion material, too, to boot. He's too smart to fall for being just a mook, but he's really desperate, deep down, for a replacement father. Give him a charismatic figure he can feel useful for, who gives him structure and throws him the occasional nugget of praise, and he'll do unspeakable things for them. (I can't help but imagine he's made some ill-advised business decisions, because of this, back home. And, well, we know what he's gotten up to in the City...)