The Johns say:

A song about the seductive appeal of social order (as opposed to individual freedom), and an expression of the terrifying and exciting power of propaganda. The part of the bells is sung by Amanda Homi.

Quoth Mark Pickett <rabidchild@wave-net.net>:

A friend of mine, Mike Palisano, came across a poem written by Anne Sexton (1928-1974) that bears a striking resemblance to "The Bells are Ringing."

Here it is:

Ringing the Bells

And this is the way they ring
The bells in Bedlam
And this is the bell-lady
Who comes each Tuesday morning
To give us a music lesson
And because the attendants make us go
And because we mind by instinct
Like bees caught in the wrong hive,
We are the circle of the crazy ladies
Who sit in the lounge at the mental hospital
And smile at the smiling woman
Who passes us each a bell
Who points at my hand
That holds my bell, E flat,
And this is the gray dress next to me
Who grumbles as if it were special
To be old, to be old
And this is the small hunched squirrel girl
On the other side of me
Who picks at the hairs over her lip
Who picks at the hairs over her lip all day
And this is how the bells really sound
As untroubled and clean
As a workable kitchen
And this is always my bell responding
To me, hand responds to the lady,
Who points to me, E flat;
And although we are no better for it,
They tell you to go. And you do.

Quoth <vlad_drakul@geocities.com>:

the Bells have got to be trendsetters. I, going to a middle school, knows what it is like to be the "girl with coton in her ears," who is "shielded from the Bells' effect." Everyone tries to get me to conform to the "cool" ways, which are actually really "disorganized in their song."

Quoth Michael C. Salvatore <mikesal@concentric.net>:

On contemplating this song, I have come to beleive that this song is about a struggle between Law and Chaos (or Order and Entropy) as written of in The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock. In most stories there's a theme of good versus evil, but in this story "it isn't good, it isn't evil", it's a struggle between free will and determinism where the winner turns out to be a balance between the two. In the end Law wins with the destruction of the last free thinking individual (the girl with the earplugs) and although this leads to some good (i.e. "they were disorganized and that was what was wrong") but absolute Order is not good ("...arms extended in a trance, forgetting the washing, neglecting the children.") and even though "they're revealing the simple key to happiness", can anyone know if they're happy if they can't think for themselves. THEY have always done their own thing and I think that is what their message here is.