I always thought it was "Welcome to the new slave trade." Like much of "Postcards...", this song is closely related to virtual world obsession. Auto-intoxication I think can be viewed as self-absorption as well in this song... The idea that in an online world people can labour under the illusion they are powerful and entirely self-reliant, yet in reality the 'intoxication' is merely ego-based, and therefore empty. The 'new slave trade' bit I think is mostly to do with how easily we surrender our liberties online with things like personal information swapping, the overall reliance on the internet in modern times and the totally false sense of being in control.
I always thought it was "Welcome to the new slave trade." Like much of "Postcards...", this song is closely related to virtual world obsession. Auto-intoxication I think can be viewed as self-absorption as well in this song... The idea that in an online world people can labour under the illusion they are powerful and entirely self-reliant, yet in reality the 'intoxication' is merely ego-based, and therefore empty. The 'new slave trade' bit I think is mostly to do with how easily we surrender our liberties online with things like personal information swapping, the overall reliance on the internet in modern times and the totally false sense of being in control.