Alas, as Mr. Hart is no longer here with us, I must attempt to make sense of His mini rock opera. The simplicity of the lyrics belies a vast underlying message...
Obviously, this is a metaphor for the greed of corporate oil and land developers. The "eruption" (climate change and deforestation) is upon us, and the civilization we worked so long to build is threatened. The narrator, Pliny the Elder, historically died of asphyxiation/heart attack while on a rescue mission, at the actual eruption in 79 AD. The line about "having no trade" is meant to call attention to the imcompatibility of commerce with the environment, where modern techolnological "progress" often means destroying nature to obtain its resources and wealth. If you oppose this structure of ownership and control, you "have no trade", and all of us who are tied to making a living in a world of extreme capitalism with its oligarchy and technocracy are warned of the coming "eruption" which we are all contributing to!
Alas, as Mr. Hart is no longer here with us, I must attempt to make sense of His mini rock opera. The simplicity of the lyrics belies a vast underlying message...
Obviously, this is a metaphor for the greed of corporate oil and land developers. The "eruption" (climate change and deforestation) is upon us, and the civilization we worked so long to build is threatened. The narrator, Pliny the Elder, historically died of asphyxiation/heart attack while on a rescue mission, at the actual eruption in 79 AD. The line about "having no trade" is meant to call attention to the imcompatibility of commerce with the environment, where modern techolnological "progress" often means destroying nature to obtain its resources and wealth. If you oppose this structure of ownership and control, you "have no trade", and all of us who are tied to making a living in a world of extreme capitalism with its oligarchy and technocracy are warned of the coming "eruption" which we are all contributing to!