Anxiety

"Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home." - Carl Sagan

I think this is the more specific idea that Tom may have been pointing out. It goes with the general notion inherent in the Pale Blue Dot theory of our own insignificance in relation to greater (to be understood in an unnormative sense) things, one of these being science.

It's a basic human trait that we seek certainty of what to regard as true and false, and we incessantly construct narratives and create a linearity in the way we understand things to progress. However, on an almost daily basis we're faced with new discoveries in the sciences that question and challenge some of our most fundamental views on who we are as human beings in act and being.

One example could be how it is nowadays possible to scan for Down's Syndrome and subsequently choose an abortion. Such a relatively simple scientific development opens up for a great number of moral questions which we are bound to face. On another scale, an example could be our place in the universe which seems to be constantly revised these days.

All in all, scientific progress inevitably leads to an increasing number of confrontations with our own self-understanding. This naturally gives rise to a state of anxiety as we are but passive spectators (passengers) that can only respond to these developments a posteriori and, therefore, will have to deal with their actual consequences. The following lines convey this sentiment well as I interpret them to refer to the BP oil spill:

"Waiting/We're silly, we're so reckless/The city, it's so heartless/A bottle full of crude/ That washed up in the tide"

What it really comes down to in my opinion is a recklessness resulting from the paradox that our awareness of uncertainty breeds anxiety which in turn leaves us seeking certainty however illusory it may be. Whether it be financiers believing they could built models to account for every market factor, BP's inadequate safety measures, or debt-founded welfare schemes, what is lacking is a sense of humility, hoensty and appreciation of our limitations as human beings.

To me, this song sends out the message that we should ask ourselves for a moment whether we are creating a 'Frankenstein's monster' and recognise our anxieties and doubts. It's not a question of rolling back science or suspending progress. Rather, as is the theme of this album, it is a question of our recognising and acknowledging ourselves as human beings in what it entails in terms of limitations and possibilities.

I don't really think this song has a meaning, so much as a thesis; like Down. Down was a song he wrote from having a thought in his head. From the video for this song, we see Civil War troops and astronauts. In the video, both a troop and an astronaut seem to be in distress and the others try to help him. Pressure and anxiety begin to build when time starts to run out; they can't be pressured, and if they are, bad things are going to come around. They're just passengers (astronauts) and so dangerous (troops). His thesis is that pressure and anxiety build up, quite so in this situation.

"Faster; I dream in speeds of ashes; my heart, it beats and crashes; I'm running from the truth; 'Cause it fucks with my mind. Talking; playing after hours; Time is bending outward; I'm falling to my knees; to crawl home, safe inside." This is what the astronaut is thinking when he's in trouble in the station, after long hours and being faced with a fallacy of a sort; a false dilemma of life or death.

"Waiting; we’re silly, we're so reckless; the city, it's so heartless; a bottle full of crude; that washed up in the tide. Handsome and calloused young believers; Hiding, plotting schemers; and rotting out like fruit; that was left here to die." This is what the troop is thinking when he is faced with a similar dilemma. Looking back he sees how he living his life and how silly it was.

The overall themes again being that both are being tormented with anxiety and pressure.

At the movie premiere, before they played this, Tom talked about Carl Sagan's blue dot theory, how we are all just passengers, and that since we are so insignificant to the universe it's that much more important for us to be significant to each other. Goes along with the idea of human relationships like the entire LOVE album.

this song has meaning related to what tom imply in song story of a lonely guy. i think tom has some experience on anxiety. i mean social anxiety disorder. so a few of his song is talking about anxiety.

My heart, it beats and crashes I'm running from the truth 'Cause it fucks with my mind

socially anxious person tend to get heart beat faster at social situation, and often run from it since they cant stand the anxiety during social situation.

Handsome and calloused young believers Hiding, plotting schemers And rotting out like fruit That was left here to die

means socially anxious person always feel hopeless. they think they have no future because their anxiety things. most social anxiety leads to depression which really destroy their life. unability to socialize means most of career and opportunity would lost. and feels they will rotting and die lonely.

Talking Playing after hours Time is bending outward I'm falling to my knees To crawl home, safe inside

means socially anxious person try to socialize, but in the end they breakdown and go back home with hopeless feeling and rather stay at home which they feel safe.

This song is saying that everyone feels anxiety, and that anxiety is a serious and dangerous thing if we let it control us.

Tom is also saying that socially anxious people aren't alone, and that even the 'social butterflies' feel anxiety, and that the difference between the two is that one lets anxiety control them, and one doesn't.

Tom explained how this song is largely focused on getting older. One day you wake up and you worry that you aren't doing what you really want to do, and you're running out of time to change as you get older. It gives you anxiety.