Red Rabbits

this song is about mercer's degrading relationship with his mentor.

before he met his mentor, life was peachy and beautiful ("trees in the moonshine"). but then, mercer meets his mentor that would end up changing his life. he mentor was "born on a desert floor" (religious allegory) and has great ambition ("deepest thirst"). he looks back and sees how susceptible he was to a larger influence ("drilling eyes of an orphan"). for a while, he followed his mentor.

it didnt work out. communism brought upon the fear of the cold war ("necessary balloon"), but this fear of nuclear warfare (tthink 99 red balloons, same kind of reference) was the foundation of it; it was a necessary evil. he recognized that their beliefs upset other people ("we've pissed on far too many sprites, and they're all standing up for their rights.")

so, mercer turns away from communism. and thus, he turns away from his mentor ("we can't allow a chance they'd restore themselves, so we can't make it easy on you"). this pretty much kills his relationship with the guy. not only does he reject his main ideas, but he's going outwardly against them. he recognizes that their beliefs upset other people ("we've pissed on far too many sprites, and they're all standing up for their rights."

even tho mercer leaves, this mentor still produces an army of followers ("out of a gunnysack fall red rabbits") and they become victims of the witchhunt, like in Arthur Miller's play ("into the crucible to be rendered an emulsion"). these followers are all the same; they've lost their individuality and only exist for the sole purpose of pushing the mentor's ideas, hence, they become a generic emulsion.

still, the mentor moves on without mercer. the mentor has other followers who are, in his mind, stronger than mercer ("the boys with swollen, sunburnt eyes, a reward for letting nothing under their skin"), which contrasts against mercer's self-admitted weak convictions ("it puts too many thorns on my mind"). the mentor uses this as an argument for mercer to join back ("just give the old dark side a try").

mercer reasons with the mentor. after all, he owes him for "the hole in the floor", which is just a metaphor for mercer's own self enlightenment. he left his "ghost in the hall," which is his former self. even though, mercer never believes in communism, the mentor opens up his eyes to other avenues in philosophy and politics and for that, he will always be grateful. but mercer ultimately argues back that communism will never work in reality because social and economic equality is impossible since some form of a leader must exist ("who decides who paddles over the falls" yea, who makes the call?").

now, the cold war has ended but mercer knows that the seeds of communism havent been erased. its just an "eventual lull released from every scale of crime." mercer knows the movement will come back. he just wont be apart of it when it does.