I think he is talking about how you can end up like his dead friends who through thr trials of life resorted to a substance to dull the pain rather than living through it and rising above. Or you can learn a lesson from the torment our lives consist of. No matter how empty your soul may be, there is always a chance to fill it with whatever beauty we can create for ourselves. Also he might be trying to say that society is not the way it is because it chooses to be, it was formed by people. therefore to change our society we must change ourselves.
I think he is talking about how you can end up like his dead friends who through thr trials of life resorted to a substance to dull the pain rather than living through it and rising above. Or you can learn a lesson from the torment our lives consist of. No matter how empty your soul may be, there is always a chance to fill it with whatever beauty we can create for ourselves. Also he might be trying to say that society is not the way it is because it chooses to be, it was formed by people. therefore to change our society we must change ourselves.