Surely the taps running for a hundred years are the oil pumps, fueling the modern, plastic world we've created since the early twentieth century, when it became our main fuel source (plastic of course, being derived from oil).
I'm not sure if the song is optimistic so much as nihilistic - that perhaps it's already too late to really do much about global warming, soil degradation, oil shortages, over-fishing and pollution so we can and should all stop worrying about it and enjoy the (toxic) fruits of our plastic world before it all falls apart and the nature we've despoiled and corrupted revenges itself upon humanity. So we may as well drink from the plastic cup [the poisoned chalice?] now while we still can - we've already binged on oil via our fun fast cars, our cheap, superficially-clean electricity, our speeding jet planes (pirate or otherwise), our effortlessly microwaved mass-produced ready-meals and of course our fun disposable (but sadly extremely durable) plastic goods, so much so that we're now beyond salvation. Drugs, alcohol, gambling and bad, addictive relationships can all be seen both as symbols and, perhaps, as symptoms of the unnatural, superficially fun but somehow soulless existence we now lead in the modern world, wrapped-up in our plastic civilisation, knowing it's not sustainable but refusing to change our behaviour - just like any other kind of addict. So drinking from the plastic cup is both a metaphor and a literal action - party now to forget the future consequences. And because deep-down, many people feel this to be true, between periods of shallow, frantic fun the album is suffused by a sense of unease and mournfulness. For me, the whole thing is a kind of a requiem for the doomed modern world.
But perhaps things are not quite so bad - perhaps we will be 'forgiven' as it were, for our crimes against the planet. But maybe we never will.
This is not my real-life view of the world - at least not my logical one. But on an emotional level I do agree with a lot of what I draw from this song, and album. Feel free to comment away:
Surely the taps running for a hundred years are the oil pumps, fueling the modern, plastic world we've created since the early twentieth century, when it became our main fuel source (plastic of course, being derived from oil). I'm not sure if the song is optimistic so much as nihilistic - that perhaps it's already too late to really do much about global warming, soil degradation, oil shortages, over-fishing and pollution so we can and should all stop worrying about it and enjoy the (toxic) fruits of our plastic world before it all falls apart and the nature we've despoiled and corrupted revenges itself upon humanity. So we may as well drink from the plastic cup [the poisoned chalice?] now while we still can - we've already binged on oil via our fun fast cars, our cheap, superficially-clean electricity, our speeding jet planes (pirate or otherwise), our effortlessly microwaved mass-produced ready-meals and of course our fun disposable (but sadly extremely durable) plastic goods, so much so that we're now beyond salvation. Drugs, alcohol, gambling and bad, addictive relationships can all be seen both as symbols and, perhaps, as symptoms of the unnatural, superficially fun but somehow soulless existence we now lead in the modern world, wrapped-up in our plastic civilisation, knowing it's not sustainable but refusing to change our behaviour - just like any other kind of addict. So drinking from the plastic cup is both a metaphor and a literal action - party now to forget the future consequences. And because deep-down, many people feel this to be true, between periods of shallow, frantic fun the album is suffused by a sense of unease and mournfulness. For me, the whole thing is a kind of a requiem for the doomed modern world. But perhaps things are not quite so bad - perhaps we will be 'forgiven' as it were, for our crimes against the planet. But maybe we never will.
This is not my real-life view of the world - at least not my logical one. But on an emotional level I do agree with a lot of what I draw from this song, and album. Feel free to comment away: