This song acts as the introduction of one of the greatest villains in my opinion, Mr. Self-Destruct/the Ruiner/the distorted voice in his head/whatever you wanna call it. Mr. Self-Destruct is symbolic, the embodiment of all our sins, our dark side if you will. To me, this is general: he exists in ALL of us, not just one person, and we all fight him on a daily basis. Indeed it is tempting to let him take over, everyone wants to embrace their alter-ego in one way or another (you let me do this to you, I am an exit) and when we give in, he gains more control over us. All the verses describe everything he is, essentially, all the elements of the sins he cashes in on. Ultimately, his motivation is to "drag us down and use us up", pretty much run our lives into the ground.
This song acts as the introduction of one of the greatest villains in my opinion, Mr. Self-Destruct/the Ruiner/the distorted voice in his head/whatever you wanna call it. Mr. Self-Destruct is symbolic, the embodiment of all our sins, our dark side if you will. To me, this is general: he exists in ALL of us, not just one person, and we all fight him on a daily basis. Indeed it is tempting to let him take over, everyone wants to embrace their alter-ego in one way or another (you let me do this to you, I am an exit) and when we give in, he gains more control over us. All the verses describe everything he is, essentially, all the elements of the sins he cashes in on. Ultimately, his motivation is to "drag us down and use us up", pretty much run our lives into the ground.
Well said (extremely well said), although you omitted the fact that Reznor is god :)
Well said (extremely well said), although you omitted the fact that Reznor is god :)