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the horizon has been defeated
by the pirates of the new age
alien casinos
well maybe it's just time to say
things can go bad
and make you want to run away
but as we grow older
the troubles just seems to stay
future complications
in the strings between the cans
but no prints can come from fingers
if machines become our hands
and then our feet become the wheels
and then the wheels become the cars
and then the rigs begin to drill
until the drilling goes too far
things can go bad
and make you want to run away
but as we grow older
the horizon begins to fade away
the thingamajigs are buzzing
anger don't you step too close
because people are lonely and only
animals with fancy shoes
hallelujah zig zag nothing
misery it's on the loose
because people are lonely and only
animals with too many tools
that can build all the junk that we sell
sometimes it makes you want to yell
things can go bad
and make you want to run away
but as we grow older
the horizon begins to fade away
by the pirates of the new age
alien casinos
well maybe it's just time to say
things can go bad
and make you want to run away
but as we grow older
the troubles just seems to stay
future complications
in the strings between the cans
but no prints can come from fingers
if machines become our hands
and then our feet become the wheels
and then the wheels become the cars
and then the rigs begin to drill
until the drilling goes too far
things can go bad
and make you want to run away
but as we grow older
the horizon begins to fade away
the thingamajigs are buzzing
anger don't you step too close
because people are lonely and only
animals with fancy shoes
hallelujah zig zag nothing
misery it's on the loose
because people are lonely and only
animals with too many tools
that can build all the junk that we sell
sometimes it makes you want to yell
things can go bad
and make you want to run away
but as we grow older
the horizon begins to fade away
Lyrics submitted by rjbucs28
Track duration: 02:32
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It is the technology idea. As someone said, the horizon was the edge of the world to be conquered. The pirates of today have conquered the horizon with technology broadly. Compare with Paul Simon's "Baby in the Bubble" - technology covers modern medicine, energy, and consumer/mass production, but also refers to technology per se (cell phones, GPS, internet everywhere, etc., etc.). The forward march of progress creates conflicts and problems as well as solving them. One line I puzzle over: "Alien Casinos". I think it is a play on words with "Indian Casinos", themselves an odd intellectual advance in law, but there is a more direct sense of randomness and chaos coming from without - i.e., no individual has control over the mass of people doing what they do.
The next verse is pretty firect about the imprint of people being replaced by the imprint of the mass of technology and production (sorry to sound Marxist, but it is a good term here). We no longer have an imprint of individuals (footprints in the sand) but have a larger scale impact (perhaps offshore drilling, but not critical it match that closely). It come out as people being part of the fabric of the technology, driving the need for more output (and it is pretty clear he is focusing on oil here)without insight or control over the chain of causation.
The last verse is pretty interesting. what he is saying is all this activity (factories, oil drilling, etc., etc.) buzzes along just fine and stable. But, people are not technology, and the danger is when human emotions (like anger) mix in the soup. Anger needs to be kept so it isn't "too close" because people, deep down, are animals and lack the cool rationalism of the technology itself. In the end the tech is alienating ("people are lonely and only"), and itself drives anger, which can have a tragic outcome (Imagine modern weaponry and nuclear bombs). So, in the end, we are undone by the misuse of technology and production - whether that be resource depletion, war, or other maldies which technology can amplify into a bigger problem than before.
kellenwright accurately lays out the song in terms of the problems Jack is identifying in the world. No one would argue against the fact that he's somewhat of a 'hippy', in the sense that he takes a more liberal approach in his worldview and can see that the environmental degradation occurring now isn't going to have effects simply in economic terms, that it's really going to mess up the rythyms of nature. It's a movement that has been growing in the mass media and more generally in our culture since the 60's.
However, what cwsbabygirl points out is also true. The above isn't ALL the song is about. The horizon could be thought of as the left-leaning thoughts most people experience at some point in their lives (generally their youth, especially in a liberal setting like a university). They identify the things they deem "wrong" in the world, and set out to try to "fix" it. Hence the environmental groups popping up on campuses across the world (in the same way that the civil rights movement and other movements have been driven by students advocating for change).
However, as people get older (at least this is my perspective, and that of several people I've talked about this with) they just don't get as outraged about environmental issues as they used to. More and more, things just seem to be "the way things are", and people realize that the effort required to effect any sort of REAL change is so massive that it's not worth the time. They focus their efforts on raising good kids, and generally being happy with their lives.
I think Jack is seeing this, having been to university (in Cali no less) and now raising a child of his own. And it's something lots of people go through, so that's why this song reaches so many people.
Hopefully this has been an Obama-style centrist-democrat position on the issue and there will be no further debate as to the meaning of this song haha. Not likely though...