A Rat's Nest

That's a pretty good interpretation but I get something more personal out of this song. It can definitely apply to politics and world events but ultimately it has to do with a lack of support in general.

Within the context of the entire album, I find it difficult not to associate it with Harrowdown Hill and how Dr. Kelly must have asked for support for what he was doing and at the end he found none because we all feel we are trapped in a rat's nest... we all have to survive and make money and get all the trappings we get used to. And so we attach ourselves to those things and are unable to escape the rat's nest even though we know we are ultimately contributing to our extinction.

On a very personal level I feel it's related to the rest of the songs in the album which could have to do with so many things... love being one of them. If we interpret the rest of the songs as being about finding love in someone outside of our present relationship, then this one is where the guy who's already attached to someone else, suddenly starts doubting that going into a new relationship will actually make him happier and he decides to go back to his former relationship. That's why I think it's connected with Harrowdown Hill which can also be interpreted as a song about slipping along the way and going back to the reality we don't really like... and we know it's destroying us and will ultimately kill even our children. Say it's about a bad marriage. We know we are giving our children the wrong example by staying in a bad marriage but we succumb to society's dictates and stay in one because we are made to feel guilty. This is about being trapped in a bad marriage because leaving would mean sacrificing the material comforts we are used to having and it also means going into another relationship that might ultimately end up the same as our current bad one. We never know... we either choose to trust our instincts or we stay where we are... caught in a rat's nest.

But it can also be about what Dr. Kelly did. For a moment (or many) he listened to his intuition and his conscience and decided that no matter how much he had to lose, what his government and the US government were doing is morally wrong... it will destroy us in the end. So he chose to listen to his instincts and say the truth... and he was killed... whether a suicide or whatever it doesn't matter... it killed him. He could've escaped, I'm sure, but he felt it was morally wrong to 'spill the beans' and run away. We all feel that way at some points in our lives but then we weigh what we have to gain against what we have to lose and we normally back out. Because what we have to lose are the material things we and those around us have become accustomed to.

So the song can be applied to a lot of things. I just find it difficult to listen to because it captures the moment when the narrator decides to back out and not believe. Definitely not what Dr. Kelly did. In my eyes he is a hero. This is not a song about him. This is a song about a coward who chooses to slide back into the rat's nest because he is unable to believe in what he's doing.