a dream of me in a club dancing and a beautiful man watching me from a far.

In an interview somewhere Ronan said that he got the idea for this song while in a 50's diner (I think) and the 'million points of light' refers to the view of a city at night.

I think he's saying that we're basing our values on trivial and futile things, and that we think that for some reason we're exempt from the laws of nature. Heh. The perfect metaphor for this is from a book I read... In the same way that a man wearing a coat of feathers, flapping his arms as he jumps off a cliff is flying and defying the laws of aerodynamics because, "So far so good," we believe that Civilization is the "best" way for humanity to live based on the fact that despite all the shit we've killed, we're still around. Not necessarily for long, though...

This is no doubt my favorite song from the new album. It backround is so amazing and so is the melody. I was disscussing the lyrics with my mom and I figuered it out. The million points of light are the lights in the city. The next few lines talk about the light shining up towards the sky as a sign of how we have put our selves so high. The light he is talking about is electricity. When I first heard the song I thought it was about God, and being a christian I didn't like the song. The line "Monuments in darkness" is the lights are on at night. "Stadning watch untile the sun will rise" how our city lights go off during the day. The song is bout the fact that we have put all our dependance on electricty. Our very society is dependant on it. Y2k scared the dung out of people but that was just comps. Electricity has become the key to our being. And that is "blindess and stupidity". Because to power our houses and to contiue this we have to cut massive forests down and steal all the resources from the earth. This song rocks!!!!

This is no doubt my favorite song from the new album. It backround is so amazing and so is the melody. I was disscussing the lyrics with my mom and I figuered it out. The million points of light are the lights in the city. The next few lines talk about the light shining up towards the sky as a sign of how we have put our selves so high. The light he is talking about is electricity. When I first heard the song I thought it was about God, and being a christian I didn't like the song. The line "Monuments in darkness" is the lights are on at night. "Stadning watch untile the sun will rise" how our city lights go off during the day. The song is bout the fact that we have put all our dependance on electricty. Our very society is dependant on it. Y2k scared the dung out of people but that was just comps. Electricity has become the key to our being. And that is "blindess and stupidity". Because to power our houses and to contiue this we have to cut massive forests down and steal all the resources from the earth. This song rocks!!!! Oh and this song really became cool to me when I was at a camp. It was about 11 pm and it was totally dark, I looked accross the lake and all I could see was the lights from three signal towers. The kind you see along hihg ways. With three blinking light. Adn I started singing to my self.
"IN 1000 years what will be our legacy a millon points of light that no one could see."

What inspires in us this madness
That our existence should be defined
By a light that can’t be seen by anyone?
What inspires in us this madness
That our existence should be defined
By a light that we can’t see?


to me, this is hinting at the whole christian view of 'heaven's light' -as though he is wondering why we should live our lives as 'god' wants when we have no proof that god even exists...but rather we should define who we are and how we live based on what will make us and those we love happy...

Hmm. Somehow I came across a voxless version of this song. I didnt know it had lyrics until I bought Futureperfect. Both versions are great.

I also agree that the million points of light are a city.
Hmm, for some strange reason I have a desire to go out and head down to fishermans wharf or something.. lol

First off- I want to know which cd this EagleSword guy was listening to when he added all the lyrics to FuturePerfect- was he writing them from memory or something? Every song is either totally wrong (airships) or has mistakes that aren't derived just from the lyrics being misheard- like he wrote 'screaming into an emptiness' when the lyrics are 'screaming into a void' for this song... sorry- am I listening to a different cd? am i just crazy?

Anyways I digress. To me this song was one of the most difficult of theirs to interpret- the most literal interpretation is obviously that it is about a city and the eventual end of our world due to our own destructive nature- we pollute, cut forests down and 'rain ashes from the sky' in the name of progress, when in fact it is killing our world and will one day kill us. I just don't understand when he is referring to when he says 'a light that can't be seen by anyone' any opinions? ideas? Out of the whole song it is only that line that makes me think of the religious interpretation offering by ScarletFang.
I also heard the voxless version and it is equally beautiful.

Hmm.. I'm unsure what versions of the songs you're listening to.. I went ahead and listened to the album version of "carbon" and the only mistake I can find is at the end of the first verse he left out a second "by a light that can't be seen" and then at the very end of the song "a million lights that no one could see" should be "a million lights that no one can see" ... so maybe you're listening to a live version of the songs that you downloaded? The lyrics are in the CD packet, and sometimes what the lyrics are in the CD packet don't exactly match what was recorded word for word.. so I'm guessing EagleSword just typed what he saw in the packet. Either way, it gets the point across..

For my personal thoughts on the song.. this is one of my favorites off this album, but I feel that it is one of the least understood. I'm unsure why.. I feel that the meaning is right there infront of your face. Maybe people don't realize it because it's not talking about loving someone for eternity..
When I saw VNV live acouple years ago, before they played this song, they asked "Let's see if you can be the first audience to figure out what this means"

"A million points of light ascending to the sky
Monuments in darkness, standing watch untile the sun will rise."

- when the song was written it may be talking about a certian city in particualr, but I think it's just suppost to mean all citites in general.. the entire world.

"Screaming to an emptiness of how we deified ourselves
With our hands over our eyes, claiming all of creation."

- We are blinded by our pride.. who else is there to hear or care about what we do to our earth?

"What inspires in us this madness
That our existence should be defined
By a light that can't be seen by anyone?"

- It's insane that all we've accomplished in our time here is these huge man-made things that destroy the earth, and the only ones we have to impress are ourselves.

"I can't see this all as progress
How did we come this far?
When we see ourselves as deities,
Claim nature for ourselves?"

- again, we treat the earth as if we were god. We manipulate and destroy it as we please. How did we make it this far with this attitude? How is this positive?

"By our actions we betray the instincts in our race,
By our blindness and stupidity
We kill everything, we kill everything."

- By killing everything, we betray who we really are.. weather we originated from animals, or if we are god's children.. we were not created to destroy what was givin to us. By not realizing this, by not opening our eyes and our hearts and our minds.. we are killing the earth, we are killing ourselves.

"Can someone see our self-destruction?
Are we reminding ourselves that our existence is so delicate, that without this light we are no more.
That without this light we've made we are no more."

- Someone else realize what is going on! We are destroying ourselves! Can't anyone realize that without all our material things we'd be nothing!? Without our securities we've made that destroy everything around us, we'd perish.

"We cut the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky
Just to make a light that no one can see"

- again, we are destroying everything around us, to make our material securities.

"In a thousand years, what will be out legacy?
A million lights that no one can see.. A million points of light."

- That ending lyric with the tone of the song, just perfects it's greatness.. it just leaves you there to think about what was just said.
It just means, in the future all we'll have to show is our pride for our race..

Definatly this song could have some undertones of religion and war.. humanity. We have so much pride in ourselves that we are always doing the right thing, that we forget about having meaning to our lives..
From a religious point of veiw.. people get so concerned with other people and cast their veiwpoints and judgements on them.. and in return they forget to look at themselves and remember that we are all sinners.

You can interpret many different aspects of humanity into this song.. which is why all VNV songs are really wonderful.. because I feel they all have a gereral meaning, but you can always personalize on the meaning with their in-direct lyrics.

~Victory Not Vengeance~

hmm okay i just tried to type and entry and it didn't show up.. >.<

maybe it takes time to load because it was so long. it says there are 10 comments.. but 9 and 10 were mine and they arent showing up >.< bah.. oh wells I'll wait.

I think this song mainly has to do with the god complex, and how we have been playing god for so long. The huge sky scraper buildings we have rule the night, they have conquored nature and have an incredible power to them, (a real eqo trip to the human race) But thier reign ends when the sun comes up, no mater how much control we have over nature, productive or distructive, we will never compare to the power the sun has over us. It is our guardian durring the day and the ultimate giver and taker of life, and no matter how hard we try to prove we are god, we can not compare to that power, however, we will continue on our paths of distruction to prove that wrong. ... a little side note, if you like this type of theme and style of music check out blindhammer by assmeblage 23, i think it has a similar message, both bands are fucking incredable.

I believe the line 'just to make a light that no one can see' is reffering to us making utterly pointless things by destroying the earth. After all, whats the point of a light if no one can see it? Its basicly symbolising that we put all this effort and destruction into creating somthing that is ultimatly pointless and certainly not worth all the destruction we cause.

A million points of light ascending to the sky: reference to the launch of missiles. Also a reference to George W. Bush's election campaign (http://www.bartleby.com/66/91/9391.html). Referenced in "Vision Thing" from the Sisters of Mercy as well.. It's about the way we destroy our planet by electing people who ignore basic facts such as global warming.

I think that the million points of light refers to the souls of dead people rising to heaven. I think this song is about how we waste our resources that were given to us by God. "We cut the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky Just to make a light that no one can see." I believe that this means that we are scarring the earth by taking away things that we need to expand human life.

I believe this song is about Religion and the role it has played in mankind. We claim "God" and label it. The million points of light are the stars above us, pointing to the universe and the mass size of it, full of endless posibilities. Even with all the stars above, we still try to create our own "light" God. We forget the fragile quality of life and fail to protect ourselves. We end up living our lives trying to prove this one light, and forget the others. Ignoring ourselves and nature, we will do anything to prove our "god" kill each other, destroy the earth, we are stupid animals.

I believe this song is about Religion and the role it has played in mankind. We claim "God" and label it. The million points of light are the stars above us, pointing to the universe and the mass size of it, full of endless posibilities. Even with all the stars above, we still try to create our own "light" God. We forget the fragile quality of life and fail to protect ourselves. We end up living our lives trying to prove this one light, and forget the others. Ignoring ourselves and nature, we will do anything to prove our "god" kill each other, destroy the earth, we are stupid animals.

Stupid animals is a heartless thing to say, so I will elaborate on that. Throughout time we have acted more like animals and less like human beings. We should learn from our history and strive to evolve into loving and peaceful human beings.

I reread the lyrics, and I can see I got mixed up with the light analysis. I can see where it is saying we create our own lights on earth, at night they are turned off, and the creations we made are alone and empty. BTW, animals aren't stupid, we act like stupid animals, ignoring out intelligence.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!! lol

i just finished reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, and I can see a lot of symbology in this song that's in that book. the book (amazing, all should read) is about an ancient brotherhood called the Illuminati, who, though originally Christian, became a group completely focused on science and hating religion. Illuminati literally means "the enlightened ones". they were a group of Christian scientists, trying to find the meaning of life and God. they established a "path of illumination" in Rome leading to their secret meeting place, hidden from the Catholic church. marking each point in the path is an obelisk, a large pillar with a pyramid on the top. "Monuments in darkness, standing watch until the sun will rise." although I don't really believe that this song is about this brotherhood, i do find it interesting that it refers to "a million points of light ascending to the sky." it could be the enlightened ones attempting to reach heaven.

perhaps the song refers to the corruption of the original religious scientists who became haters of christianity and all it stands for. they became pure scientists, destroying all religion stands for, destroying our beautiful, natural world.

haha, i'm probably reaching. but still, everyone should read this book.

Interesting viewpoint there, I tend to view VNV Nation as against all organized religon. IMO I feel their music forces the listenter to analyze how religion plays into our lifes and the history of mankind.

I've always seen VNV Nation as being very spiritual, but not religious. They're not pushing any particular view, but they sing a lot about life after death, spirits, angels, eternity, etc.

This song has a more down to earth theme. It's about how man abuses the earth. "We kill everything.", "We cut the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky." And in typical VNV Nation fashion, it leaves you with a question, not an order. "What will be our legacy?"

VNV Nation's political messages in their songs are way subtler than most bands (think KMFDM or Rage Against the Machine), but I think that makes it hundreds of times more effective. When I hear this song I see trees falling, smoke pouring out of factories, polluted rivers, and dying animals. Instead of blaming the evil "system", like a Rage Against the Machine song would, VNV Nation lets us know that we are guilty, too. We HAVE deified ourselves; we only look out for #1 and to hell with the rest of the world. We as Western society are using up Earth's resources, relying on technology to save us. Someday our technology may not save us, and what will be left, only "monuments in darkness" to a culture that destroyed itself?

PS: I don't mean to hate on Rage Against the Machine, they're good. I just think they lack subtlety.

this song is about carbon dating and how much it impacts our relationships with inner-city deaf orphans. i can relate to this song because i was carbon dated to find my triceratops birth mother. although she is a huge bitch, im glad this song gave me the strength to go find my real family. this band is the reason i get out of my cot in the morning.

This song reminds me so much of a post-apocalyptic future and how humans have created it. The lines "A million points of light ascending to the sky
Monuments in darkness standing watch until the sun will rise " are symbolic of a world on fire; the "million points of light" refers to the sparks from the flames and the "monuments of darkness" are reference to what has already been burned and left in ashes.