A million points of light ascending to the sky
Monuments in darkness standing watch until the sun will rise
Screaming to an emptiness of how we deified ourselves
With our hands over eyes, claiming all of creation.
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?

A million points of light ascending to the sky
Monuments in darkness standing watch until the sun will rise
I can’t see this all as progress
How did we come this far when we see ourselves as deities,
Claim nature for ourselves?
By our actions we betray the instincts in our race
By our blindness and stupidity
We kill everything, we kill everything.

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.

A million points of light ascending to the sky
Monuments in darkness standing watch until the sun will rise
We torch the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky
Just to make a light that no one can see
We cut the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky
Just to make a light that no one can see.
Just to make a light. Just to make a light
We kill everything
By our blindness and stupidity
We kill everything.

In a thousand years what will be our legacy a million lights that no one could see?

A million points of light.



Lyrics submitted by EagleSword

Track duration: 06:14


Carbon song meanings
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35 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment:Honestly I thought embers were the points of light and the ashes/smoke rising from them were the monuments in darkness (obviously since it would have to be at night time to see the embers).

    The rest seems hint at our dogma and how it's destroying us. All this fighting and bullshit over doing what we think is right for something we can't even prove, or for the sake of progress. Do good for goodness sake and not for your ego or someone/something else. In the end there will be no one to witness anything we've done if we're all dead; no people, no consciousness, no god for us to imagine either.
    Flag GeraldCon February 26, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I think he hit one nail on the head at least:

    "Without this light we've made we are no more".

    IMHO this one line is the essence of productivity, of living in order to create. Sadly the rest of the song is about the futility of life which I can't abide. Gah.
    Flag NinaHazelon November 01, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:VNV Nation has a habit of writing lyrics which make you stop and rethink everything.

    This song I believe is about how we push instinct and nature aside to glorify ourselves and our deities. "The light that no one can see" represents a higher being, and "we cut the Earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky, just to make [it]" can refer to crusades, suicide bombings, perhaps a nuclear holocaust inspired by religious difference.

    The most meaningful lines to me in this song:
    "I can�t see this all as progress
    How did we come this far when we see ourselves as deities,
    Claim nature for ourselves?
    By our actions we betray the instincts in our race
    By our blindness and stupidity
    We kill everything, we kill everything. "
    Flag Hihey9989on October 15, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:To be honest with VNVs lyrics and all lyrics I dont think there is a solid meaning for them, yeah, Ronan had a meaning for it when he wrote it, he is singing about whatever he was thinking when he wrote the song. My belief is that everyones meaning to the lyrics is true, if it means something to someone and if the lyrics say something to someone then to that person that meaning is correct.

    To me it all makes so much sense singing about how blindness and stupidity is killing everything because thats true, the world is being destroyed by blindness, stupidity and greed and the lyrics 'What inspires in us this madness that our existence should be defined by a light that we can't see?' I dont believe in a God, not just for the reason that he cant be proven to exist but this is what this lyric means to me.
    Flag SpayMeon May 09, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:If you really want to understand this song I suggest you look up carbon on wikipedia like I just did and see how much clearer it seems suddenly... Here's just a piece: "The name "carbon" comes from Latin language carbo, or coal. Carbon compounds form the basis of all life on Earth and the carbon-nitrogen cycle provides some of the energy produced by the Sun and other stars. Although it forms an extraordinary variety of compounds, most forms of carbon are comparatively unreactive under normal conditions."

    Just to make a light is a double metaphor. In one sense it's referring to how important our lives seem to us yet when we die and decompose we eventually meet up with all the dinosaur bones and become petroleum or coal which is then mined (we cut the earth until it bleeds rain ashes from the sky just to make a light) to be burned for fuel or electricity so we can light up the darkness at night if we feel so inclined to not sleep. The other point here is that we as life are essentially pure energy. The light that no one sees is the light that comes from within us connecting us to the divine that is named in the song as the traditional religious deity that we recognize as ourselves yet we cover our eyes so with our blindess and stupidity we kill everything by denying responsibility and deflecting it to some authority outside. Then it also refers to the traditional pagan or scientific creator usually symbolized as the Sun (monuments in darkness standing watch until the sun will rise) once again both the artificial light used at night but it also speaks to how spiritually navigate through life by our own light or connection to God, our guardian angel if you will watches out for us until the time we rise to greet the day of true destiny (a million points of light ascending to the sky).

    There's a line from a Skinny Puppy song that keeps popping up in my head to further explain this "I only kill to know I'm alive".. Humans learn by trial and error. We don't seem to know what's right until we figure out what's wrong. We learn from our mistakes. In order to create you must destroy. It is this dual nature that causes us to love despite how much it hurts. We kill everything to see if we can feel anything (what inspires in us this madness that out existence should be defined by a light that can't be seen by anyone) and we do feel it madly. We struggle everyday of our lives driven by something we will never be able to explain- love. Love for self that keeps us alive then that which contadicts it completely, a love for everything outside that we seek to attract and please like lovers & family or a love for God that we seek but never behold with our eyes. Our passion is what defines us, the will to shine (that without this light we are no more) keeps us alive.
    Flag heartsinspyreon June 30, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"we are a nation of communities... a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky"
    -George H W Bush
    Flag laurelinwyntreon October 14, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:VNV NATION "SONG MEANINGS" INSIDE
    15 page interview with Ronan Harris.

    dancemusic.about.com/od/artistshomepages/a/…
    Flag HorsesMouthon April 04, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Wow. This song is the very definition of existentialism.
    Flag Damocleson December 10, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:To me this song is more about the insanity of religion.
    The light that no-one can see is your intangible god.
    "What inspires in us this madness
    That our existence should be defined
    By a light that we can’t see? "
    Is like "What made us believe that some intangible thing controls us?"

    "By our blindness and stupidity
    We kill everything. "
    Crusades anyone?
    Flag Ag00non June 18, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:To me this song is more about the insanity of religion.
    The light that no-one can see is your intangible god.
    "What inspires in us this madness
    That our existence should be defined
    By a light that we can’t see? "
    Is like "What made us believe that some intangible thing controls us?"

    "By our blindness and stupidity
    We kill everything. "
    Crusades anyone?
    Flag Ag00non June 18, 2006   Link

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