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. "

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.

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.

"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

VNV NATION "SONG MEANINGS" INSIDE
15 page interview with Ronan Harris.

http://dancemusic.about.com/od/artistshomepages/a/VnVNationInt.htm

Wow. This song is the very definition of existentialism.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!! lol

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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~