To me the song is about how easy it is to lose sight of the big picture and perspective as we age and gain more power.
The song begins with someone engaging in a simple childhood act, and eventually transitions into someone has unlimited power. Pressing a button to launch a nuke seems as simple as taking apart a remote control after a certain point. As technology increases and war becomes a game of pushing buttons, it doesn't seem real. All decisions start to become no big deal regardless of the large impact they might have.
When the song returns to the first lyrics, I don't see this as a reference to future generations (although that is not a bad interpretation by any means), to me it is supposed to take us 360 back to where it all started, and to basically say to the listener: "look, no one grows up thinking they will escalate to a position of pushing buttons to destroy the world, but as power grows its easy to get wrapped up in everything and lose sight of what is moral"
To me the song is about how easy it is to lose sight of the big picture and perspective as we age and gain more power.
The song begins with someone engaging in a simple childhood act, and eventually transitions into someone has unlimited power. Pressing a button to launch a nuke seems as simple as taking apart a remote control after a certain point. As technology increases and war becomes a game of pushing buttons, it doesn't seem real. All decisions start to become no big deal regardless of the large impact they might have.
When the song returns to the first lyrics, I don't see this as a reference to future generations (although that is not a bad interpretation by any means), to me it is supposed to take us 360 back to where it all started, and to basically say to the listener: "look, no one grows up thinking they will escalate to a position of pushing buttons to destroy the world, but as power grows its easy to get wrapped up in everything and lose sight of what is moral"