You and I, we may look the same
But we are very far apart
There's bullet holes where my compassion used to be
and there is violence in my heart
Into fire you can send us
From the fire we return
You can label us a consequence of how much you have to learn
You can try but you'll never understand
This is something you will never understand
Can you hear it now?
Hear it coming now
Can you hear it now?
On hands and knees we crawl
You can not stop us all
Our bones, our skin
We will not let you win
You have set something in motion
Much greater than you've ever known
Standing there in all your grand naivety
About to reap what you have sown
Time will feed upon your weaknesses
And soon you'll lose the will to care
When you return to the place that you call home
we will be there, we will be there
On hands and knees we crawl
You can not stop us all
Our blood will stain
We will not go away
On hands and knees we crawl
You can not stop us all
Our blood, our ways
will never leave this place
***
The Nine Inch Nails are known for capturing many a dark side of humanity's creations and in 'My Violent Heart', the dark side of technology is done justice by the song's poignant lyrics. The prevalent theme found in both this text and the short story 'The Veldt' is the potential of technology to undermine authority and/or morality. In both texts, technology is personified and rebels against humans. The foolish choices made by man are what leads to their fall at the hands of technology. In 'The Veldt', George and Lydia Hadley are 'replaced', in their children's eyes, by the Happylife Home and the Nursery because they chose to buy those things, though initially for comfort. Also, technology replaces the 'home' or 'safeplace' as a result of man's choices. The Hadley's dream house becames a nightmare (for the adults) because of their heavy reliance on the technology within it.
In 'My Violent Heart', two set of lyrics really capture the theme of undermining or taking the place of authority. The first set of lyrics: Into fire you can send us/From the fire we return/You can label us a consequence of how much you have to learn. This set of lyrics describes how humans heavily rely on technology for difficult and/or vital tasks but do not seem to consider the consequences of doing so. If the task a machine is to do requires high intelligence, humans are likely to give the machines this intelligence despite the danger of doing so; if something is intelligent, it will develop a mind of it's own and realize the benefits of freedom. The second set of lyrics: You have set something in motion/Much greater than you've ever known/Standing there in all your grand naivety/About to reap what you have sown/Time will feed upon your weaknesses/And soon you'll lose the will to care/When you return to the place that you call home/we will be there, we will be there. This set of lyrics tells of man's choices, conscious or unconscious, will result in technology taking over as the authoritative role. Man is niave and does not fully think of the consequences of doing certain things, and over time, becomes sated with the thought of comfort and false security. It also indicates that man's safeplace (home) is no longer safe because of these choices, and technology is now in control.
Sources: Image (Year Zero Album Cover), Music Player, Lyrics
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