Greetings,

I recently read the book Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, and I was curious if the song "The Great Destroyer" could have been written about it, about the character of John Galt (since he's called in that book The Great Destroyer). I haven't been on the NIN website for some time and I'm not familiar with this forum format; I was hoping just to shoot the idea out into the universe like the way it used to be set up, hoping the author of the song might run across the question eventually...I'm aware probably no one will know the answer to my question but the author of that song, so please feel free to ignore this topic... Thanks, Brionne

I love this song as well. A constant theme of paranoia, having your thoughts read/manipulated, but I am sure there is more to it...

Fuck! I love this song! Turn it up, listen to the shit they pump into your head. I was like Yeah! It's the shit right there!

the ending breakdown of this song is one of my favorite parts in any song I've ever heard. It's beyond intense

i think this song is about an average citizen coming into contact with a high-ranking resistance member for the first time and getting a glimpse into the world he's been kept from his whole life. the citizen probably knows everything changes after this, but the resistance member kind of assuages him... 'say your name, everything gets written down'... like, you might get 'disappeared' but you won't be forgotten.

i think the citizen's old mental construct gets destroyed through means of heightened consciousness and union with the resistance member... in huxley's 'doors of perception/heaven and hell', he talks about how higher states of consciousness are achieved through rituals that cause shortness of breath, ie: singing, chanting, etc... i think the line 'hold your breath...' is a reference to this phenomenon, the citizen probably not having access to opal and being forced to use these archaic means of ego destruction.

and then the citizen's old way of thinking gets consumed by the resistance member and he is shown another version of the truth...

I think it's about a suicide bomber. Or someone who has deliberately infected themselves with a deadly disease and are intent on spreading it.

This is someone who let themselves get captured on purpose to get into the belly of the beast. He is smirking through the recorded interrogation because he knows he's going to destroy them all.

wasn't the original "Red Horse Vector" ARG clue actually IN this song? When you listen to it through certain speakers?

It was always heavily implied, though not actually stated, that Red Horse Vector was genetically engineered. It's definitely been weaponized. Question is by who: maybe it was originally supposed to be a rebel tool against oppression.

Wow!! This is crazy about the Red Horse Vector, I didn't know of it til I stumbled across this thread. Up until then, I felt this song was describing what the government would be doing after 15 years of the Republican administration in the White House. That the government would really be watching us with satellites and writing down everything we said, taking into consideration that Bush did persecute Muslims in the US during his administration and also that bill that passed allowing the government to wire tap your phone with no permission, google giving to them our searches on the Internet, etc, etc. So, I thought that the Great Destroyer would be a section of the people that got so angry at the invasion of privacy, the lack of freedom, and the apathy that is presently spread to the people via mainstream media and probably going to increasingly become worse, if we allow it. This section of society in the Great Destroyer that would become so angry would be exactly what Dreamer said: unibombers, people who are up for anything to destroy the government, to destroy their oppressers.

So, in a sum, if we kept on having more of the same Bush administration, that the Great Destroyer would arise, just people with a conscience about what would be going on that became so angry at the truth of it all that they decided to take it into their own hands. But once I read the NIN WIKI about the song, it seems as if there would be this virus, which really sounds like a zombie virus type of deal to me, that would transform people into murderers or destroyers. I would have never thought of this without this piece of info.

i'm not big on this song. idk i usually skip over it. i dont like the part where he goes "i am the great destroyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrr!" ick.

I think the song's about the angry sniper, first by telling everybody how things work on YZ. Then, he finally decides to act by himself, acting as a Red Horse virus vector (the limitless potential inside of him to murder everything) that's why he holds his breath until "the moment is right on time" to spread the virus. Then the end of the song tells us what happens afterwards, when the virus is unleashed.

You can also clearly hear the Red horse vector part if you have a Nintendo DSi. Just swith it to mono!

RowanHenderson posted:

backfiggen posted:

http://www.ninwiki.com/Red_Horse_Vector

oh man, i KNEW there was something in the song. I haven't been following the Year Zero game, I got burnt out by the 3 year AFI Clandestine mystery (i used to own an AFI fansite)

Oh man, I LOVED the AFI mystery.I was more religious about NIN's for sure, but 2 favourite bands right there.

heatherette333 posted:

i'm not big on this song. idk i usually skip over it. i dont like the part where he goes "i am the great destroyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrr!" ick.

I think it's great up until that part.

i see this song as inspirational, absolute power is in me im it,limitless potential , and i hope they cannot see for i can end it at will.