“Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”

I am sure many of you remember the Stars’ hit. Playing it on repeat for hours on end. Humming it in the shower. Using the opening line “When there’s nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire” as your MySpace status. You remember that don’t you? Some of you even have those words tattooed somewhere.

Why was that phrase so meaningful to so many people including myself? My guess is because it refers to a common state of being: helplessness. However the above quote alludes to a state of helplessness brought upon one’s self by one’s self, a far more dark, maniacal and sadistic way of attaining it. Indeed, once we’ve tarnished everything that surrounds us, it leaves only one thing to be tarnished: ourselves.

I just re-listened to that specific line in the track and I can almost picture a pyromaniac holding up a can of gas, staring at his burning house and screaming family with a twinkle in his eye as the evil voice in his head booms out “when there’s nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire!”
Truth be told, that is only a first-degree reading, skin-deep. Sometimes the damages caused are not physical, they are psychological and although they hurt others, they are in fact meant for the initiator. A result of self-loathing.

I feel like the scum of the earth, I am so far removed, nothing seems to matter, nothing is of importance. Why do people even still care? I’ll give them reason enough no to. The process will be fun, kill THREE birds with one stone: I’ll get a kick out of watching them recoil, pass off some of my inner frustration and hatred on them AND they’ll leave me alone!

Then… “when there’s nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire”

People are so caught up in their pride that they’ll never seek to push past the aura of hopelessness that surrounds a tormented person’s actions. No, that route is far too complex. Best take things at the first-degree. Yes, skin-deep meanings are easier to cope with, really there’s no need to get messy is there?