Contributors:

Jeremy Bronheim

Jonathan Chaffer

Matthew James

Ben Ledsham

Nick Medinger

Jay Miller

J.T.

This song has a few possible interps. Before we begin, the wordplay: the obvious one in this song is "I love me" when the rhyme scheme and logic of the song would dictate "I love you."

The most obvious interpretation is that the singer is in some way "playing God." This could be either a television evangelist or the leader of some kind of religious cult. He is building an empire by exploiting the workers. He did not count on his followers thinking him to be God, however. For some reason, they claim that he looks like Jesus, though he is not (Jesus is very far away). The masses clamor for him to kiss them and bless them. The "destroyed a bond of friendship" part might refer to the leader's lack of respect for/from others in his field; perhaps other clergy used to associate with him, but now that he is looked to as Jesus by his followers, they shun him. The word twist of "I love me" is actually quite significant, be cause it indicates, along with the "laugh and make a fortune" section, that he is really quite satisfied to maintain his appearance as God, because it is in his self-interest.

Another strong interp is that the song could be about Communism. Communism indeed gets its strength from "the blood of the exploited working class." Most leaders of Communist societies begin with good intentions, but get greedy when they see that people think of them as gods. Hence the "but they've overcome their shyness" bit. The leaders then become spoiled by this power-- they laugh and make a fortune-- and lose all their former friends.

It has also been theorized that the song could be about the problems with capitalist business. The little empire could be one large business, built out of exploited workers. The whole devotion of the masses described in the song could be simply an exaggerated vision of the way people try to get ahead by winning favor with executives. Because of the attitude these executives form, they lose their friends.

These interps all fit in pretty much the same way because they all involve the corruption that comes with a position of power. It seems pretty certain that the song involves this theme in one way or another.