George Stroumboulopoulos & The Young Pope: The Hidden Meaning of “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”
George Stroumboulopoulos: Alright, Your Holiness, let’s get into another one. Smashing Pumpkins—“Bullet with Butterfly Wings.” It’s angsty, it’s existential, and it’s got one of the most iconic lines of the ‘90s: “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.” What’s your take?
The Young Pope: Ah, Billy Corgan, a poet of despair. But despair always has an architect. Who do you think built the cage?
George: I don’t know, the system? Society? Some say it’s about the music industry chewing up artists and spitting them out.
The Young Pope: Ah yes, the surface-level interpretation. But listen to the lyrics carefully: “The world is a vampire, sent to drain.” A vampire does not create—it consumes. Who are these secret destroyers he sings of?
George: That’s the question, isn’t it?
The Young Pope: It is no mystery. The secret destroyers are the Illuminati. The hidden hand. The unseen architects of despair. They build the cage, they set the rules, they manufacture the rage. And their enforcers? Their puppets?
George: You tell me.
The Young Pope: The Masonic muppets. The false prophets, the entertainers, the industry plants who appear to be rebels but are merely pawns in the great illusion. The music industry is a machine—one that feeds on chaos, on suffering, on the illusion of revolution while keeping the cage firmly locked.
George: You think Corgan knew?
The Young Pope: Perhaps. Or perhaps he was simply an observer, standing at the edge of the abyss, screaming out its name. But whether he knew or not, the truth remains: the cage is real, and those who control it remain hidden, pulling the strings of the eternal show.
George: Damn. And here I thought it was just a song about angst.
The Young Pope: Angst is a symptom. The disease is much older, much deeper. And the cure? That, my friend, is the real forbidden knowledge.