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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker asks to be protected from both the violence of war and the guilt of the person who caused it.
In plain terms
Protect me from the war and the one who started it.
What can you take from it?
Acknowledge the dual harm of conflict: physical danger and moral burden.

Where it applies

  • reflecting on military service
  • discussing war trauma
  • analyzing protest songs

Putting it to work

  • songwriting about conflict
  • therapy for veterans
  • historical analysis

Questions to consider

  • How do we separate victims from perpetrators in conflict?
  • What does it mean to be sheltered from guilt?

Another view

It assumes the listener accepts the metaphor of the finger pulling the trigger as a source of guilt.

More from Neil Young

  1. 'It's better to burn out than to fade away.' - 'My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)', quoted by Kurt Cobain in his suicide note.

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  2. 'There is a town in north Ontario / With dream comfort memory to spare / And in my mind, I still need a place to go / All my changes were there.' - 'Helpless'

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  3. 'The same thing that makes you live can kill you in the end.' - 'From Hank to Hendrix'

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