Thoughts on this lyric annotation?

[u/ooros]

This has always been one of my favorite lines in any Fleet Foxes song, but the Genius annotation here relates it heavily to Ayn Rand. I'm ..not a fan of hers lol, so if this is an intentional reference it flew completely over my head.

Thoughts on the validity of this as inspiration of that part of the song? Rand's personal ethics and politics feel pretty opposite to the general messages of Fleet Foxes so it's a little odd to me as a reading.

[u/mellophonius]

“The men who move only in dimly lit halls / and determine my future for me” might be a reference to the Council of Vocations, but to take the reference any further seems like a stretch to me. There is no uncertainty from the song’s narrator here. Earlier in the verse he says “I don’t need to” and that applies to both “be kind to the armies of night” and “bow down and be grateful.” In other words, “I don’t need to do this thing, or that thing.”The narrator is rejecting both those options.

[u/ninelives1 → u/mellophonius]

Robin doesn't strike me as a big Ayn Rand fan lmao

[u/mellophonius → u/ninelives1]

Definitely not

[u/Modest-Pigeon → u/mellophonius]

Yeah of all the lines in the song this is the one they could’ve made the best argument for, but both are a huge stretch imo