What does this song mean?

Question

I want to know what Conor Oberst is talking about in the song Four Winds. I have an idea, but am not 100% sure. Here are the lyrics:

Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
There's bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where
Squatters made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint and a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair
But when great Satan's gone... the Whore of Babylon...
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves
The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'ans mute
If you burn them all together you get close to the truth still
They're pouring over Sanskrit on the Ivy League moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun
Cast all the school and meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes
And it's the sum of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks. It breaks. It breaks
Well I went back, I rented Cadillac, a company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, "You'd better look alive"
And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the Black Hills, the Badlands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
The four winds, leveling the pines

But when great Satan's gone... the Whore of Babylon...
She just can't remain with all that outer space
She breaks. She breaks. She caves. She caves.

Answer 1

Never heard it, but sounds deep, I'd probably dig on it. Anyway, it sounds like he's referring to the end of the U.S. in biblical terms, and the U.S. being the whore of Babylon. It seems though, that it might also be referring to any nation in the world, and that no one is getting it: meaning, every nation will die. He refers to the U.S., because it's his nation that he sees as heading toward apocalypse in the world's eyes, like Sodom and Gomorrah. I want to say that his reference to Satan means the people themselves. If we idly let the leaders of our nations destroy us, then we have no one to blame but ourselves, so then, are we the devil? Or is it the leaders?
That's my two cents for ya.

Answer 2

Tattoo by employing Jordin Sparks. The song is variety of catchy, yet i will permit the lyrics talk for themselves. Oh, oh, oh no count number what you assert approximately love I save coming back for extra save my hand interior the hearth quicker or later, i gets what i'm soliciting for no count number what you assert approximately life I learn every time I bleed That fact is a stranger Soul is in possibility, I gotta permit my spirit be loose to confess that i'm incorrect and then replace my techniques Sorry yet I ought to pass on And pass away you in the back of [refrain] i can not waste time so supply it a 2d I comprehend, no longer something's broken no would desire to agonize approximately each and every thing i've got performed stay each and every 2d like it grow to be my final one do no longer look back at a clean path I enjoyed you as quickly as, mandatory protection you're nevertheless aside of each and every thing I do you're on my heart only like a tattoo (only like a tattoo, i will continuously have you ever i will continuously have you ever, i will continuously have you ever) i'm ill of enjoying all of those video games that's not approximately taking factors when I regarded interior the mirror, did no longer supply It harm sufficient to think of that i ought to end, admit that i'm incorrect and then replace my techniques Sorry yet I gotta be stable And pass away you in the back of [refrain] (only like a tattoo, i will continuously have you ever i will continuously have you ever) [Bridge] If I stay each and every 2d won't replace any 2d nevertheless a factor of me and you i will on no account remorseful approximately you nevertheless the memory of you Marks each and every thing I do [refrain X2] only like a tattoo i will continuously have you ever