<blockquote>"CONCLUSION. SHADOWS ON THE CAVE WALL."</blockquote>
In an interview with Zane Lowe[http://itunes.apple.com/us/post/sa.24db9a20-59e3-11e8-8359-8a5db8dbb4ce?app=music&ign-itsct=be1_con_zan&ign-itscg=10703], Reznor somewhat explained the concept underlying each piece of the trilogy:<blockquote>"Let me drop some cryptic information on you. The idea of this three EP thing was all to find truth in us figuring out who we are now and how we fit into the world. The first EP, ''Not The Actual Events'', was meant to be from a personal angry self-destructive reflection on that question and defining how I feel in a world, that feels stranger, part of that’s aging. Part of that’s because the world is getting weirder. Finding your place in a world that looks different every day little bit changes and reacting to that in the first EP through anger and self-destruction and setting a match to your life. The second EP, ''Add Violence'', was meant to the same question. But looking for answers externally. Maybe it’s because of this and there’s comfort in that. Maybe there’s a reason things feel kind of crazy and it’s not that I’m insane, that I’m in a situation that’s insane.<br>And with the third EP which has grown into an LP (''Bad Witch''). It was coming to one final look at that question from rejecting what EP number two says, and it wasn’t an easy answer… The entire system has a much more bleak and pessimistic outlook and I want to say too much because it gives away kind of the what the thing is. But it wasn’t necessarily what we thought it was going to be when we started. I thought it was going to go more science fiction. I don’t really want to overwhelm you with cleverness and deep diving and part of that felt like an arms race and it also felt like a cop out."</blockquote> In another interview with Lizzy Goodman posted on nin.com, Reznor explains the trilogy’s concept in detail:
<blockquote>"But to be clear, the record isn’t about Trump, it’s about making sense of the world. The first record, ''Not the Actual Events'', was more of an internal fantasy of what if I lit a match to my life and just embraced burning the whole fucking thing down. You know? All of this is an illusion and I really should be dead or lying in a ditch somewhere. Who I ''really'' am is an addict that self-destructs. That’s my true nature and this is an illusion and some borrowed time. It wasn’t a pleasant thing, but it felt like, that’s a story to tell. And if felt like something I needed to internally process.