When Angels Deserve to Die

When Angels Deserve To Die

            How much does one actually believe in there own country? How much would a citizen do to actually keep their country out of harms way? How much do any of us believe strongly, when it comes to our national policy? Serj Tankian is a man that challenges this thought in many of his songs, more like poems, but still songs. One song named, “BYOB”, Serj sings “You depend on our protection, yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth.” Serj comes from a country named Lebanon, which has many different views than the United States. (Tankian)

            In this paper I plan to compare and contrast the view of the United States compared to the rest of the world, but more importantly Lebanon. I will point this out using our religion, morals, and more importantly our political views. The reason behind these intentions being that the United States should open its mind more when trying to deal with World affairs.

            Religion is a very complicated subject to speak of, especially when it is widely respected upon. Lebanon is a very religious part of the world, after doing some research I have come to the conclusion that roughly sixty percent of Lebanon is Muslim and forty percent is Christian (“Lebanon”). Now Serj is Armenian-American. One may ask them self what this exactly means. In lamest terms this is a person that moves from Lebanon, that is Christian, and is not Muslim. I point this out because many assume that if one if from the Middle Eastern part of the world, that they must be Muslim.

            It’s an interesting point to make when dealing with the different types of backgrounds that people listen to, especially when we hear everyday that we are becoming a global world. The United States has a little different of a view when religion is brought into the mix. The United States has many different kinds of religion and it is hard to come up with two religions that dominate. I cannot speak for the rest of our country but I’m sure many would be appalled when reading the title of this paper. This is where we get to the next subject of morals.

            Morals are quite different around many parts of the world, one thing that many countries see much differently are drugs. Serj has a strong belief on drugs that he sings about in a song called “Prison Song”. He sings in this song about trying to build a prison and about the drug war. One line that really got to me was “Drug money is used to rig elections and train brutal corporate sponsored dictators around the world.” This is a line that could be very controversial to the typical “American” but very true to other parts of the world. His youth was one thing that affected him greatly, seeing the wars that he saw made him see some true realities at a young age. His religious views could be a factor as well, being Christian. This is where we get to our final point of the day (Tankian).

            Morals are quite important to everyone in the world I believe. Serj has some different morals when it comes to his music, but his religion is what it is, Christian. Some believe that he may not believe in a God, but being from a religious are as Lebanon I would have to disagree. Since he is Armenian- American he would have to be some sort of Christian, like said earlier.

            “Aerials” is a great song that speaks of life, religion is somewhat of a way people live their life. One line that I really enjoyed was, “life is a waterfall, we drink from the river, then we turn around and put up our walls.” This shows to me what he thinks of love and life. We love to show ourselves to people but then when that person doesn’t accept us we turn around and put up that wall. This view is much different from many in the rest of the world (Tankian).

            Back to the title of the paper, I believe many would be appalled like said earlier on the title of this paper. But the song “Chop Suey” is a great song about life and religion. In the song Serj sings “I don't think you trust, in, my, Self-righteous suicide, I, cry, when angels deserve to die.” This lyric can mean a lot of things but I believe he’s speaking of a greater reason for suicide that many don’t understand. Not many do understand suicide but sometimes there is a self-righteous reason for it. Many just can’t see it, because it does hurt people at the end of the day (Tankian).

            These three points one should review. Serj Tankian does have some major counter culture beliefs in his lyrics. The biggest three that I have seen have just been reviewed, the views of religion, morals, and political views. The political sense and moral sense do seem to run together though.

            So why is all of this important? Look around one’s life and one might be able to answer that for oneself. Our country is in a state of emergency that not many seem to care about. Each day our government is making major mistakes that could affect all of us in a decade. But everyone seems to be ok with the men up top making these decisions and having us take the blow of consequence. So next time “Chop Suey” comes on the radio and Serj screams, “When angels deserve to die”, maybe you will re think why he is screaming it.

           

Annotated Bibliography

Tankian, Serj. "BYOB" Mezmerize the album.

This source will serve mainly for Tankian's view of Iraq and the war that we face each day over in the middle east. He is very against the war and points out many of the views in the lyrics as well. His view differs from what he saw as a child with war.



Tankian, Serj. "Aerials" Toxicity the album.

This source shows his view about love and how he expresses his love for life and hate for life each day in his lyrics. Almost how dynamic he can be with all of his emotions through his own music. His view is much different from the environment he grew up in .


Tankian, Serj. "Chop Suey" Toxicity the album.

His view on God is showed through this song. He states many things that are offensive to religion but makes a lot of sense. Tankian has a different view of religion from where he actually was raised which makes it a lot different from contemporary works that one can see in our own environment.



Tankian, Serj. "Prison Song" Toxicity the album.


This source serves as a purpose on his anti social movement. States how most are trying to make a prison for all of our society to live in through the government. All of these show a different kind of view of life because of where he was raised and what he believes.



Tankian, Serj. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serj_Tankian , 2010

This source will serve mainly as the background information for the poet. It speaks of the environment he used to grow up in as well as the reasons for the works he produces. He is Armenian for one which describes his different outlook on life.

"No Child"

I feel as if "No Child" was a great play with the same outcome any other kind of genre would have. It has the feel good moment at the end which is great. But this play stereotypes way too much for my liking. Definitely shows that people with bad backgrounds don't perform as well, which isn't their fault. But where do we stop with the problems? The problem is that our public education system is flawed in the United States and always has been. We spend too much on defenses that we are so paranoid with after the 9/11 attacks. Everyone is in such a state of paranoia. There's no room for expression anymore, no room for freedom of speech. Especially in a country that worries more about terrorists than the domestic problems we have right on our own soil.

This topic is over examined in schools. We can learn more and more about our flawed school systems, but it won't change anything.

Research Proposal

I would like to have my research project be about a poet, lyricist, singer that I have listened to since a young age. His name is Serj Tankian, he is from Lebanon. There is a lot that one should know about Serj Tankian before reading his lyrics. One major thing is that he is armenian, also he is mostly for an anti war movement. He is also apart of the PETA association and is the lead vocalist for System of a Down. There are four pieces of writing I have chosen to write about for my research project that are poems. They all deal with war, society, counter cultures, and much more about religion.

Serj Tankian has a strange voice that pushes away a lot of music lovers. He also has a more hard rock genre of music that pushes away some as well. The four works that I have chosen are four songs that he wrote that I see as poetry. He also is a poet I just decided to pick songs instead of his poetry. The four songs I chose mean something important to me in each song. The first song is called "Lonely Day", which he speaks of a lonely day, week, and ultimately life. The second one I chose to pick is called "BYOB", which speaks about the war in Iraq and how it ultimately is a pointless war. The third is called "Chop Suey", which speaks of depression that we all deal with each day. The final song is called "Aerials", which is mostly about the way Serj sees life.

Response Questions for 11/1

Comparing the two different stories they do seem to be structured the same, especially with how they word both of the stories it seems to resemble a lot. But also the things that play out seem to do the same for this as well in both stories. The shorter story doesn't seem to take place in just one location though which also makes it different along with the characterization as well. Another bigger difference is the setting too. The short story goes play by play action as they lay each other out. Trifles doesn't seem to do this as much which seems to make it a harder reading in the end. I do like Trifles more though it seems to make the reading harder so you actually get more of a reward by the time you are done reading and feel more accomplished on what you have just read. It gives the reader more outcome.

Response Question for 10/4

In the poem "My Last Dutchess" by Robert Browning, he reveals his past through a portrait that he keeps speaking of. The portrait is a painting of his late wife and he describes many things about her. You can tell he's speaking of her through the title of the poem. When he gets to talking about her he doesn't seem very fond of her or her actions that she committed when alive. He says in the poem "She had a heart - how shall I say? too soon made glad." This shows how easy she was at showing emotions towards anyone, not just personal people. Showing emotion to everyone is never a good factor to have. In other words it sounds to me that she was sleeping around or she was not a very good wife. Either way the narrator seems to have a huge problem with his late wife.

I think that he is speaking to someone besides the reader about his late wife as well. He seems to speak of her in a tone that would have you guess that someone in the poem is actually listening to him give his monologue about her. 

Response Question for 9/27

In the poem "Mirrors" by Sylvia Plath, the poem describes different objects that show reflections as does a mirror. She gives these objects human descriptions and adds life to the actual object which works great for figures of speech. The first example I found was "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions." This is the first two lines of the poem. As one can see mirrors are not silver and cannot have preconceptions. Mirrors do have a silver look, but in no way can they have preconceptions. This is a human emotion and is considered a "figure of speech". Another example that I found was "Whatever I see I swallow immediately." This is another human action that cannot be done by a mirror, a mirror can figuratively swallow an emotion or reflection but not physically.

The poem goes on to give examples of objects that give reflections that actually act as mirrors. This in a whole is figuratively speaking because even though the real objects (a lake) act as reflections, they are still not mirrors. An example of this is "I see her back, and reflect is faithfully." A lake cannot reflect "faithfully" in no way, shape or form can they do this. Yes a lake is nature and can show more than a mirror can because of the beauty. But a lake can't give faith. There are many examples in this poem, one more is "Now I am a lake. A women bends over me." This describes the fact that reflections can change from lakes to mirrors to a lot of other things in nature and our life.