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.