Politics and Social Justice
When asked his opinion regarding whether all musicians ought to try to add a social or political message to their work, Armstrong replied that
| “ | The only people who should sing about social issues or politics are the ones who aren't full of shit. | ” |
American Idiot was released two months before former President of the United States George W. Bush was reelected, and as a result the album became protest art. Created as an anti-war album, American Idiot contains many new-age protest songs, like Holiday which was against George Bush's decision to invade Iraq. Armstrong described the song as a means by which "to battle your way out of your own ignorance".
Read more about this topic: Green Day/Genre Disputes
Famous quotes containing the words politics, social and/or justice:
“Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger.”
—Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)
“At this moment, who would not remain persuaded that these women were virtuous? Are they not the flower of the country? Are they all not fresh, ravishing, intoxicating with beauty, youth, life and love? To believe in their virtue is a kind of social religion; because they are the world’s ornament and the glory of France.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the constant omission of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)