We all know Dave Mustaine has quite a mouth on him, speaking his mind on various topics, providing ‘brilliant’ answers and solutions to all of the world’s problems. (That was sarcasm) But this time, he actually just pushed one too many of my buttons for me to not fire back and tear his statements to pieces.
Before I get too deep into this shitstorm of an argument, I feel I should make it clear that I’m educated. I’ve studied a lot, I’ve seen a lot, and I’ve done a lot. So I’m not coming strictly from a devil’s advocate point of view, but an educated and worldly devil’s advocate point of view. For a brief rundown of my academic creds, please see the bottom of the story.
This week, I read an online interview with Dave Mustaine conducted by LA Weekly that really upset me on a number of levels. But before I tackle all of that, I want to make a few things clear. I’m not posting this editorial to discuss his political standing regarding his comments about US Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. Just like many Americans, Mustaine has his reasons for choosing this candidate and it’s his choice not to be debated about. Just the same, I’m not going to attack his religious standings necessarily. While I, and many of you readers, don’t necessarily agree with religious teachings, attacking or refuting them is somewhat of a useless debate. What I’ll point out instead is Mustaine’s comments about Israel’s forming being a prophecy in the Bible, but that comes later.
First up, I get really irritated when people make general statements about teenagers in general. Specifically, Mustaine commented, “[My son] Justis actually has two jobs and goes to college now. That’s a great thing to hear as a dad when you’ve got a 20-year-old. Instead of, ‘Yeah, Dad, I just pierced my eye, and I have an STD, and I’ve got a record now at the police station.’” During my teaching endeavors I’ve come across some bad kids, but the vast, overall majority are not. And it’s really amusing to hear this coming from Mustaine considering his past and the overall image that metal fans work hard to debunk. So thank you to Mr. Mustaine for publicly generalizing teenagers as STD carrying criminals.
Next up are Mustaine’s comments that pretty much made me decide to write this editorial.
“There’s so many houses without a dad that it’s just terrible. I mean, you know how they used to say there should be a license to have a baby? Well, as far-fetched as that sounds, I really think that, if the parents aren’t going to stick together, they shouldn’t make that kind of commitment to life. I watch some of these shows from over in Africa, and you’ve got starving women with six kids. Well, how about, you know, put a plug in it? It’s like, you shouldn’t be having children if you can’t feed them.”
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a textbook example of an ignorant statement. First, suggesting that people have a license to conceive children is just ludicrous. Second, spouting out that parents should make sure they stick together before having children is laughable. I don’t know about you, the reader, but I am unable to tell the future. So that being said, if I was to enter into marriage and have children, I am unable to predict what would happen within my marriage in the future, thus making sure I stick out my marriage to have children a useless endeavor. Don’t get me wrong, I understand where Mustaine is coming from with this statement, but unfortunately the world is not quite so black-and-white.
Then there’s the hideous statement of starving African women needing to insert plugs into their genitals to inhibit conception. This is ignorance on a whole new level, and there are a lot of factors that Mustaine is not taking into account. To start, human beings are unable to reproduce asexually, meaning there has to be a male and female involvement for conception to take place. So with a simple statement from Mustaine implying that the burden is on the women in these situations is ridiculous. I assume that he thinks women in Africa have the advantages of living in a society that respects women both in sexual and societal matters. Additionally, having been to a few third-world nations myself, I can attest to the fact that not everyone in the world has the advantage of living in circumstances where birth control, or a compassionate infrastructure, is readily available. Similar to my statement in the previous paragraph, I understand the basis of his statement, but his delivery and lack of facts make his statement just purely asinine.
And last up, Mustaine dishes out a view of Israel and its creation as dictated in the Bible:
“Even if you don’t believe in God and you don’t believe in faith, you’ve got to understand, when Israel became a country again, that was a prophecy in the Bible that came true, and the Bible was written so many hundreds of years ago. Also, any of the stuff that it says in there about the end times — that stuff’s really happening right now. Look what’s happening over in the Middle East. It’s crazy.”
So basically if one doesn’t believe in God or possess faith, then they have to take something that is written in the Bible as ‘prophecy’ and legit? I don’t think so. One huge and never-ending argument in America is the place of religion in our society. While I understand that the Ten Commandments dictated in the book of Exodus could be construed as the basis of law, it’s a well-known fact that the Bible itself is not the law of the land. Its authorship can be contested several times over by scholars and numerous contradictions and errors can be pointed out by even the most novice of readers. So highlighting Israel’s creation as Biblical prophecy cannot stand on merit.
And as far as what is going on in the Middle East, while ‘crazy’ indeed, is a matter of politics and societal suppression. Israel’s creation, which was post-WWII, was a political decision mostly based on the aftermath of the Holocaust as a sanctuary for those of the Jewish faith, mostly because many countries, including America by decree of President Harry Truman, denied the emigration of Jews seeking salvation into numerous countries. Israel’s creation was a political move that was backed up by this supposed Biblical ‘prophecy.’ After its creation, many indigenous peoples were displaced which caused even more political and religious strife in the area. So while the creation of Israel solved one problem, it opened a Pandora ’s Box of numerous other problems that continue more than 60 years after its creation.
So there you have it, Mustaine’s statements are torn apart and debunked. It’s a shame that a man like Mustaine, who is probably well-read and intelligent at some level, has to make such awful statements publicly. I’m very curious to know what you readers think of this, but I beg of you to comment on tactful terms. Back up your arguments; use polite language and proper grammar. And I will be more than happy to reply and include myself in this dialogue.
Let the debate begin!!!
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Doug’s Creds: I have a bachelor’s degree in political science and am currently working on a Master’s degree at Rice University in the field of teaching, with a history/social studies concentration. The bits and pieces of my bachelor’s degree entail such subjects as international politics, anthropology, and public policy analysis. Having gone to a private Catholic college, I’ve taken a number of theology classes, so while I don’t agree with most Christian thought, I can debate it from a scholarly stance, instead of just a negative one. Additionally, I have travelled to Cambodia twice for endeavors such as teaching to school teachers to enrich their skills and to research for my thesis on the rebuilding of Cambodia after the genocide. On these travels I’ve experienced such sights as the Killing Fields, the S21 Prison, spoken with genocide survivors of all kinds, and seen children at an orphanage who previously lived in a landfill as it was their only means of finding food. Stateside, I’ve worked with my city’s office for people with disabilities and done extensive advocacy work on behalf of the disabled for my city.
