Accepted

[bigtree]

Last edited Sat Dec 8, 2012, 02:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Here’s the apology Psy released through his publicist, in full:

“As a proud South Korean who was educated in the United States and lived there for a very significant part of my life, I understand the sacrifices American servicemen and women have made to protect freedom and democracy in my country and around the world.”

“The song in question — from eight years ago — was part of a deeply emotional reaction to the war in Iraq and the killing of two Korean schoolgirls that was part of the overall antiwar sentiment shared by others around the world at that time. While I’m grateful for the freedom to express one’s self I’ve learned there are limits to what language is appropriate and I’m deeply sorry for how these lyrics could be interpreted. I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused anyone by those words.”

“I have been honored to perform in front of American soldiers in recent months — including an appearance on the Jay Leno show specifically for them — and I hope they and all Americans can accept my apology. While it’s important we express our opinions, I deeply regret the inflammatory and inappropriate language I used to do so. In my music I try to give people a release, a reason to smile. I have learned that though music, our universal language we can all come together as a culture of humanity and I hope that you will accept my apology.”


read: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/12/psy-forever-sorry-for-anti-american-song/

related: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021941487


. . . just posting this because I made a point yesterday in a post of objecting to Psy's performance of the objectionable lyrics. I'm not really that hard to get along with and I can accept an apparently heartfelt apology like this. He's got a talent for expressing himself and he's pretty much covered my own sentiments when he says he'll, 'forever be sorry for any pain' he's caused with 'those words.' Enough said . . .

[Bluenorthwest]

1. Instense rhetoric for intense situations. Here is what our own Bob Dylan wrote years

ago about the war mongers:

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
’Til I’m sure that you’re dead

But Bob is an American, so his intense lyric wishing death on war mongers does not make Democrats create OP's decrying those words. Why is that?

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Dylan wasn't attacking the troops.

[bigtree]

3. do you know how Dylan feels about those lyrics today?

I sure as hell don't. I will say, as I said before, I've written almost 300 anti-war articles and have never felt the need or impulse to wish ANYONE harm. It's a strange and curious argument in opposing violence (not talking self-defense), to advocate for more violence. Do you believe that folks who work for the defense industry deserve to 'die - soon?' What a ridiculous thing to say.

What I do think is missing in the comparison, though, is context. There's quite a lot of poetic license in writing that requires perspective. I can accept the passion in which both lyrics were used and I'm more than aware of their political context. I'm more than willing to allow for the sentiments behind these performers' use of the rhetoric. What I think you're missing is that it's not an equation where I have to accept war and violence in order to reject their own expressions of animus.

That's buried in the innuendo coming from that one little sentence at the bottom of your post. What is is that you're defending here? Free speech? Progressiveness? The appropriateness of threatening people in defense of anti-war positions?

here's the performer, PSY:

"While it’s important we express our opinions, I deeply regret the inflammatory and inappropriate language I used to do so."

So do I.