In an exclusive interview with the Guardian's Film&Music, Prince said: "It's fun being in Islamic countries, to know there's only one religion. There's order. You wear a burqa. There's no choice. People are happy with that." When asked about the fate of those unhappy with having no choice, he replied: "There are people who are unhappy with everything. There's a dark side to everything."
Prince embraced religion in 2001, when he became a Jehovah's Witness. "I was anti-authoritarian but at the same time I was a loving tyrant," he told the Guardian. "You can't be both. I had to learn what authority was. That's what the Bible teaches. The Bible is a study guide for social interaction.
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So he says, everybody who is unhappy living in a dictatorship, is "unhappy with everything"? So when I simply want something like personal liberty, I am a perma-negative, destructive guy who never sees a positive thing?
Lets jump into the time-machine, and go back to the 30s:
"It's fun living in soviet russia under Stalin. There's order. You get assigned your job, you get told exactly what you ought to do. There's no choice. People are happy with that. Those unhappy with this system? Well, there are people who are unhappy with everything. Thats the dark side to the glorious revolution. We call these people "counter-revolutionaries", and our beloved comrade Stalin deals with them accordingly. They need to learn what authority is. Thats what Stalin's writings teach us. Stalin's writings are a study guide for social interaction."
Prince has always been a bit cookoo, but it seems that he's gone from being a lovable weirdo to an asshole.
What a waste of a talent.
Yay! Let's all give up all our rights and freedom of choice! Sorry, but you're doing a shitty job of selling religion.
And by the way, there is no "one religion" of Islam. There are Sunnis & Shiites which bicker between each other, much like Catholics & Protestants do.
Celebrities and athletes really need to keep their lips zipped when they're not doing whatever it is they became famous for, and sometimes even then. Sure, they have the right to say what they want, but the river of stupid that flows out of most of their mouths when they try to sound smart just makes me embarrassed for them.
Translation for normal people:
Prince: "I want to be told exactly what I can and can't do by a totalitarian regime."
Everyone else: "Good luck to you, buddy. We don't want that. We value our freedoms and our ability to choose. Go live in your own dictatorship, but don't expect any of us to follow suit."
"I was anti-authoritarian but at the same time I was a loving tyrant," he told the Guardian. "You can't be both.
I agree completely. Would have been a better idea to give up the "tyrant" bit, though.
"Prince said: "It's fun being in Islamic countries, to know there's only one religion"
Three words: Iran. Persian Jews*.
Your argument is invalid, 'Squiggle'.
*- Upon his return to Iran, post-Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeni issued a fatwa which meant that said Jews in Iran were not to be persecuted or intimidated in any way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Jews#Iran
'Jews are protected in the Iranian constitution and seat is reserved for a Jew in the Majlis. Iran hosts the largest Jewish population of any Muslim-majority country. After Israel, it is home to the second-largest Jewish population in the Middle East.'
Ponce, the 'Purple Pain' doesn't do much reading, does he?
See how easy it is for religion to turn a simpleton into a drooling zombie? In this case, the victim must have been an extra simple simpleton since the subverting agents were Jehovah's Witnesses. The Jehovah's Witnesses are themselves like clueless simpletons. One can often find them wandering the housing estates near where I live, knocking on strangers' doors and disturbing the house-holders for no good reason that anyone has ever been able to ascertain. Lacklustre dimwits of a disturbingly obtuse mentality are authority figures only to those forlorn and desperate types with zero personality and even less talent. Desperate and forlorn types like Prince.
Those same Islamist fundies would tell Prince to quit dressing up in those androgynous frills, dump rock music, grow a big bushy beard....
I mean THIS IS THE SEX-OBSESSED PRETTYBOY WHO SANG "EROTIC CITY" & "DARLING NIKKI" WHO SURROUNDED HIMSELF IN SCANTLY-CLAD BABES & STUFF!
Look, Prince, you were much cooler before you became a religious nut....The "old" Prince was a rebel who could reconcile raw hot sexuality with spirituality & also penned protest tunes that hippies would agree with!
Give me "1999", "Purple Rain" & "Sign O The Times"....The REAL Prince....not this Holy Roller Body-Snatcher victim!
The "old" Prince was a jerkass but he was a COOL jerkass....this other guy is just a jerkass.
"The Bible is a study guide for social interaction."
Like how to rape, kill children, and pillage entire civilizations
Is it just me, or does it seem, lately, that every time a famous person gets religion, it's something that's got an ocean of crazy lurking below the facade?
"It's fun being in Soviet Russia, to know there's no religion, only the state. There's order. You salute Comrade Stalin. There's no choice. People are happy with that. The people who are unhappy are unhappy with everything. So Comrade Stalin sends them off to work in the salt mines."
A part of me died to write that.
Celebrities are idiots. This surprises people?
Also, can we please stop using "the Bible depicts horrible things, so it's evil!" as a reason to be against it? It's your weakest argument. Depiction is not endorsement, why do so many people not understand this?
You know, I was unaware that Prince still existed, let alone still performed.
I could have gone on quite happily being unaware...
@what a shocker
Well, when the point of the book is "this is God, God is great", and God's the one doing/demanding/condoning horrible things, yes, that's endorsement.
@ what a shocker
"Also, can we please stop using "the Bible depicts horrible things, so it's evil!" as a reason to be against it?"
Sorry buddy but no, we can't. So you can just jolly well stick The Black Book of Death right up your jacksy.
@Shocker
Also, can we please stop using "the Bible depicts horrible things, so it's evil!" as a reason to be against it? It's your weakest argument. Depiction is not endorsement, why do so many people not understand this?
Problem is, those depictions are often also instructions and actions taken by god's chosen, oftentimes at his command.
The slavery and rape laws aren't 'here are these things, don't do them' they are 'obey them.'
Okay, genius, let's just put YOU in a burqa for even one day of shopping, child care and other chores in 120 degree heat, and we'll see how "happy" you are. I'd be willing to bet you'd be crying like a baby within 10 minutes.
Then we'll top it off by taking away your right to drive, attend sports or other public events, and prohiit you from traveling without your mother's, sister's, aunt's or other female relative's permission, just so you can get a taste of how that "happy" other half has to live.
Of course, the fact that you have a penis and would therefore be one of the ones in authority in society and in your your "social interactions" would have nothing to do with your viewppint on religious teachings on authority, would it?
@ Jamaican Castle, Pule Thamex, and Ryushikaze:
To be fair to Shocker, I don't think he was referring to the Levitical laws or even to the war crimes that happened in the conquest of Jerusalem. The Bible endorses a whole bunch of barbaric practices (which one would expect, as those parts of it were written in the late Bronze Age/really early Iron Age, though it wasn't compiled until much later) but it doesn't support EVERY negative event it describes. For instance, nowhere in the Bible does it say that Lot raped his daughters after they escaped the destruction of Sodom, in fact it actually says the opposite. I don't know where the argument that the text MUST be lying about this to preserve Lot's good name came from. We all know that the writers of the Bible could be as misogynistic as the people on love-shy (well no, that's a bit TOO cruel to the Bronze Age goatherders, but you get what I mean...) but many textual scholars believe that the Bible is adapting a Moabite or Ammonite legend for that story, and since Lot was the ancestor of their enemies, one would think that they changed it to make everyone involved look worse. If Lot really existed (note the "if") and he really raped his daughters, I would think that the Israelites would jump to that as "proof" that the Moabites and Ammonites were all reprobates from their very origin. They wouldn't make him LESS culpable; that makes no sense. There are a few other examples (such as when the Bible depicts the atrocities of the Israelites' enemies-- it always amazes me how ancient people in general knew how unforgivable war crimes are but still committed them anyway), but I don't see any non-religious using them as an argument, so I will not elaborate. I think Shocker's point was that you can't just condemn every single thing written in the book.
@ Shocker and @ Brendon Rizzo:
So many fundies fap to the Book of Revelations that your arguments fall apart.
Rather than focus on the events as depicted in the Story of Lot, why not ask yourself how many molesters of their own children used that passage the way modern celebutards skulk off to rehab after committing drug and alcoholic mayhem? "I was tempted by the foul temptress!" Pfaugh! If it looks like bullshit, smells like bullshit, and shovels like bullshit ....
As for Prince ... the celebutard formerly known as the pasta.
So all those women who are often forced into arranged marriages, sometimes as young as 7; often beaten by their husbands; arrested for being rape victims ; and some have had their genitals mutilated as a child (usually without anesthetic and with a crowd of women watching) are nothing but a bunch of whiners? You try living their life for a day, then come back and say that.
"...I was a loving tyrant,"
No you weren't, you were just some douchebag who refused to do interviews and often canceled shows because you didn't feel like performing. I'll never forget during the Purple Rain tour when a young girl on my street, who was a huge fan of yours, was absolutely devastated that you canceled your concert in our city at the last minute, even as people were headed down to the arena. But I suppose you'll just say she's another one of those people who's unhappy about everything.
I also seem to remember your career starting to go downhill after that (go figure), and your having to resort to stupid and desperate tactics like changing your name to some ugly and unpronounceable symbol.
Prince, since you seem so comfortable in "islamic" countries, might I suggest you move to one and dress in your typical fashion. It'll be fun to see how well they tolerate and accept your unique sense of style!
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@what a shocker
"Celebrities are idiots. This surprises people?"
"Harry Potter"'s Daniel Radcliffe. The most un-celebrity celebrity out there. He's the tabloids/scandal rag/paparazzi's worst nightmare: he never does anything wrong or stupid to warrant any attention from them. Lady (Gone) Gaga, Amy Wino and Ponce, take note.
Him appearing naked on stage in the West End ("Equus") has done his reputation absolutely no harm whatsoever.
"Also, can we please stop using "the Bible depicts horrible things, so it's evil!" as a reason to be against it? It's your weakest argument. Depiction is not endorsement, why do so many people not understand this?"
Ahem...:
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Thus the anti-Bible argument of we Atheists is more than infinitely indestructible. And your argument is completely annihilated.
Oh, come on, Prince. I liked the purple-and-orange thing better. Hell, I liked the existing-in-a-state-of-namelessness better. That was like your one great gift to humanity, the X formerly known as Y.
Interesting definition of the Bible. Slightly alarming, given how psycho the social interactions in the text are, but interesting nonetheless.
(Oh, yeah, and I spied on the Jehovah's Witnesses in their kingdom hall through the fire door shortly after getting my driving license, and it was one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen. They were so dull and flat and vaguely afraid of everything. I used to prank them and argue with them when they came to the door, but for the last few years I've just been patient with them. It's just sad seeing their eyes light up with hope when you admit that you do, in fact, have a Bible in here somewhere. I didn't even let them see it was filed next to the Harry Potter series.)
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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