Former QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate was interviewed on a recent edition of "The Classic Metal Show", which is heard live on Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. EST at TheClassicMetalShow.com. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. Speaking about the important social, political and cultural issues that the world is currently facing, Tate said: "I think that we are in, what I'll say, looking-in-the-mirror mode where we are faced with, as a country — I'm speaking strictly for America here — I think we're at a crossroads where we're looking at ourselves and trying to define who we are as a country. What's our national identity? "If you look at the history of America, we're a place where everybody in the world came to so that they could worship the God of their choice and make a lot of money. Well, those two things really don't add up to a national identity — it sounds like a pretty selfish environment. [Laughs] Really!" He continued: "Capitalism has been our, for [lack of a better word], I'll say it's been our God all these years — it's what we built this whole thing around: making money, getting ahead. And the sense of competition that we've instilled in our population is now at a point where, man, we are fighting for our lives, we're fighting for our jobs, for our existence. And we're questioning, well, why should we help out the guy next door who's maybe down on his luck and need some health care or something like that? Why should health care be nationalized and be paid for by the whole population? And we're asking those questions. Well, why not? Other countries do it, and it works out perfect for them — they're able to exist. Why is that bad for us? And these are major questions where we're deciding how we want to live and how we're going to live and what is going to be our guidelines. We're drawing lines in the sand, new rules. Sexism in the workplace — who'd ever thought we'd get to this point? But here we are. We're questioning these things. Right or wrong, I don't think that's the question, it's just where we're at, and we need to look at these things and come up with some collective reasoning and some answers. And everybody needs to be part of the discussion. Let's talk about it. Let's not get angry and point fingers. Let's just come up with a new way of looking at stuff and put it into action rather than cling on to these old-fashioned ideas.' Tate added: "I mean, when you think about it, the concept of time, that's a man-made construct — we invented it. Time does not exist — we just made it exist, and then we based most of our decision in everyday life and science concepts and everything around this thing that we invented that we say exists when really it doesn't. So I think we can do anything we set our minds to and we can come up with any conclusions that we want. Let's just do it in a civil manner where it makes sense and everybody gets a say-so in it." Tate recently recorded a brand new song in support of charity. All proceeds from the track, which is titled "The Way The Wind Blows", will benefit MercyWatch, a nonprofit focused on outreach to the homeless community in Snohomish County, located in the U.S. state of Washington, where Tate lives with his family. The release of Tate's new song will come just weeks after the arrival of "A New Reality", the third and final of a concept album trilogy from his OPERATION: MINDCRIME project.
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