Photo credit: Mickey Z.
Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
Aug. 26, 2014
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains."
- Rosa Luxemburg
When the Land of the Free™ incarcerates its citizens at the rate of 1,200 per week, well, freedom sure ain’t what it’s cracked up to be.
“Freedom” is a George Michael song… and a Richie Havens song.
I walked out the front door of my apartment building… wait, did I just say “my”? It’s not my building, of course. Most of us don’t live in a place of “our own.” We shell out rent to a landlord who long ago paid off the mortgage.
We’re not free to lower our own rent just because the building is paid for. But we’re damn free to become homeless if we protest the injustice of rents, mortgages, price-gouging realtors, etc.
“Freedom” is a professional tennis team from Philadelphia.
So yeah, I walk outside, reach the corner of my block (it’s not really “my” block), and make a 90-degree turn. New York City is laid out in a grid and I’m forever walking in right angles. I’m not free to meander in unsymmetrical figure eights no matter how much I’d like to.
When I reach the next corner, I’m not free to continue. The light is red. I must stop or risk becoming one with an SUV’s front grill. Meanwhile, the United States uses half of my (yes, “my”) tax money to wage illegal, perpetual war to keep the world safe for petroleum… but that’s SUV freedom, I guess.
“Freedom” is a “wonderful app for Windows, Mac, Android & Ubuntu that locks you away from the 'net. If online distractions kill your productivity, Freedom could be the best 10 dollars you'll ever spend.”
When you write books, articles, and essays that typically fall into the “radical” category, you take hits from the full range of the political spectrum. Right, left, or anywhere in-between, beliefs run deep and viewpoints die hard. Often, however, irate critics of all stripes lazily fall back on empty rebuttals.
For example, this timeless classic: “How many other countries give you the RIGHT to write what you just wrote?”
Let’s put aside the unintentional tongue twister and the fact that the obvious answer to their question -- plenty of other countries do -- destroys this line of reasoning (sic). The larger issue, as I see it, is how we each choose to evaluate our freedom.
I’m not living in Myanmar. I know. But what are we talking about here? Is freedom just bigger cages and longer chains? Is it merely a commodity sold to the highest bidder? Must the majority of us sit by and drool while freedom fries on the grill of capitalist avarice?
“Freedom” is a credit card…
To have more freedom than, say, a woman living under Taliban repression is not the same as being free. But it is the same as settling for less subjugation instead of demanding more liberty (or at least as much liberty currently guaranteed by virtue of the Constitution).
“Freedom” is an educational computer game on the history of slavery.
Many years ago, I was eating lunch in a Virginia Beach diner when I heard a loud roar. “What was that?” I bellowed. A waitress smiled and replied: “That’s an F-14, (pause for effect) the sound of freedom.”
I guess freedom is just another word… (you know the rest).
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Mickey Z. is the author of 12 books, most recently Occupy this Book: Mickey Z. on Activism. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on the Web here. Anyone wishing to support his activist efforts can do so by making a donation here.
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