Freedom was just another word

Мы продукты устаревания
Оставленный позади во имя постоянного прогресса
Дети мертвой полой империи
Обещанная жизнь бессмысленного излишка

Заводы, производящие наше намерение
Яд измеряется кубическим метром
Вдохни глубокий избыток нашего изобретения
Задыхаясь от вкуса нашего решения

Веду вас одним файлом к ​​виселице
Разводят легион для обслуживания корпорации
Рожденный быть ничем иным, как размещение продукта
Обаяние, как младенцы за декаданс

Скелеты обесцвечены на солнце
Когда могилы стали слишком много
Показывая нам наше гордое наследие
Мы решили назвать демократию

Мертвая Империя
Одна нация под страхом
Свобода была просто
Еще одно слово для послушания

Мертвая Империя
Одна нация в безумии
Мы сожгли мир
Ничего, кроме пепла

Мертвая Империя
Одна нация под ненавистью
Вооружен только ложью
Каждый противник

Мертвая Империя
Одна нация под угрозой
Рабство — единственный
То, что по-прежнему бесплатно

• Тексты песен
• nolongerhuman
• Dead Empire

We are products of obsolescence
Left behind in the name of constant progress
Children of a dead hollow empire
Promised life of pointless surplus

Factories churning out our intention
Poison measured by the cubic meter
Breathe deep excess of our invention
Choking on the taste of our decision

Leading you single file to the gallows
Bred a legion to serve the corporation
Born to be nothing but product placement
Clamoring like infants for the decadence

Skeletons bleached out in the sunlight
When the graves have become one too many
Showing us our proud legacy
We have chosen to call a democracy

Dead Empire
One nation under fear
Freedom was just
Another word for obedience

Dead Empire
One nation under madness
We burned the world
To nothing but ashes

Dead Empire
One nation under hate
Armed with only lies
Everyone is an adversary

Dead Empire
One nation under force
slavery is the only

Thing that’s still free
Еще nolongerhuman

Популярное сейчас

• Токийский гуль — Opening оригинал
• ＊ななん＊ — Undefined
• Песни военных лет — День победы
• Wizzar63 — Солнце светит, негры пашут (закос под Картмана из South Park)
• АрХангел — Оригами (feat. Белла)
• Церковь НОВОЕ ПОКОЛЕНИЕ — «В чем суть любви ВСЕЙ ? «
• Игорь Скляр — на недельку в Комарова
• Сура — «Аль-Ихлас» «Аль-Фалакъ» «Ан-Нас»
• Э.Хиль — Военно-морской марш
• Григорий Лепс и Ирина Аллегрова — Я тебе не верю
• Oxxxymiron — Versus Battle 3 (feat. Johnyboy)
• Прощальная — Last bell
• Вахид Аюбов — Я родился ночью под забором
• OST Пятница | Tony Burns — Пятница

The song’s title came from producer and Monument Records founder Fred Foster. When Foster proposed the title, Kristofferson heard “McGee” when, in actuality, [Foster] had said “McKee” (Bobby McKee was the secretary of someone who worked in the same building as Foster).

Written by Kris Kristofferson but originally performed by Roger Miller.

In coming up with a concept for the song, a scene from the film La Strada came to Kristofferson’s mind. “I thought of … a scene where Anthony Quinn is going around on this motorcycle and Giulietta Masina is the feeble-minded girl with him, playing the trombone.”

Later on in the film, Quinn hears a woman singing the melody that little girl used to play and finds out that [the girl] has died. That night, [Quinn] goes to a bar and gets in a fight. Drunk, he ends up howling at the stars on a beach.

“To me, that was the feeling at the end of ‘Bobby McGee.’ The two-edged sword that freedom is. He was free when he left the girl, but it destroyed him. That’s where the line ‘Freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose’ came from.”

Source: Kris Kristofferson’s “Me and Bobby McGee”

«Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.»

This quote from the song Me and Bobby McGee by Kris Kristofferson is just one of many approaches to understand the difficult-to-understand concept of «freedom». But is freedom really just that? Is freedom really just another word for having nothing more to lose? Isn’t that view just narrow-minded and inaccurate? Freedom is much more, isn’t it? Admittedly, the song mentioned above, which became the number one hit in the version sung by Janis Joplin, does not have the purpose of defining or explaining the term «freedom». Rather, it is about enjoying the happiness of the moment while hitchhiking not through the galaxy, but through the United States, the alleged land of freedom.

There are different approaches to reflect a modern understanding of freedom. Science, above all philosophy, has also been dealing with this topic for a long time and has not yet come to a final conclusion. This shows the complexity of this topic, which is why it may initially seem presumptuous to devote yourself to this broad field here in the form of this short article. Nevertheless, this should be done here and it should be shown why it is possible, at least without claiming to be exhaustive.

According to Isaiah Berlin there is a positive and a negative form of freedom. The positive liberty is to be understood as the kind of freedom that this enables an individual to freely for deciding something. In contrast, there is negative freedom, i.e. that type of freedom that is a state of non-influencing designated. The negative freedom is a prerequisite for the positive freedom, since only in a state of non-influencing the free turning towards something can be realized. The Austrian economist and social philosopher Friedrich August von Hayek sees freedom as a “condition in which a person is not subjected to the arbitrary compulsion by the will of another or another”. On the other hand, according to Niklas Luhmann, freedom can also be understood “as the unrecognizability of the cause of restrictions of freedom”, i.e. the individual’s sheer ignorance of what makes them unfree.

Furthermore, in the modern age there is the idea of ​​economic freedom, as well as concepts of freedom of opinion, speech, press, free will, action and religion, to name just a few. However, depending on the understanding, these freedoms can be classified in the sphere of negative as well as positive freedom. If these freedoms are not understood to be subject to any external restrictions, e.g. censorship in the case of freedom of the press, these freedoms can be understood as negative freedoms. However, if one of these freedoms is consciously exercised, for example through freedom of expression, this is positive freedom.

According to common understanding, economic freedom frees people from their not self-inflicted immaturity, since this is socially constructed. According to the premise that a person’s freedom is his natural state, all imperfections are the product of social construction. But how can this assertion be understood, how can it be derived? To this end, the development of humans must first be considered. Unlike other animals, humans have evolved from a more primitive state to a living being gifted with reason. If it is assumed that there are no restrictions on freedom by nature, except for those that are biologically or physically conditioned and are related to the metabolism, then man is naturally free. Man is free to live his life according to the premises he has set up himself, to determine his whereabouts, as well as his consumption necessary for the metabolism and the individuals with whom it associates. In this way, man himself achieves the freedom he strives for with regard to his biologically unavoidable restrictions. People want to be free.

In the course of its development, humanity decided to give up a small part of this inherent freedom in order to be able to cooperate better. Little by little, humans first founded family associations that wandered through the African savannah, and later tribes in which different families came together, which in turn united to form nations and finally established entire world empires. At each of these stages of development, humans gave more and more personal freedoms to the community. However, the extent of the restriction of freedom, i.e. the degree of lack of freedom, does not have to be identical at the same stage of development. It is ultimately up to the design of the respective social order to what extent the individual surrenders sovereignty rights to the collective.The degree of freedom can also vary between the individual individuals in a society, depending on the extent to which the individual individuals make use of their positive rights of freedom.

In general, personal freedom finds its limit where the freedom of another person begins. So there may be a freedom of action (freedom of action), however, an action that restricts the freedom of another by the fact that he is unable to exercise his or her right to freedom is prohibited. An example would be the reluctant detention of another person who is then no longer able to exercise their civil liberties. In addition, everyone has unrestricted rights of freedom. John Stuart Mill once wrote: “The principle is that the only reason humanity, individually or united, is empowered to interfere with the freedom of action of any of its members is in self-protection. The only purposeFor which one rightly uses coercion against the will of a member of a civilized community is the avoidance of harm to others. ”Freedom, however, is not a privilege that a society grants its members, but the rightevery person.

Nonetheless, freedom has always been an important issue in the course of human history. Jews have celebrated Passover annually for millennia, which commemorates the liberation from Egyptian slavery. The Stoa, an ancient Greek school of philosophy from the fifth to fourth centuries BC, also deals with the subject of freedom, which is understood here as «as one will». The same thing continues in Christian teaching. Both with Paul, «For you are called to freedom, brothers and sisters» (Gal 5, 13), as well as in one of the most important Reformation writings of Martin Luther, On the freedom of a Christian, freedom plays an important role. Here it is the first of a total of 30 theses in a prominent position. “A Christian is a free lord over all things and is not subject to anyone.” This development goes even further in Christian teaching. God’s love for people, the central aspect of this teaching, is expressed in the fact that God grants people complete freedom.

Freedom, Liberté, Freedom. Every language has a name for this concept, every culture creates works of art for it and some even erect entire monuments. The Statue of Liberty in New York, which depicts the Roman goddess Libertas, is just one example of many.

Laws also take up freedom as a topic. In addition to current works such as the German Basic Law or the UN Human Rights Charter, “All people are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, this is also done in earlier writings, such as the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights of 1789 with “People become free and born immediately in rights and will remain so ”, or the Magna Carta Libertatum of 1215.

Overall, the topic of freedom seems to be of great importance in the course of human history, but especially in modern times. Freedom seems to be more than having nothing to lose, no matter what understanding of freedom the inclined reader may subscribe to, whether it is about the mere freedom from oppression, the possibility of free self-development, or even a completely different philosophy. Almost all modern perspectives see freedom as the innate right of every person to be protected and preserved. In far too many places on earth, however, this is not taken into account. It is time to live what we have known for a long time, namely that everyone has the right to be free.

            David Harvey’s first chapter from “A Brief History of Neoliberism” is exactly that, a history of events that built onto the definition and emergence of this political and economic system. Neolibralism in Harvey’s words is the “the theory of political economic practices” that advances human beings in the best way, by giving people the freedom to entrepreneurialism, free markets and trade, but at the same time, the protection provided by the state government so that people can have their private rights to whatever they own (property, business, stocks, etc.). What is more significant than the definition is the process of how neolibralism came to be in our world today (because it was not, he claims, something forced onto anyone). Harvey states that neolibralism is part of almost every state and has affected more than just politics and economies, but our way of life and the way we experience the world. At the core of this system is freedom of the individual.

            (In my defense, I am neither a historian nor do I possess great political or economic knowledge like Harvey, so it was sometimes difficult for me to interpret Harvey’s jargon. As a result, I will not dive into the specifics of unfamiliar terminology. I will write only about what I gathered and understood from the reading.)

            Harvey observes several different historical moments in time that reflect the movement of one system to another, restructuring to make the best possible system of the welfare of the people. 

            Eventually through other non-successful routes, neolibralism came into view when the power of the upper class/economic elites, was restored. The problem with this was in the fact that economic power was given to this one group, and that they would do anything to obtain this power. At the same time that the power of the upper class was restored, there became a greater social inequality.

            So even though there was still this conflict between the laborers and the capitalists, the economic power that the upper class possessed became the only important issue. We could not focus on the fact that the rest of the world was suffering. This thought can be expressed through the quote of this battle between Main Street (workers of middle and lower class) and Wall Street (upper class): “while the slogan was often advanced in the 1960s that what was good for General Motors was good for the US, this had changed by the 1990s into the slogan, that what is good for Wall street is all that matters.” This is because the power of the upper class is what holds neolibralism together, and therefore, what gives us our individual freedom. Harvey discusses Karl Polanyi’s belief that there are two kinds of freedom. One of these is the kind of freedom that our President always stresses is the most important thing of our country, the freedom of speech, the freedom to make our own choices, etc. But the other kind is the freedom that the economic elites have: the freedom to “exploit one’s fellows, to keep technological inventions from being used by the public, the freedom to profit from public calamities secretly engineered for private advantage.”  In the end, Polanyi argues, “the good freedoms are lost and the bad ones take over.”

            So, I ask the same thing that Harvey asks after this thought. Why have the rest of us been willing to follow this system? Do we have a choice in the matter? Also, do you think that good freedoms are doomed to be replaced by the bad ones? What part of history do you think has led to neolibralism? Are there things that Harvey brings up that you disagree/agree with?

            Was this a hard read for anyone else? Did it make sense in its relation to the previous readings we’ve discussed in class? Did any part of the paper really stand out to you?

Posted in Uncategorized

May 28, 2010: “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.”

The line from Janis Joplin’s 1960s hit Me and Bobby Mcgee was the first thing that sprung to mind when I read a direct message on twitter asking if I would write something about freedom for the Free The Hikers blog.

I went to YouTube (where else?), and searched the tune to see what I could find.

Lo and behold, I discovered a treasure – a version described as a “rare 1st studio recording. In a word: awesome. I’d like to dedicate it to everyone around the world who strives to be free.

The rendition stirred something in my core, and the lyrics caused me to reflect on youth, travel, adventure, love, loss, life, and what it means to be free.

Almost a year ago, Josh, Shane and Sarah, three Americans in their late 20s, unintentionally strayed across a border.

Since then, they’ve been interred in Evin prison by the Government of Iran, just as many equally-innocent Iranians are held, tortured, and often executed at the whim of a cruel regime that seems bent on suppressing the will of its own people.

The supreme irony of the plight of these three young hikers is that they had been on a mission of mercy – they volunteered to help refugees, the poor, and those less privileged than themselves to achieve freedom from want, persecution, and insecurity.

Now they themselves are entrapped, detained, and confined. So what of their own freedom?

A short time before Josh, Shane and Sarah went on their ill-fated hike, I blogged about the death of Neda Agha Soltan in a street in Tehran. I wrote:

The image of her blood-covered face, that of a fallen angel, will be embedded in the minds of thousands, maybe even millions, who will bear witness to her oh-so-public passing when they watch it on the Internet.

I wonder how she felt about freedom, this one young woman who died in a Tehran street? Whatever her views were, it’s unlikely that she would have known when she awoke yesterday that her destiny was to become immortal in the name of it.

One young woman went into the street in Tehran on a June morning, maybe to go to the shop, or to her music lesson; maybe to fight for her country, her beliefs, and her values.

If she was demonstrating for freedom, in a twisted way, she got what she wanted, but surely not in the way she might have imagined.

Whatever her intention, she’s become a martyr of sorts, an unexpected icon, a symbol for all that needs changing in a world from which she is now forever free.

It strikes me that, like Neda, Josh, Shane and Sarah are caught up in something much bigger than themselves.

As for freedom, I believe it has more to do with the heart, mind and soul, than walls, boxes and iron bars.  We all have prisons from which we wish to escape. Some are physical, some emotional, others mental.

I have complete faith that Josh, Shane and Sarah will one day be physically free. In the meantime, I pray for the freedom of their minds and spirits.

I hope they won’t allow their current adverse circumstances to crush their freedom to choose love, compassion and peace over bitterness, hatred and despair. I hope they will be steadfast in their intent to make the world a better place.

They, like us, have nothing left to lose….

Me & Bobby McGee Lyrics

 by Kris Kristofferson

Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waiting for a train

And I’m feeling nearly as faded as my jeans.
Bobby thumbed a diesel down just before it rained,

It rode us all the way to New Orleans.

I pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandanna,

I was playing soft while Bobby sang the blues.

Windshield wipers slapping time, I was holding Bobby’s hand in mine,

We sang every song that driver knew.

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,

Nothing don’t mean nothing honey if it ain’t free, now now.

And feeling good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues,

You know feeling good was good enough for me,

Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.

From the Kentucky coal mines to the California sun,

Hey, Bobby shared the secrets of my soul.

Through all kinds of weather, through everything we done,

Hey Bobby baby? kept me from the cold.

One day up near Salinas, I let him slip away,

He’s looking for that home and I hope he finds it,

But I’d trade all of my tomorrows for just one yesterday
To be holding Bobby’s body next to mine.

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose,

Nothing, that’s all that Bobby left me, yeah,

But feeling good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues,

Hey, feeling good was good enough for me, hmm hmm,

Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.

La la la, la la la la, la la la, la la la la
La la la la la

Bobby McGee.
La la la la la, la la la la la
La la la la la,

Bobby McGee, la.

La La la, la la la la la la,
La La la la la la la la la, ain`t no bumb on my bobby McGee yeah.

Na na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na na na na na

Hey now Bobby now, Bobby McGee, yeah.

Lord, I’m calling my lover, calling my man,
I said I’m calling my lover just the best I can,

C’mon, hey now Bobby yeah, hey now Bobby McGee, yeah,
Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lord

Hey, hey, hey, Bobby McGee, Lord!

Yeah! Whew!

Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lord
Hey, hey, hey, Bobby McGee.