“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
―Philip Freneau
Saturday, June 30, 2012
"America", the song...
The song is over
except in one note, pure and easy
Playing so free like a breath rippling by...
...i think the term you want to use is liberty and not free(dom). You are free, by the very nature of your "existence", but you may not always be "at liberty".
Or, as the song wright claimed, "freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose." :)
I'm not sure. A "Constitution" represents an agreed to "limitation" of "absolute" freedom that results in a complete freedom to operate within those agreed to constitutional limitations. But when the Constitution no longer recognizes ANY agreed to limitations, then all "individually assumed" freedoms and their corresponding limitations become self-negating.
In other words, I am no longer a "citizen", I have become a "subject"
My former melancholia surrounding the document's fate at the hands of SCOTUS has been replaced by mourning... and a desire to forge a new beginning, one less dependent upon manque.
...Yes, when you hit a wall, it's always better to go round it, and if even that is not possible, to strike off altogether; but that does not mean that you are not free to break your head against it. :)
...I think, as with truth, the only question worth asking re freedom is also but one: If one is capable of it or not? The rest is but - as Ghalib said re paradise:
Humko maaloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat, lekin dil ko khush rakhne ko Ghalib ye khayaal achcha hai.
A rough translation:
We know the truth about Paradise; however, it is a good idea to beguile the mind.
Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:
ReplyDeleteBut men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
This disturbed sky
ReplyDeleteIs not to walk in.
I just posted a Zizek clip on causes divorced from objects... :)
The fetishist's logic...
lol!
ReplyDeleteBut, frankly, i would like to know from you why you think the song to be over?
My fetish, the US Constitution, no longer allows me to suspend my belief and believe myself to be "free". The reality is that I am not.
ReplyDeleteAnd if my fetish no longer works for me, I must forge another or lose Ego...
...i think the term you want to use is liberty and not free(dom). You are free, by the very nature of your "existence", but you may not always be "at liberty".
ReplyDeleteOr, as the song wright claimed, "freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose." :)
I'm not sure. A "Constitution" represents an agreed to "limitation" of "absolute" freedom that results in a complete freedom to operate within those agreed to constitutional limitations. But when the Constitution no longer recognizes ANY agreed to limitations, then all "individually assumed" freedoms and their corresponding limitations become self-negating.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I am no longer a "citizen", I have become a "subject"
My former melancholia surrounding the document's fate at the hands of SCOTUS has been replaced by mourning... and a desire to forge a new beginning, one less dependent upon manque.
ReplyDelete...Yes, when you hit a wall, it's always better to go round it, and if even that is not possible, to strike off altogether; but that does not mean that you are not free to break your head against it. :)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete...I think, as with truth, the only question worth asking re freedom is also but one: If one is capable of it or not? The rest is but - as Ghalib said re paradise:
ReplyDeleteHumko maaloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat,
lekin dil ko khush rakhne ko Ghalib ye khayaal achcha hai.
A rough translation:
We know the truth about Paradise;
however, it is a good idea to beguile the mind.
Indeed. ;)
ReplyDelete