Freedom is a funny thing, or maybe not. It takes on gravity when we are told that America was attacked on 9/11 because, “they (whoever they might be) hate our freedoms.”
Funny that what most citizens hate is the erosion of individual freedoms in the USA after 9/11. As someone said, ‘If freedom was the main reason for the attacks, Holland should have been attacked a long time ago.
Some of freedom’s irony lies in the definition of the word. For the most of the working and middle class folks of the world, it means having individual rights and freedom from exploitation. For the wealthy elite (and their agents, the politicians) it means freedom to exploit and freedom from interference in any of their escapades.The super-rich prefer unbridled exploitation of labor, financial markets, laws and natural resources. They want the freedom to exploit without any objection or resistance. So whenever the agents of the wealthy, the politicians or corporate newscasters speak about freedom, they simply don’t mean what you and I mean.
When Americans are told to support our military troops, because they are protecting us from unknown people living far across the seas I find it funny. The military oath is not to protect and defend America or its imperialistic interests but rather to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. In short, military people take an oath to protect our constitutional rights that are so often threatened by those in power.
America was founded on dissent against the abuses of power and holding those in power accountable. The founding fathers understood that power corrupts and designed the Constitution and Bill of Rights to protect citizens from these abuses. I find it comical that we are told to be good patriots and to keep quiet and trust those in power to do the right thing by us. It is uproarious that as one looks more closely at the way things are in America, rather than the way we wish we were, (we see that) American political rhetoric is based on propaganda and deception.
Johan Wolfgang Goethe once said something quite hilarious: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
So let’s laugh out loud America. It’s just a big joke and we are the brunt of it.
This article appears in Feb 4-10, 2010.
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I doubt Mr Lowry will be hearing from any of Bend’s many uptight right wing tough talking males – the ones we hear from so frequently on this site. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments you expressed in your letter – I came to the US 12 years ago and am nigh on heartbroken at what has become of it.
I’ll be using your quotation too: “Johan Wolfgang Goethe once said something quite hilarious: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
So true of so many on the Right who drone on and on about “our freedoms” when the Police are without restriction and the jails are the fullest in the world. What freedoms exactly?
“I came to the US 12 years ago and am nigh on heartbroken at what has become of it.”
Does that mean you are leaving! You are not in America against your will. We all still await your mysterious reasons for continuing to voluntarily reside in a “police state”.
thank you for the illustration Mr Juigule,
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”