Seong Im Hong
October 29, 2012
The Opiate of Freedom and Trying
“Freedom doesn’t let you off the hook, and failing doesn’t mean you’re not responsible for trying.” – Tony Kushner
Freedom is a slippery thing. It seems to be a masturbatory word for politicians to scream at the frenzied masses that are drunk on their own idea of freedom. We talk about freedom so much in our country—our very political discourse hinges upon freedom and how much is too much. In this class, we mention again and again the conflict between market freedom verses government regulation. Freedom, we think, is an inalienable right. But freedom exists because the opposite (or lack thereof) exists—servitude, constriction, and limitations. So when we talk about freedom in rallies, what do we want freedom from?
Religion is an opiate, someone said, but so are love and freedom, and much and more things. Freedom is great, sure, but is it really? We talk about freedom from The Man, freedom from taxation, freedom from oppression, and it seems that “freedom” is too big of a concept to be truly used in a useful way without plentiful context and modifiers.
And I think that’s our great fallacy. Freedom is what we Americans love to think as the quintessential American ideal that we forget that all freedom all the time isn’t all it’s stoked up to be. Freedom by itself is dangerous, because it makes us drunk on our sense of self-righteousness and exceptionalism and other things that make us complacent when things that are obviously Not Okay happen. In terms of our class, for example, when companies violate environmental standards, or edge close to violating the environmental standards, some of us think, “Well, it’s their right as businesses to gain a competitive edge over others. Let the free market decide.” But in this case, what is the business free from?
Too often, we want freedom from responsibilities.
But as Kushner said, “freedom doesn’t let you off the hook.” Freedom shouldn’t mean freedom from responsibilities. And we all have responsibilities, from personal responsibilities (to do right by self), to familiar responsibilities (to take care of aging parents in future, perhaps), to environmental responsibilities (to aim for sustainability). And yes, it sucks to have responsibilities. That’s why we procrastinate or drink or do any number of things to avoid, avoid, avoid what we must to in favor of what we want to do. But that’s not how life works, and that’s not how it ought to work, either. Sometimes, selfishness is under the guise of freedom.
Selfishness also comes under the guise of “trying”
The second part of Kushner’s quote is much harder to understand. Too often, we are faced with forces larger than ourselves. Life, death, love, you name it. When we are trying to face environmentalism, too, we are faced with forces larger than ourselves, though they are often of our own making. Global corporations, for example, are too great for individuals to truly effect. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves while we buy their sneakers, their seafood, and their smartphones. It’s with a mixture of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality and “oh well” mentality that we continue to patronize these companies that we know, as surely as we know any other things, that pollute and exploit. We might even try buying locally or from alternative sources before we realize ethical doesn’t mean economical and our pockets aren’t as deep as the corporations’. Oh, well, we tried, we think. But sometimes, when it comes to important things, failing doesn’t mean you should cease to try. Not all of us can afford to shop at Whole Foods all the time. (Actually, if you go to Hunter, you probably can’t, period.) But we can surely try to influence others, or look for alternatives or go out of our way to buy better.
(For the record—I have a problem with how sweepingly broad Kushner’s claim about responsibility is. There are things we can’t and shouldn’t fix or change in life. Sometimes failing means that you have to let go of others.)
