WHAT IS FREEDOM?

[Clifford Black]

Freedom

Recently, I had the opportunity to enter into a discussion about the subject of freedom.  After hearing what John had to say about the condition that is known as being free, I quickly realized, this nut does not have a clue as to what freedom might possibly be.  While thinking about what John was saying, it dawned on me that this may be a subject that needs investigating.  For most of my life I have heard people say things like: "I live in a free country" or "this (America) is a free country" on and on.  I am producing a web-radio show and I am thinking that maybe an interactive dialog about what some of us think freedom actually is could be quite interesting.  In other words, questions like: where did we get our ideas about freedom from.  Is the data that we have, true or false, is it (the data), based on belief or knowledge?  If you are interested in joining this discussion please leave a comment. 

B.

 

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Peace Lord, if you don't mind and if it is applicable what John are you referring to?

My first introduction to what was so named and thus so called freedom, was hearing negroes talking about how one day they'd all be free. I was a child and since I had no mass or concept of what free or freedom was or shall I truthfully say that by then the concept had been beaten out of me and so suppressed that I had no clue to what it once had been. I just assumed I wasn't free because by then I was not! I would later hear the concept described as freedom "from" something. Of course that didn't quite cut it.  I never bothered to even look the word up. By then, like most people, I just assumed I knew. How incorrect I was.

It wasn't until you and I started to having serious conversations about the subject that I started to seriously think about this word and concept and the cntext I had been hearing and seeing it written and talked about. The very people who were telling me about freedom never described what freedom actually was. Isn't that strange? It is like saying we have to go somewhere, but not understanding where and what that some where is.

Freedom like the words Africa and God and religion is one of those tricky words that etymology alone will not illuminate its orginal meaning and intent. This is when one needs to know some of the skill in employing the epistemological process. I vividly remember drawing this assignment a few years ago and how I worked diligently to uncover its meaning and one morning about 3 I thought I had figured it out and in fact called you. What was really odd was what it was had been so close in front of my face I coldn't see it.

The construct works tirelessly to make sure it's hidden in plain sight whereas the average person would never think to look. My God what do you think might happen if people started to figure out there is no such thing as mass freedom? Moreover, what might they do if they every discovered that freedom aint free and what they have been sold as freedom really is just another form of enslavement? Just in: The international news media is running this story as we write. Coincidental or what?

 

                          "There is no physical escape from the mental plantation"

 

 

 

[Lumumba Ali]

I am VERY interested in this "Freedom" idea.

[Adisa]

The first time I think I heard about freedom was regarding Abraham Lincoln freeing some slaves.  It was never explained beyond that.  I recall hearing my father say that nothing in life is free and heard other sayings such as the best things in life are free and that this is the land of the free etc.  No one ever asked me what I thought being free was or meant.  Overall, the same as I did, many just accept the concept of freedom, someone elses concept, thinking this is the way it is and/or supposed to be.  You are correct in regards to the etymological research of the words free and/or freedom, it is like trying to find the beginning of a spider's web. I'm not sure if being free can be completely described with words.  I can definately say what freedom is NOT!  One day it dawned on me about this being a free country, in New York people go and visit the Statue of Liberty, not the Statue of Freedom.  One thing is for certain, I truely enjoy the freedom to think outside the box as it is said.  

[Clifford Black]

Adisa-As you can see, there are only a few who are really interested in the exploration of this much talked about and little understood subject. Because you are willing to do the kind of work that is required in order to expand your RANGE of CONSCIOUSNESS, you must suffer the life of JONATHAN, you will have to learn to fly ALONE.

B.

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

One of the tricks the brain tends to play on us is to make us think we are the only ones that are not being affected. It will make us believe we were the one that got away. The ego, with its need to be feel special creates a false sense of difference. In other words what I am suggesting is, IT GOT YOU TOO!

[Clifford Black]

@Al-John is the name that I use for all tricks and the average mark/vic is a TRICK.

B.

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Oh, that  John, Mr. Vic Tim. Well, sheep deserve to be fleeched and eaten and they taste good. I mean wolves got eat too don't they? Nature is neutral.

[Clifford Black]

And beside Nature being neutral- it (Nature), knows (has) no color line.

(B).

[LaSanta Jones-Teil]

Well....i would have to put myself in the group of people who cant accurately define what freedom is. On the surface one can attempt to describe freedom as being boundless or exempt of control, but the question then becomes boundless of what, and exempt from what type of control from who or what??? From studying with certain people my vision of freedom had always been death to everything that's white, but presently, thankfully, my understanding of freedom is under reconstruction. For every culture there is a freedom, in my opinion....peace

[Dominique Christina]

What registers immediately with me around this idea of freedom is that so few colored folks know what it is and yet it is a word that we have invoked in our collective cultural experience quite often. It is the stuff of songs and marches and platforms. It is the thing that I always heard was what all the fight was about in the Civil Rights Movement. It took me well into adulthood to see the trickery in that. How erroneous and straight up incorrect it is to suggest that Civil Rights was about freedom. What were we actually lobbying for? Marching for? Being washed down the streets for? Being bitten by police dogs for? It was not this thing called freedom but when I was co-opting the language of those who preceded me, those all around me, that is exactly what I thought it was. Freedom is, as an idea, elusive. It is cloaked and daggered and too often mis-languaged and misrepresented. I am still unpacking what it is. Etymology does not get me there quickly. I still have to scratch at it. I am certain that I know it is not a thing from without. I know it is a thing from within. I do not confuse liberty with freedom anymore. Liberty is simple. Freedom? Well....freedom is a God thang. And so too am I...

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Don't you find it amazingly, odd and weird that no one attempted to explain that elusive concept called freedom? Don't you find it equally strange that they attached hope to the concept also? So if you keep hope alive, always hope, never give up on hope, one day somewhere over the rainbow, you might, perhaps, maybe be free? Usually when you die, but until then there is going to be a charge for hope and freedom is always right around the corner quite unattainble, kinds like finding that rainbow. Until then continue clicking your heels 3 times and say over and over, "There's no place like home." Or you can ........ lol

[Aaron (Al) Lewis]

Dominique, because you are a very special friend of mine and my family I will point you a way. Now as badly as I'd like to tell you what I discovered, Mr. Black would never forgive me if I did. If you don't figure it out for yourself you would not either. You see me telling you would not make you learn it. It's the process of using the tools of learning I find so powerful. That's why I appreaciate him so much for not telling me, but instead nudging me and making me think and think deeply about it. It took me months and certain gradients, but when i finally figured it out I didn't ask him, I knew because it finally all added up! Of couse like in everything else the worse thing I could do now is to come to a conclusion. I want to know all there is be known about this concept called freedom, but first I had to see it. And see it I did.

Nowehere in recorded civilized history, especially ancient history, will you find much evidence about free people. Now there are certain people who'd love to have you think the ancient Egyptians were such a people. There were not! Civilization and freedom are oxymorons, they are in fact in direct contradiction to each other. That is why at times when people in class are exalting the acheivements of civilization Mr. Black or myself will ask, "What's so good about civlization?"  I remember distinctly one day in Java, Juice and Jazz having lunch with him and Thurman asking him that question and I saw the fire in his eyes. It was a pivitol moment in our relationship. I know why now.

 I already had that information at my disposal when I agreed to research the word and the concept. I read every major and minor document I could find on the subject. One statement that Dr. Black often makes is that, This (the United States) is the first nation on the planet." That is something to ponder and try to figure out. Many would love to argue the point, but it helps to understand the importance of context when talking about nation, and what that particular concept came to mean and its source. I spent many a night researhing that one also.

 Of equal l importance and I will never forget this during class when he said, "And America almost became what it said it wanted to be, but shortly after its inception it failed." Now you have to ask yourself what was this British colony endevoring to be? What was it replacing and what happened to derail it? Again that requires contextual thinking and you are one that I know is capable of doing that. By all means ask your questions here, just don't reveal what you learn. Everyone must put in their own work in the red pill home girl.

 

Love,

 

Mr. Mann