'No Longer Christian, but Still Afraid of Judgement'
Whatever this is, we need to set ourselves free from it.
This week’s selection for #FreedomMusicFriday—“Material Boy” by Sir Sly1—is both a touching cri de coeur and a trenchant diagnosis of our modern malaise. It also happens to be a pretty good song, with an updated 80s vibe that a lot of we GenXers will really appreciate.
It touches on freedom in several ways.
One objection, which I frequently hear, to a freedom-oriented ethos goes something like this:
You talk about freedom. You talk about rights. What about duties and responsibility? You want freedom—but freedom to do what?
It is a reasonable question. However, it generally tends to misapprehend some basic points…
Those of us who focus on freedom and rights are generally not making sweeping, holistic claims about all of human life. Rather, we are making one essential claim: that the human person ought not be subjected to the initiation of coercive force, or to any transactions or impositions of authority to which he does not explicitly consent.
That’s it.
It’s a very basic claim, rooted in one morally provable rule. Beyond that, the claim is comparatively silent. Yes, the implication of the claim is that people are free to do anything they wish to do, so long as it does not violate that rule and impose force or nonconsensual arrangements on anyone else. Human beings are, as an ontological fact, radically free.
But we are not making any claims about what one ought to do with that freedom. Obviously, there are better and worse ways to deploy one’s freedom in the world. Obviously there are many things that one does not absolutely have to do, but that one clearly ought to do. There are many duties and responsibilities in life.
That’s fine and true. It simply isn’t a part of the core freedom claim. That claim is simply trying to protect people from violence.
Classical-liberal ideas unleashed an explosion material prosperity, beginning right around the turn to the nineteenth century. Classical-liberal governance structures released people from certain kinds of oppression. The result was societies in which people enjoy a reasonable amount of freedom and, compared to all of human history, unprecedented wealth and standards of living.
This has been a mixed blessing. The wealth has given us the freedom of options. Improvements in protection of rights has liberated us in other ways. But liberated us to do what? What are we actually doing with our freedom?
Sir Sly takes a look.
I opened up my heart and found a spiritual void
This is a spiritual world, I'm a material boy
The Enlightenment brought many blessings, but it also seems to have helped pave the way to increased materialism. Yes, this obviously means, in part, increased consumerism. But the Enlightenment’s focus on science and empiricism has also decreased our emphasis on the spiritual. Our focus is now material in more than one way.
Yet the world remains a spiritual place, and the singer can feel that is is out of touch with that. And it has him feeling sick…
I called the therapist, she sent me to a circle to sort it out
I've got my foot in my mouth
and weak…
So baby, tell me what is my weakness […]
Under the pressure, I fold
and, like so many, over-medicated…and finding that the medication doesn’t really work:
My medicine's stopped working for my sick soul
He goes to therapy, yet also recognizes that it doesn’t really work. He cannot even confide in the support group “circle” his therapist sent him to—hinting at the notion that we are not only over-medicated, but also overly focused on therapy in general:
Can't tell the circle that the red has got me paranoid
Critics often point to this sort of atomization as an outcome of the freedom/rights ethos. They are correct that atomization is a problem. They may be correct that, on some level, increased freedom and the prosperity it engendered have created the conditions in which the atomization occurred.
They are wrong to suggest that advocates of the ethos want the atomization. And they are wrong when they suggest that the solution is less freedom (i.e., subjecting people to more force). There has to be a better way.
Then the singer makes a powerful statement about the de-spiritualization of the West. Religious observance is in such decline that we are rapidly becoming a post-Christian culture. And yet our Judeo-Christian substrate remains in our psyche:
It bears repeating that I'm sick and have to quit
No longer Christian, but I'm still afraid of judgement
Material pleasures, cultural benchmarks of success…none of it is working:
I filled all my pockets
Checked all the boxes
I couldn't escape
Still find myself obnoxious
He still remains…
Prideful and godless
Selfish and thoughtless
Enjoying all the benefits of freedom, and yet…
Capital dream for material boy
That I went, and I lost it
I went and I lost it all
This is not freedom’s fault. The solution is not less freedom. But we do need to find a solution. Whatever this malaise is, we must set ourselves free from it.
The only malaise I am feeling is the thought that I will have to stop doing this if I cannot make it into a proper paying gig. Don’t let that happen—upgrade today!
Someone hipped me to this song, but—my apologies!—I do not remember who it was. Whoever you were, thank you. If you let me know, I will certainly update this post with a hat tip!
People are not inherently bad, evil or selfish.
A balanced, self-aware, cohesive personality is automatically integral.
We have been taught not to trust ourselves and fear our own freedom.
This is what we need to overcome. And we will.
We are spitiual beings having a human experience.
We try to fill our spiritual needs with material things ...
That's how greed, gluttony, envy and all such things are born.
No amount of money can fill that hole in our soul.
Nor can a new house, pills, a new face or a new car.
That is short term relieve.