can a country like the U.S., with by far the largest incarceration rates - the most people in cages - of any big country (350% higher than China, per capita: be genuinely considered the "land of the free"?
Would have never expected Will.i.am to make an actual decent philosophical point on the meaning of freedom in China (vs the vile Bill Maher...) but here we are 
Worth mentioning that the meaning of freedom also evolved quite dramatically in the West over the recent past. Now it overwhelmingly means individual freedom but it wasn't always the case.
If you re-listen, for instance, to Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous "Four Freedoms" speech, 2 of his 4 freedoms - which to him constituted the definition of "freedom" - were actually collective freedoms: namely freedom from fear and freedom from want.
How free are you really if you don't have security, if your streets are so unsafe you don't feel you can walk freely outside?
And how free are you really if you're poor in a society where doing anything costs money? You are technically free to do anything but, practically-speaking, you can't: you are in fact a slave of your material condition.
Same thing in France, hence our national motto: "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité". Freedom/liberty was always meant to be balanced against collective interests: equality between people and fraternity towards your fellow citizens.
Or you could be speaking about literal personal freedom: can a country like the U.S., with by far the largest incarceration rates - the most people in cages - of any big country (350% higher than China, per capita: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c) be genuinely considered the "land of the free"?
Which is why Maher's points - that "freedom is freedom", that the U.S. "generally has more freedom than others" and that the Chinese are "too brainwashed" to understand freedom - are so painfully shallow and so ironic. They betray a man who has obviously never put a single thought into the concept, and chose to swallow his own country's official propaganda straight from the firehose.
Will.i.am, on the other hand, went to China, looked at the facts beyond the caricature, and arrived at his own thoughtful conclusion. That's what freedom of mind actually looks like.
Worth mentioning that the meaning of freedom also evolved quite dramatically in the West over the recent past. Now it overwhelmingly means individual freedom but it wasn't always the case.
If you re-listen, for instance, to Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous "Four Freedoms" speech, 2 of his 4 freedoms - which to him constituted the definition of "freedom" - were actually collective freedoms: namely freedom from fear and freedom from want.
How free are you really if you don't have security, if your streets are so unsafe you don't feel you can walk freely outside?
And how free are you really if you're poor in a society where doing anything costs money? You are technically free to do anything but, practically-speaking, you can't: you are in fact a slave of your material condition.
Same thing in France, hence our national motto: "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité". Freedom/liberty was always meant to be balanced against collective interests: equality between people and fraternity towards your fellow citizens.
Or you could be speaking about literal personal freedom: can a country like the U.S., with by far the largest incarceration rates - the most people in cages - of any big country (350% higher than China, per capita: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c) be genuinely considered the "land of the free"?
Which is why Maher's points - that "freedom is freedom", that the U.S. "generally has more freedom than others" and that the Chinese are "too brainwashed" to understand freedom - are so painfully shallow and so ironic. They betray a man who has obviously never put a single thought into the concept, and chose to swallow his own country's official propaganda straight from the firehose.
Will.i.am, on the other hand, went to China, looked at the facts beyond the caricature, and arrived at his own thoughtful conclusion. That's what freedom of mind actually looks like.
posted by Satish Sharma at
11:37
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