"Is Freedom Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose?"

“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.

Nothing don't mean nothing honey if it ain't free.”

~ Janis Joplin

(written by Kris Kristofferson)

Is freedom just another word for nothing left to lose? A thought I’m pondering as I lay writing with a cat perched on the small of back. Now, I appreciate Janis as much as the next guy and more so because I find her crazy attractive because she seems like she was a kind person (a bit fucked up, yes) but a good and kind person.

I have spent many thoughts on the actions and times of the counterculture movements. Most of my heroes, all of which are/were artists whether musical, literary or comedic: George Carlin, Don McLean, pre-conservative Charlie Daniels, Kris Kristofferson, Shel Silverstein, Hunter S. Thompson-to name a few-were of that generation. Even fewer were the makers and  most were the influencers, the inspirers or the shapers. They shared the dual existence of wisdom and foolishness, and Janis, a chief proprietor along with Hendrix, Garcia, The Beatles, Thompson, and Jack Kerouac (considered the father of the beats) all died from drugs, sex, alcohol, suicide or heart attacks. Those five “ailments” seem to be the general obituary details of the latter quarter of the twentieth century. They all fought in a culture war for their freedoms against Big Brother who returned fire-for-fire for their own perceptions and ideas how to implement these freedoms. Both sides were right and both sides were wrong and the shell shock from the culture shock is still resounded in the weeping tombs of a broken America to this day. 

What troubles me about Janis’ words is the price she and the rest paid for these freedoms: and it raises questions of what freedoms did they fight for, was it worth it, and how do we deal with the rising inflation of these freedoms? Was it, is it, worth death or is freedom really nothing?

I’m not going to pretend that Kristofferson wrote this song on a helipad hoping to change the world. “Me and Bobby McGee” is a great song and I won’t destroy it with too much criticism. So, I’ll list, to the best of my knowledge, the issues counterculture folks considered worth fighting for:

• Recreational drug use
• Vietnam 
• Banning the bomb
• Free love
• Civil rights
• Free speech (as in protest and rock-n-roll)
• and a bunch of other stuff

I’ll start with drugs. I’ve stated in a post titled “The Decline of Cosmic Consciousness” my stance on drugs, why I like and dislike them, and why I think they’re okay. I would like to briefly expound: Weed, good; crack, bad. 

When the warriors of the sixties came around all of these substances were relatively new or recently discovered by a larger, collective consumer along with the music to “help” the drugs take effect. They, the people, insisted, after their parents kicked them out, that these drugs expanded the humans’ consciousness and gave light and new meaning to the world humanity coming beginning to step into, and I believe it did in a lot of ways. With their minds turning Greek, trying to figure out why things were the way they were and why they had to, in the words of their parents, uphold the traditional values of the founding fathers. 

That’s what drugs did and do and will continue to do, I believe, until they are legalized. When it no longer considered evil or wrong the rebellion aspect of drugs will deflate. When people no longer fear the law, having more freedom, they will come out of their holes and engage in more civil debates; and it will be then when we can all move on and find relevant ways of applying the old and new values. Until then I say let the tension grow. 

Vietnam. Good or bad? I’m not very educated on the subject and will keep this short. I think we have no reason being in another country if that country does nothing against us. America is not the great liberator of the world. Protect your own. Leave other people’s children alone. Keep your dicks in your trousers and hands at your sides. Let’s figure out our own issues before we council another man’s marriage and take out the log in our own eye. I’m thinking the abolishment of creation and armament of nuclear weapons fits in here. That was a horrible idea from the start. 

Free love is a fun one. Sex-we all like it. When you remember that it is by children barely over the hump of pubescence that all wars are fought in the history of mankind you will find it interesting that the same children are curious. So when you have a new group of horny teenagers on drugs, who are able to be drafted, uprooted and placed in a battle field, and vote, being told persistently “you can’t do drugs, you shouldn’t be screwing the farmer’s daughter, why is your hair long, will you turn that music down, find a job” - you shouldn’t be surprised by their response. The response being simply this, “Fuck you dad! I’m gonna’ go get high, grow a beard, learn the electric guitar, wear flowers in my hair, fuck all your poker buddies’ daughters, get them high, go to my buddy Jeff’s garage, pick him up, eat this bag of ‘shrooms and hit the ballot box. PEACE!”

Its a reasonable response. 

Civil rights and freedom of speech. Probably the most important accomplishments of the era or even the past century. Things were never made wholly right by the Emancipation. Abe did good and all, but that piece of paper did not fix the problem. What fixed it was the right of every American to freely assemble. The same constitution that says all men are created equally. This topic continues to grow ever more pressing to this day. Then it was race. Now its gay rights. 

Gays have my thumbs up. Who is anyone to say someone can or cannot marry whoever they want? There’s the old argument I’ve heard too many times, “It defiles the sanctity of marriage.” I ask, “Of your marriage?” and then I press it further. “You mean to tell me that your marriage is so weak, so fragile, that something so harmless as two dudes, two chicks even, diggin’ each other’s hearts and souls defiles how holy your marriage is? Are you fucking loco?” 

Listen folks, I don’t even fully agree with the concept of marriage. To me marriage is something so much more than the ring and the paper; both earthly and forged by man. If love is held in our hearts and minds to only be activated by the power of the state and of ancient institutions is it really love? I think not, and please, do not get me wrong on this. The practice of ceremony and celebration is great and groovy and after all I dig free alcohol.

I love free speech. Its what I’m doing right now. I love America too. I love that I can say these things that are outlandish to many closed minded people and that I will not be stoned in the morning because of it. But what’s better than free speech is free speech in a spirit of love. Hate speech reaps what it sews and love doesn’t always reap the fruit of its labor but its one hell of a way to piss off your mid-western relatives and alienate your friends and its something worth doing.

Moving on let’s recall to ourselves the words of Miss Joplin, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. Nothin’ don’t mean nothin’ but its free.”

Freedom = nothing to lose. Does that mean nothing to gain as well? Is the power of the freedoms we have and have gained mean we have freedoms to lose? To be honest I don’t know, but I think we have gained far more than we have lost as a society even despite the current dumbing down of the current generation, my generation, an issue that will need to be addressed when I’m an old man if the powers that be don’t shut the fuck up and work on solutions instead of their fucking campaigns and “big dick waving prick fights”. I stole that line from George Carlin.

Nothing = nothing worth nothing… a triple negative. Maybe its that simple. That nothing we do means anything. That all the advances of civilization are pointless and worthless and biblically Ecclesiastical. That nothing we do is positive and it was all a waste of our time.

I don’t think that way. Not anymore. Not when I have sunshine on my shoulders. Not when I have Bobby singing the blues and I feel it all boils down to love. Love makes us feel good. That’s what the sixties were about partly. Love and peace and banning the bomb. Those are the values and ideas I’m proud our great country has become more accepting of. That was the fight.

And the war still rages and its still the children who fight, but these days its not by the forceful hands of tyranny but by the conscience of goodwill, charity and equality for all. Fight the good fight.

KJ out.