Thursday, October 1, 2015
Freedom Post- Devon
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pharrell-freedom-video_55b11623e4b08f57d5d3d9f1
The link above is a very short article from the Huffington Post that briefly talks about singer Pharrell's music video for his new single "Freedom". The video shows many powerful clips of injustices and restrictions on freedom that occur all around the world. Some of the most powerful images include women working in sweatshops, men working in mining fields, and extreme poverty stricken neighborhoods. The clips are mixed with images of animals in the wild and nature functioning by itself without human involvement.
Immediately after and even during my viewing of this music video the first thing that came to mind was Rousseau's idea of freedom and his belief of man's dominance in his primitive state. Specifically Rousseau's assertion that the natural man will always win and how man that exists in society is a corrupted form of man. By entering into a society with government it results in destructive products like sweatshops and slave labor that are the product of "the most powerful...having made their strength or their needs a sort of right to another's goods" (Rousseau, 101). This means that the one's in power, or in the one's who have property, take freedom away from those who don't have power/property and take advantage of them. Once men enter into a society that is ruled by property and law it results in a "weak voice of justice, made men greedy, ambitious, and evil" (Rousseau, 101) and ultimately destroys man. Pharell's use of nature and animals in their wild habitats reinforces Rousseau's beliefs that natural man is the only form where man is actually free because he is not restricted.
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I agree with Rousseau that often time man becomes greedy once he gets any power. Often times those in a weaker state stuffer from this. This can be seen in many companies. For example in 2012, the CEO of McDonald's made 8.75 million dollars, whereas the employees made only $8.25 an hour. This means the CEO makes around 580 times more money than his employees make. This huge pay disparity between CEO's of major companies and their worked show this issue that Rousseau was warning about. Too often, man gets too greedy in their position of power and the people on the bottom suffer.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rousseau that sometimes man can destroy what is natural and already good. I think this can be proven through many examples. Some examples can be with the control of animals, our carbon foot print on earth,slavery or any inhumane treatment of others. Man seems to have this idea of superiority over things and people and naturally take part in trying to control it. Rousseau explains how we are all being tricked and some of these things are the consequences of being tricked. However, I wonder if man is naturally like this from the beginning and being tricked by things such a s property just heightens mans ruthless behavior.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Rousseau believes that the state of nature is better, man also naturally goes from a state of nature to a civil society. Even though inequality is very prevalent today, it would be impossible to go back to anything resembling a state of nature, as we are too reliant on technology. This is similar to what Rousseau believed about simple man being stronger than the learned man. If Rousseau thought that man had gone too far in terms of greediness and coercing poorer men into working for richer men, I wonder what he would think of how society is now.
ReplyDeleteI agree that man has, in many circumstances, destroyed the freedom that was innate before government. It's interesting to see this point in a music video, it gives a very interesting take on it. Sometimes it's hard to understand something unless you see it. Pharrell's music video is a great representation of the lack of freedom around the world. I like how you tied in the idea of animals in nature being truly free with the idea that humans would be like that to without societies.
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