illusion of freedom

The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.

--Frank Zappa (1977)

fear free speech

"When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say."

-- George R. R. Martin (1999)

backwards society

We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.

-- Michael Ellner (1997) & Chris Hedges (2010)

finite resources

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.

-- Pardot Kynes, First Imperial Planetologist of Arrakis (Dune by Frank Herbert)

Radio Clash

This is Radio Clash, stealing all transmissions.
Beaming from the mountaintop, using aural ammunition.
With extreme prejudice on a terminator mission.
This is Radio Clash, consider your position.

Breaking news flash:  Assassination!
The whole country has been shot.
Evil will abate in revelation -- the ministry of whitewash.

This is Radio Clash from pirate satellite
Orbiting your living room, cashing in the Bill of Rights.
Cuban army surplus or refusing all third lights
This is Radio Clash on pirate satellite.

This sound does not subscribe to the international plan
In the psycho shadow of the white right hand.
Them that see ghettology as an urban Vietnam
Giving deadly exhibitions of murder by napalm.

Forces have been looting my humanity.
Curfews have been curbing -- the end of liberty.
Hands of law have sorted through my identity
But now this sound is brave and wants to be free!

-- The Clash (1981)

Desire Lines

When you were young, and your excitement showed
But as time goes by, is it outgrown?
Is that the way things go -- forever reaching for the gold?
Forever fades black and comes up cold.

Walking free. Come with me. Far away. Everyday.

When you were young, you never knew which way you'd go.
What once was grace, now undertows.
"Well everyday do what you can,
and if you let them turn you 'round
whatever goes up, must come down."

-- Bradford Cox (Deerhunter) 2010