The Death of Liberty?
Mark Thomas of DisasterTheory
By: Mark Thomas
As an artist, I can tell you that I spend a lot of time publicly staying out of the conversations when it comes to politics and religion. I was taught that these are two topics that will definitely piss people off. As Abraham Lincoln once said “You can please some of the people some of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” While these aren’t words I focus on, on a daily basis, I find myself reminded of them daily.
That is to say that; people are not always going to be happy with the things you say, write, or do. However, I’m also a believer of the fact that this is okay. People do not always have to be pleased with the things you say, write or do. As long as those things are legal, truthful and come from a place of personal morality, why would you care if everyone likes it?
As song writers, we are often tasked with weighing the balance between the things we write being “offensive” or being “passive.” In our day and age, we have to consider this balance, because there are no shortage of people who wish to do nothing more than “cancel” you for saying something they don’t agree with.
The music entertainment industry is somewhat of a fickle one when it comes to issues like this. Something that may be a personal story of yours, may offend someone who has taken your words out of context and added different meaning to them. This causes writers (both in music and in other industries) to have to think about how someone else will interpret their words. It’s something we cannot control, but it is sadly something we need to consider so that we don’t get “canceled.” We cannot control someone else’s understanding or comprehension. What’s worse is that “cancel culture” doesn’t provide an avenue to even “clear up” your meaning or intentions. Once someone believes they know what you mean, no amount of explanation changes their mind. This generally comes from a culture of never wanting to be wrong.
Social Media
What adds to this problem is “big tech” companies like Twitter and Facebook. I’m not going into politics here, nor do I care what you think of our current president or our current president-elect. When I bring up Twitter and Facebook, I’m not referring specifically to their choice to ban our current president from their platforms. I’m referring to their ability to ban anyone for making legal, truthful statements that they happen to disagree with, even if those statements adhere to their policies. Let’s take for example the fact that Facebook allows you to create “satire/parody” pages (it is literally an option and category they make available to you), but will then ban you if you post anything parody or satirical to that page…if they merely dislike what you’re saying. This is true even if what you’re saying is satirical but based in fact.
Now one may argue that these platforms are owned by private entities and Freedom of Speech is only extended to private property as the owner grants it. That is fair. However, every one of these platforms launched their products based on the idea of the ability to exchange thought and ideas freely amongst one another. Adding to this is the fact that the people who see your thoughts, ideas and opinions have expressly signed up to do so. They know what you’re about, and they want to read what you have to say. I’m referring to people who are your friends, fans, members of your social media groups, etc. These people must visit you on social media and then “join” your group, Like your page, follow you or send you a friend request. They are CHOOSING to be part of your circle, or to be the recipient of your thoughts and ideas. Who then, are these people behind these social platforms to tell you or your friends, family or fans how to think, what to say, or how you can interact with one another? After all, in the same way these people sent you friend requests, joined your groups, followed you or liked your pages, they also have the ability to CHOOSE to “unfriend” you, unlike you, unfollow you and leave your groups if they disagree with you.
Entertainment vs Political Dictation
I have always felt that as an entertainer, I have an obligation to write my feelings and my opinions into my craft. After all, these things make me who I am. Many songwriters before me have written their songs about politics, uprising, injustice, revolution and equality. So these things are undoubtedly engrained in music. However, today’s society has seen the leap from entertainer to political dictatorship. That is to say that today, entertainers find it necessary to preach their views to you and attempt to force you to agree with them. They go as far as alienating half of their fan bases and even openly telling fans to not be their fans if they don’t agree. If you disagree with something your favorite artist is saying, that artist would rather “cancel” you as a fan, than for you to share your views with them. To me personally, this goes against everything that music and entertainment stand for. As a songwriter and musician, their job is to entertain and share a message or story. It is not their role to tell you how to think, feel or speak. Music is about unity, rebellion, freedom to express, freedom to enjoy, freedom to think. When an artist takes that away from you, while they themselves enjoy those aspects of music to express THEIR feelings, THEIR stories and THEIR thoughts…it is one of the utmost hypocritical and selfish things I can witness. They stand on their stage and essentially tell you that YOU and what you believe doesn’t matter, only what THEY and people that agree with them believe matters. If you disagree with them, you no longer matter.
The Death of Liberty?
Are we witnessing the death of liberty? I can’t take that leap entirely. What I believe we are witnessing is what we are freely allowing. Growing up, I quickly understood that I had the freedom to say what I wanted to say and that likewise, someone had the freedom to respond. This typically leads to either disagreements OR the ability to compromise and come to a mutual understanding and common ground. What we are witnessing is the ability to come to mutual understandings and common ground being stripped away. When corporations decide to tell you what you’re allowed to talk about or think, and dish out censorship with such a heavy hand that it takes away the need to actually communicate, we are left with nothing but division. There is no “let me explain.” There is no “let’s work this out.” There is no “compromise” or “meeting in the middle.” There is only “I don’t like what you said and rather than discuss it, I’m going to have you removed from the conversation so that the only people left are those that agree with me.”
It’s not specifically liberty that is dying, but rather road blocks on all avenues that lead to unity, equality, peace and love.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter what your political belief is. It doesn’t matter if you sit on the right, the left, in the middle or just sit outside completely. YOU matter. Your thoughts matter and your voice matters. You should not be ok with entertainers and corporations taking those away from you. History has taught us that no one is immune to censorship once we allow it. Just because the censors may be on your side today, doesn’t mean they won’t censor you tomorrow, the moment you say something they’ve misunderstood or taken out of context. If you dislike something, you have the freedom to choose not to participate. If you are offended, you are free to CHOOSE to remove yourself…or not. If you don’t like a television show…you are free to change the channel (this is what they make remotes for). If you don’t like a song…don’t listen to it. If you don’t like what someone says on social media…unfollow, unfriend, leave their group or unlike their page. You can CHOOSE not to participate in the things you don’t like. You should not be okay that you or anyone else is forced not to participate, simply because someone else doesn’t like it. If your favorite restaurant was suddenly shut down because ONE person didn’t like the food, you’d be pissed.
You should be pissed right now, because this is what’s happening in our society. We are allowing people and corporations into everyone else’s yard to tell those people what they can do in their yard. We point the fingers and proudly yell “cancel that person. Cancel that business. Cancel that artist/musician/actor. I don’t like something they said.” We think that’s “progress” until there is no one left to cancel and the corporations come to YOUR yard. Then and only then will you realize that you made a mistake when you pointed at the first neighbor. That first, will have opened the gates and torn down the fences that you felt protected you.
