Black Bucket Essays
Volume 1, Issue 3
“Ideology is strong exactly because it is no longer experienced as ideology…we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.”
- Slavoj Zizek, In Defense of Lost Causes
Eileen Wold
Free as in speech or free as in beer?
This is a common saying among software developers. The beer kind of free generally refers to software that is given away. Like Internet Explorer. It does not cost you anything. You are free to use it, but not free to change it. You can have it. You can consume it. But you can not take any ownership or control over it. It asks very little of you.
The speech kind of free usually refers to open source software. You can use it, AND you can change it. You can make improvement suggestions to contributing developers or you can write the code to fix bugs yourself. You can distribute the software to anyone and use it on any device. But there is no company taking responsibility for this product, so if you want it to be great, roll up your sleeves This kind of free can be quite demanding.
An Unfit Slave
The young Frederick Douglass was taught to read by the wife of one of his slave holders, Mrs. Sophia Auld. Her husband scolds her for this. His reasoning was that if you teach a salve to read, there would be no keeping him. It would make him unfit to be a slave. He would become unmanageable, discontented, and unhappy. And reminds her that it is not just unlawful but also unwise.
Douglas as we know, becomes very unfit for slavery. He goes on to continue learning to read, and discovers various viewpoints, possibilities, and a world of injustice.
It is suggested that at one point, he became envious of his fellow illiterate slaves. Reading provided him with knowledge and opened his eyes to his condition but gave him no corresponding skill set to overcome it.
The dragon is free.
Just yesterday, my six year old daughter had to use the word free in a sentence. It was a spelling word. And she had to create a sentence and draw a picture to prove that she understood the word.
“What does free mean?” she asked.
As her mother, I was left pondering how to define this word for her. But before I could formulate a thought, she wrote her sentence.
The dragon is free.
She then drew a picture of a dragon in a cage.
“Why is that dragon locked up?” I asked her. “I thought it was free.”
“Because it is waiting to be picked.” she said.
“Free as in, it has no price?” I asked again. “Or available?”
“It is ready.” she said.
To change a system is messy. You must first acknowledge that the system exists. And that perhaps it is broken. And that you have the power to change it. And it would mean that those who are most oppressed would not see their situation as self inflicted failure but as a result of an unjust culture and governing class. So perhaps the dragon can never be free unless it is also ready. Ready to see.
Volume 1, Issue 3
“Ideology is strong exactly because it is no longer experienced as ideology…we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.”
- Slavoj Zizek, In Defense of Lost Causes
Eileen Wold
Free as in speech or free as in beer?
This is a common saying among software developers. The beer kind of free generally refers to software that is given away. Like Internet Explorer. It does not cost you anything. You are free to use it, but not free to change it. You can have it. You can consume it. But you can not take any ownership or control over it. It asks very little of you.
The speech kind of free usually refers to open source software. You can use it, AND you can change it. You can make improvement suggestions to contributing developers or you can write the code to fix bugs yourself. You can distribute the software to anyone and use it on any device. But there is no company taking responsibility for this product, so if you want it to be great, roll up your sleeves This kind of free can be quite demanding.
An Unfit Slave
The young Frederick Douglass was taught to read by the wife of one of his slave holders, Mrs. Sophia Auld. Her husband scolds her for this. His reasoning was that if you teach a salve to read, there would be no keeping him. It would make him unfit to be a slave. He would become unmanageable, discontented, and unhappy. And reminds her that it is not just unlawful but also unwise.
Douglas as we know, becomes very unfit for slavery. He goes on to continue learning to read, and discovers various viewpoints, possibilities, and a world of injustice.
It is suggested that at one point, he became envious of his fellow illiterate slaves. Reading provided him with knowledge and opened his eyes to his condition but gave him no corresponding skill set to overcome it.
The dragon is free.
Just yesterday, my six year old daughter had to use the word free in a sentence. It was a spelling word. And she had to create a sentence and draw a picture to prove that she understood the word.
“What does free mean?” she asked.
As her mother, I was left pondering how to define this word for her. But before I could formulate a thought, she wrote her sentence.
The dragon is free.
She then drew a picture of a dragon in a cage.
“Why is that dragon locked up?” I asked her. “I thought it was free.”
“Because it is waiting to be picked.” she said.
“Free as in, it has no price?” I asked again. “Or available?”
“It is ready.” she said.
To change a system is messy. You must first acknowledge that the system exists. And that perhaps it is broken. And that you have the power to change it. And it would mean that those who are most oppressed would not see their situation as self inflicted failure but as a result of an unjust culture and governing class. So perhaps the dragon can never be free unless it is also ready. Ready to see.
