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| Pix Credit here; Corwallis surrendering to French and American armies 1781 |
July 4 is celebrated in the United Sates as Independence Day--the day when the Continental Congress is said to have ratified the Declaration of Independence. In past years I have posted U.S. Independence Day day reflections to this site (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here) as a way to commemorate the event and celebrate the holiday.
For this year I offer a reflection in the form of a haiku, with brief a brief reflection.
I wake up feeling free
Is freedom independence?
I sip my coffee
One wakes; is one then woken? To awake may be understood as an assertion of the self; to be awake the act of communion with those woken. The act of waking is recorded as feeling; one feels wakefulness. But that feeling is itself a conclusion that relates to wakefulness in relation to its perception. To awaken suggests independence; to be awake suggests freedom. One is or is not independent; one feels or does not feel free.
In English, the signification of free is itself dependent to some extent on its origins in the Old English "freo "exempt from; not in bondage, acting of one's own will," also "noble; joyful," from Proto-Germanic *friaz "beloved; not in bondage"" (here). Compare the Latin liberi--that also focuses on status and capacity. In the sense of "'exemption from arbitrary or despotic control, civil liberty' from late 14c" (ibid.), the implication is that one is capable of solidarity and to certain social relations and expectations denied to those existing in various conditions of servitude or dependence.
Independence, on the other hand, suggests an exceptional condition--to be free of dependency. Not necessarily to be entirely free of dependency but at least to exist in some state or condition in which one acts for oneself. It suggests a state of selfhood but one that is relational. Independence measures the absence of subordination--of literally hanging beneath another person or thing; "From 1640s as "subordinate, under the control of or needing aid from an extraneous source." (here).
And that is the essence of the lesson. Both terms draw significance from the centrality of the notion of bondage, and of subordination. Both suggest the possibility of the absence of bondage and of subordination, but in quite contextual--and relational ways. The act of drinking coffee suggests independence to the extent one does not have to seek permission to drink. It suggests freedom to the extent that one's choice to drink is devoid of compulsion; an act of will; or it may suggest a privilege in the form of a choice to indulge in coffee. Nonetheless one may be compelled to drink coffee if it is the only beverage on offer; or because it is a signification of social relations that cannot be avoided. One is in bondage to the expectations embodied in the state of wakefulness over which one may have no control--a state of bondage. One my be independent yet the scope of independence may be reduced to an act of refusal--to take coffee. One's independence (to refuse coffee) does not necessarily include the freedom to choose tea. And the exemption from arbitrary control does not suggest an independence from control.
It is in this sense, perhaps, that one may freely sip coffee from the cup of independence. One does so perhaps knowing that the brew may be a manifestation of dependance, a compulsion for a specific brew based on our history and habits. One does so as well perhaps understanding that the selfhood which is a predicate for the absence of subordination around the desire and capacity to have a cup of coffee suggests no more than that. The independent coffee drinker may well be both dependent on and in bondage to those who provide the cup, the objects necessary to brew the coffee, and, of course, to those who farm and deliver coffee for consumption.
The highest form of government is what people hardly even realize is there;
Next is that of the sage who is seen, and loved, and respected.
Next down is dictatorship that thrives on oppression and terror.
And the last is that of those who lie and end up despised and rejected.
The sage says little--and does not tie the people down.
And the people stay happy believing that what happens happens naturally. (Tao Te Ching (Man-Ho Kwok; Martin Palmer; Jay Ramsey ((trans); Rockport, MA: Element Books, 1993)); No. 17 , pp. 58-59but see No. 75, pp. 178-179)
Free and independent it is fitting to extend the greatest of best wishes on this anniversary of both for the United States.
And now back to my coffee.
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