The Cost of Freedom

"The cost of your freedom is mine, and vice-versa" refers to the idea that when one of us isn't free, neither are the rest of us.

What is the cost of freedom? Freedom has many costs, not the least of which is other people's freedom. What that means is that while you may not approve of others' pursuits of happiness, if their pursuits don't harm you in a real way, (as opposed to it bothering you) then they should be free to go about their business. If your life affords you the freedom to concern yourself with the comings and goings of others, you should be grateful for your good fortune, and look to giving some of that free time to charity, not meddling in the private affairs of your neighbors.

When we begin to curtail the freedoms of others, we start down the slipperiest of slopes, in which one-by-one we start chipping away at the foundation of freedom until we have a law governing everything we can possibly do, say, and think. It's like the proverbial snowball, a chip here, a chip there, the ball gets rolling and everything in its way is gathered into it and nothing is left behind.

Of course, the adage that one's freedom ends at the other's nose, refers to a punch in the nose, not an unpleasant, but harmless aroma. And, it's a legitimate concept. There are limits on freedom; for example, I'm not free to punch you in the nose. Neither am I free to con you out of your life savings in a Wall Street Ponzi scheme. Nor should I be free to take your money in absurdly inappropriate salaries and bonuses while the service I provide fails to deliver. That is a punch in the nose. Our government exists to provide for the common welfare, to keep us from harm, from without and within. Not to protect the interests of one group at the expense of another. It is to guard our right to the pursuit of happiness, not to impose the morality of one group upon an other. Government does belong in the boardroom, not peeking in the bedroom window. Nor the livingroom or den.

See the above design on that shirt, and other t-shirts, sweats, buttons, mugs, etc. here.

Nietzche

"For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain precondition is indispensible: intoxication." -Friedrich Nietzche

Intoxication is what ViceVoices is founded on. What, you thought "Vice" was referring to something like "Vice President?" You thought "Voices" didn't refer to the ones in our heads, which sing while we're intoxicated?

The name "ViceVoices" came from our one-time band. Well, more of a regular drunken midnight choir jam session than a real band. The gigs we played were at whoever was hosting the night's session's house. The band moved apart back in the 90's, as we moved on with our separate lives. (ie; some of us got new girlfriends who disapproved of loud, all-night get-togethers, others went on to new levels of intoxication that the rest of us could not keep up with.)

Though I could not keep up with the escalating tastes of others, I haven't gone all righteous person of temperance and virtue. And smug. I enjoy wine and when its there, weed. At the end of the day, when the work is done. Some days I look forward to the day being done more than others. And it takes me to a place that is a haven. A happy place, where the unhappy shit on the horizon sets with the sun. A new horizon appears, where all things are possible again.

But, for others, the days never change. The horizon remains the same, and the shit sails forward, docks and boards. Suicidal tendencies crop up, violent streaks emerge, the need for higher and higher levels of intoxication takes hold, and intoxication becomes for intoxication's sake. Not for creativity, not for keeping on in this river of many currents, but like a demon inhabiting the person, feeding itself, with the person fully signed on as driver. Fully resigned as driver.

But, for many of us, intoxication remains a portal to the great stream of ideas, when it's gotten lost in the days, faded day by day, lost in the cacophony of white noise spewing from mundanity. Not that we always choose the best ideas that stream into our intoxicated receptors, but being in the stream again is well worth the following day's pain and lethargy. And, still in the stream we stay for another few days, beyond the pain, in the gain. No pain, no gain.

Posters, t-shirts and gift items of the above ViceVoices original artwork are, as always, available at the ViceVoices online jubilee of wonderment.