# "Freedom's just another word..."--meaning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 17, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911 "2006-02-17T04:07:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/41 "2019-11-05T17:28:21Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I always hated that line. Nobody who ever actually lived in tyranny - in Germany under Hitler, Russia under Stalin, Iraq under Saddam Hussein - would ever say anything so fatuous. You’re right in a way. This is very much a song of privilege, the ability to cut loose from society’s expectations and live as one wishes, all the while knowing that utter destitution is an unlikely fate, that society will accept you back at their terms anytime you choose. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > You have to remember it was written in a time when hippies roamed the earth. It’s written from the perspective of one of those free spirits. These innocent souls thought they could go on like that forever. But Kristofferson was the farthest thing from a hippie. He was a champion athlete, a Phi Beta Kappa, a Rhodes Scholar, and an Army Captain and Ranger who was offered a literature professorship at West Point. And he was also married at the age of 21 to a long-term girlfriend. He gave that assured career up to try to make it in music, which resulted in his parents disowning him. It’s true he got a job as a janitor in Nashville, but the standard fable leaves out that he split weeks there with weeks making good money as a commercial helicopter pilot in Louisiana, which is where he wrote “Me and Bobby McGee.” This was about 1966, probably before Kristofferson had met many “hippies,” although the music world had always held their like. Yeah, it became an archetypal hippie song. But it’s a story about someone else based on his own life, having giving up all security to do the thing he loved. That’s the interesting thing. Great art often includes a universal emotion that can be seized upon by people in a variety of situations, even if they bear little resemblance to the experience of the artist. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/42 "2019-11-05T18:31:40Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Go at it from the other direction. Assume someone values freedom – from tyrannical bosses, from obligations that cramp their style, from having to conform to the expectations of the neighbors, everything. They don’t compromise. > > There are price tags. People won’t hire them, don’t treat them like “normal folk”, don’t include them, dont’ trust them because they aren’t playing by the rules. > > Fast forward a bit, let’s say a couple years, and you find the uncompromising freedom worshiper hitchhiking, unemployed, no home, owns only what’s in their bag or on their back. They’re still free though. > > A wry commentary on the price of freedom. I agree with this wholeheartedly. I always felt that this line was uttered in a melancholy way. They have achieved their freedom - but at a cost that they are attached to no one, and no one is attached to them either. They have traded in human connection and all the good that it can provided for world in which they are invisible, and they’ve chosen to call it “freedom.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/43 "2019-11-05T18:55:59Z")
The freedom the singer is talking about is the freedom after Bobbie leaves. He/she certainly had something to lose before that - and lost it. All we know about them is that they are broke and hitching to New Orleans. Nothing in the song implies that they’ve been running around the country. Anyone who has ever felt tied down by a house and possessions knows what Kris was talking about. It’s far from the only meaning of freedom, but I get it. And the singer is not that happy with this kind of freedom. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/44 "2019-11-05T21:51:52Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > But what does this part mean: > > I pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandana > I’s playin’ soft while Bobby sang the blues, yeah > > What is a harpoon? (apart from a whale thing) Since the zombie is lurching about, I’ll add that a harmonica is often slangily called a ‘harp’ (from ‘mouth harp’ I think). From ‘harp’ to ‘harpoon’ (especially when you need another syllable for rhythm) is a short trip. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/45 "2019-11-05T23:21:16Z")
I also missed this first time around. The line in question is reminiscent (preminiscent?) or another line from Alabama: “She’s got her freedom, but she’d rather be bound” ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/46 "2019-11-05T23:30:15Z")
It’s one of those phrases that sound profound but actually mean nothing. Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to gain makes equal sense or nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/47 "2019-11-06T02:38:08Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > It’s one of those phrases that sound profound but actually mean nothing. Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to gain makes equal sense or nonsense. No, it really, really doesn’t make equal or any sense. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/48 "2019-11-06T03:34:54Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The freedom the singer is talking about is the freedom after Bobbie leaves. He/she certainly had something to lose before that - and lost it. That’s always how I took it. The song is about regret, and about a lost time when she felt free. She thought that was about having nothing and no schedule or possessions, and it wasn’t. It always about her now lost lover, and it pains her that she’s now lost that as well\*. \*While also wishing him well, which means wondering how he is without her. ---
**Author:** ![Temporary\_Name](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Temporary\_Name](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temporary_Name)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/49 "2019-11-06T04:36:25Z")
While the 1960’s notion of ‘dropping out’ is the obvious setting and the possible inspiration in this song, am I the only one who thinks that Kristofferson (the Rhodes Scholar and potential literature professor) is making a statement about Cynicism in general – and potentially about the meeting between Diogenes and Alexander? It just seems to me that the whole point of the song is that Bobby and the singer rediscovered the philosophy of Diogenes (independently of course, being too free in spirit to study classical lessons) of living simply and honestly. It also seems to me that even if the song does examine the heartache of unrequited love, it eventually concludes that to be truly free and happy, you have to deal with loss honestly and openly. (Here I am reminded of another sentiment popular in that era – if you love something, set it free.) So she wishes him well on his journey even though it brings her melancholy feelings. See Bobby just wanted a little more sunlight so he moved on to where her shadow no longer fell across him. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/50 "2019-11-06T13:43:06Z")
A friend told this story at his mother’s funeral: When he was a kid they didn’t have much money. They lived in a small house without lots of furniture or trinkets but there was a nice vase on a table. One day he was horsing around and broke the vase. He called his mother, sure that he would be in big trouble. She just said, “That was our last nice thing. Now we don’t have anything to worry about.” That’s freedom. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/51 "2019-11-06T14:12:28Z")
“Freedom’s just another word for ‘the power or condition of acting without compulsion’” ``` --*Linguist Sings the Blues*, cartoon by Craig Swanson in his strip *Perspicuity* https://www.perspicuity.com/ ``` ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/52 "2019-11-06T14:37:53Z")
John Lennon put it much more succinctly: Imagine no possessions ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/53 "2019-11-06T14:45:04Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > John Lennon put it much more succinctly: Imagine no possessions I can’t. Everybody has possessions. The singer has clothes and a “harpoon”. It is impossible to exist with no possessions at all. And I said the song was written from the \*perspective \*of a hippie - that doesn’t mean I ever said Kristofferson was a hippie. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/54 "2019-11-07T07:50:15Z")
A “right” implies responsibility; “freedom” does not. Both produce consequences. You’re free when you’re born and when you die but not so much in between - reality and other people get in the way. You have a “right” to whatever, in exchange for using it wisely. Your “freedom” is only blocked by obstacles; if you’ve gone that far, what more is there to lose? Freedom to swing a fist ends at someone’s nose because consequences, reaction, retribution. And whatever is free is likely worth the price. Harpoon derives from French harp (because a French priest introduced the free-reed Chinese sheng to Europe) and eventually blues harp. Other names I’ve heard include Mississippi saxophone, pocket sax, pickle (also for ocarinas), horn, and bluesburger. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/55 "2019-11-07T15:00:19Z")
\*Freedom? Ah, freedom. That’s just some people talkin’. You’re a prisoner walkin’ through this world all alone.\* ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911/56 "2020-02-23T20:19:11Z")
just found this and perhaps I shouldn’t revive it, but I have quite the experience of feeling this way. THere was a dark time in my life, where I lost my job, my wife had just died and I sold the house because I couldn’t afford it anymore. I had my car and damn few things. I’ve never had so many options of what to do or where to go from there, nor will I likely never be so free again. I was at the bottom of my life, and it was totally up to my whim of where I would go and what I would do. I had nothing else left to lose and I was totally free to make any decisions on the next chapter of my life. Its pretty clear and easy to understand, if you’ve been there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freedoms-just-another-word-meaning/344911.md?page=2)