Posted on 08/31/2013 9:56:50 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Die Gedanken sind frei. Thoughts are Free, famous German song about freedom of thought, 1810-1820, author unknown
Shortly after I arrived in the U.S., I realized that the freedom of speech Americans thought they had, was, lets just say, with no intention of offending anyone, a figment of their naïve imagination.
I was naïve too, having escaped a communist dictatorship, I felt free to speak my objective opinion, thinking that there would be no harmful consequences since my freedom of speech was guaranteed.
I felt elated. I did not have to fear the security police day and night; and I did not have to be mindful constantly of what I said around friends, co-workers, strangers, distant, and close relatives.
Anything that disagreed with the communist regimes tyrannical propaganda sent anyone to jail, a gulag, or worse yet, disappeared them permanently. If people had a strong constitution, when their jail or gulag time expired, they were set free and hopefully re-educated cheerleaders of the narcissistic president and his wife who thought themselves to be the grandiose parents of the nation. If peoples constitution was weak, they expired in jail from malnutrition, verbal abuse, and daily beatings.
As soon as I came in contact with educators, I realized, there was a problem with freedom of speech. The freedom to speak was not really free. You could speak your mind but you were ostracized, ignored, marginalized, or fired.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
Freedom of Speech As Long As You Agree With Me
Haha . . . wasn’t that the Obama campaign slogan last year?
‘Twas ever thus with The Party of Tolerance. The left has NEVER believed in free speech, and anyone who says otherwise is not telling the truth.
Technically correct. The collection of German folk poetry known as Des Knaben Wunderhorn ("The Young Boy's Magic Horn") was collected by Arnim von Achim and his brother-in-law Clemens Brentano in the early 19th Century. It is one of the great sources for German music. Gustav Mahler set many of these poems to music, to include the poem that contains this line.
Song of the Prisoner (or persecuted) in the Tower, Mahler...
The prisoner:
Thoughts are free,
who can guess them?
They rush past
like nocturnal shadows.
No man can know them,
no hunter can shoot them;
for it remains thus:
thoughts are free.
The maiden:
In summer it is good to be merry
on high, wild meadows,
where one finds a green little place;
my heart’s beloved treasure,
I do not wish to part from you!
The prisoner:
And if they lock me up
in a dark dungeon,
it is all only
in vain that they try,
for my thoughts
rip apart the barriers
and break the walls in two:
thoughts are free!
The maiden:
In summer it is good to be merry
on high, wild mountains;
one is always alone there;
one hears no children shrieking,
and the air is so inviting.
The prisoner:
So may it be, just as it is;
and if it is proper,
may it be in silence;
[ And what gladdens my heart,]1
my wish and desire,
no one can restrain;
for it remains thus:
thoughts are free.
The maiden:
My darling, you sing so cheerfully here,
as if you were a bird in the grass;
and I stand so sadly by the dungeon door.
If only I were dead, or if only I were with you!
Alas! must I always lament?
The prisoner:
And because you lament so,
I will renounce love,
and if I dare,
then nothing will torment me.
So in my heart
I can always laugh and joke,
for it remains thus:
thoughts are free!
I wish I could claim to be in your league.
No, I was just thinking that there must be many others out here (like Yours Truly) who’d need an English translation if a discussion thread is to proceed successfully on the topic of a German song....
keep it up...
One of the most interesting songs from that collection is "Reveille", where a prisoner counts down the time to his execution. It should be accompanied with paintings by Goya.
To which one might add much of Europe ...
Kafka’s Metamorphosis comes to mind...
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm
This was a society just aching for another bloodletting.
Yes, some of us have lived “the Trial”...
ha!
Kafka and the others were caught in a very bad Zeitgeist (spirit of the age), when European civilization was visibly in a downfall, largely but perhaps not exclusively because of some really awful political and cultural “leaders” (rather like today’s America, alas).
The great artists, whether musical or literary or otherwise, reflect.. and often seek to communicate their angst concerning, the trajectory of their societies. They could probably hardly do otherwise...
Not just "folk poetry", consider Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), a song cycle for voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler from poems by Friedrich Rückert.
Also consider the entire Asgard Mythos with inevitable winter and near total destruction at Ragnarök.
I'm familiar with the Mahler canon. He was attracted to the darker side of the German literary psyche, no doubt due to the ancient German traditions of anti-Semitism. If you take a look at the Viennese politics of the era, you can see the monsters gestating.
The party of tolerance is not very tolerant of ideas they disagree with. Their idea of diversity is a white lesbian, a black woman, a homosexual and a complete nutcase working in the same office, but all believing exactly the same, not a differing thought among them.
Yes, Mahler saw it all coming. He checked out just in time (1911).
I am embarrassed of my country how its citizens have become complete lemmings
I note that the Austrians (including Herr Schickelgruber) tended to be much more anti-semitic than their German counterparts.
The current mainstream media talking heads read the identically-worded paragraphs received from the same source daily, not unlike the communist era radio and television reporters behind the Iron Curtain, broadcasting the daily script from the national newspaper called Romania Libera, ...
Does it bother anyone but me that popularly accepted "conservative" Limbaugh-dispensing stations like KFI, have top-of-the-hour news reports that do this? They do it in a way so business-as-usual, that you sort of feel like an idiot for not accepting their presentation as This Is What Concers You and That's It. A light example: referring to budget "cuts" when there were none, whole cloth falsehood reported as fact.
Somehow, the media stranglehold must be broken, and people need a news source that asks the questions, presents the angles the "identically worded paragraphs" never even acknowledge exist, let alone reports on angles you'd like to see explored, like anything about the REAL Obama, his stunning low rating, the roiling national truth of the people's rejection of Obamacare, or concerns about vote faud. I listen to top of the hour news reports and think, "You toadies." Who the hell is the news editor? The FILTER?
The modern German state had been created by Bismarck under the guise of adding territory onto Prussia. The Prussians didn't particularly care about your religion as long as you could make war effectively.
Tell that to the Catholic Poles in Silesia during the Kulturkampf.
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