Freedom of Choice

I was thinking about someone. He’s a complainer. He says he has problems. Of course. Everybody has problems. He claims that society has taken away his ability to choose. He says society defines our places within it and our choices. As we seek the American ideal of achievement and comfort we are stripped of our individuality and our choices become meaningless as we become clones of the corporate capitalist society. If we choose not to choose then the above argument becomes a good excuse for giving up in our effort of self improvement and any attempt to redeem society. Then I thought of Devo and their song Freedom of Choice.

Now, for a trip down memory lane. Lest we forget. Because this band is political, or at least they were when I was in high school. Or at least I thought they were when I was a teenager.

These are the words to Freedom of Choice.  Intelligent stuff, right. Well, musicians often have something to say, and sometimes they don’t. I really don’t have the time or the interest to talk about musicians that don’t. Because music is more than just an opiate for the masses.

They were formed in 1973 out of students from Kent University. “Devo” comes from the word “De-volution” meaning that we are regressing into dysfunction and herd mentality.  “Devolution” is also defined as a move from Federalism to locally defined governmental powers.  Postmodernism? Messages with no solutions? But maybe we need to think first and the solutions come later.  I was 16 in 1980 when the album Freedom of Choice came out, with the hit single Whip It. Frustrated. Angry. The world wasn’t perfect. And I didn’t fit in. What sixteen-year-old does? And I had all this energy and what was I going to do with all my teenage angst? Well, here they were with music about difference, and sexuality, and the Cold War, mocking all these things and themselves and saying something meaningful and often disturbing in a code that I thought most people couldn’t get. And they had cool plastic suits and conical hats.

And you know what? The world still isn’t perfect and I still like Devo.