Breaking down the fourth wall

I love New York City. It’s like a mini-world of some of the greatest things that the human race has come up with, condensed into a small geographic area. I love the diversity of the neighbourhoods. I love that I can walk 100 blocks and not get bored. Love that I can get good food just about anywhere. Love the cultural familiarity, shocks and surprises. And I love that everybody’s got their own show going on. For me, New York is like one big stage, and the rest of my life is the greenroom.

One of the most notable things for an outsider going to New York is the glaring immediacy of freedom as a fixed concept in the culture. There are signs of it everywhere. If you fly to Newark, you will land at Liberty International Airport. For less than a quarter of the price of a taxi, you can take the Liberty Express bus into Manhattan. Along the way, you will pass several signs for companies aptly named liberty this or that. In fact, in that 300-square-mile area alone, there are more than a thousand businesses branded with “liberty” nomenclature. From banks to pawnbrokers, from bagel shops to pizzerias, from moving companies to production companies, to jewelers and barbers and cobblers, people in that place conceptualize freedom on virtually every corner. And that’s not even counting any business associated with her Lady of the Harbor. Liberty, for those city dwellers, is at the heart of the social economy. And in some way, this reflects what so many of us throughout North America have come to take for granted as a fundamental tenet of western civilization: People should be free to do as they please in order to be happy in this otherwise incomprehensible universe.

It does seem though that freedom in some contexts isn't much more than a received idea. I think we've come to a point in our societal evolution where freedom is taken for granted. People don't need to think about what it is, because it is unquestionably right. Because of this, it often gets used as an adjunct label to effect a political agenda, or sometimes appropriated for easy spin ("economic freedom"). It's the lack of thinking beyond the terminology that I think prevents any real discussion about how freedom and democracy can advance human knowledge. What is freedom without openness? What is liberty without citizen engagement? Or consideration and collaboration? It’s as if a certain malaise has infected our culture and it is taking its toll on otherwise really progressive commitments, such as the pursuit of knowledge and discovery, and care, and social contracts. I wonder if there’s a remedy. Can we fix the civic engagement gaps that are holding us back from realizing 21st-century advancements? Do that many people really want to opt out? After all, we’re living in a society. I'm inspired by people that do want to participate, no matter how distanced they are from public policy makers. I’m holding out for something better, hopeful that this show can get off the ground, and reminded of the colloquialism that in the theatre, there are no small parts, only small actors.