ROBIN KID

2024 - Mr Freedom... tu dis de la merde!

Lower Manhattan’s One World Trade Center is also called the "Freedom Tower” because it stands 1776 feet tall, 1776 as every schoolchild knows, being the year America declared its Independence. The American Republic that resulted from that Revolution is a truly unique experiment in freedom. From inception, its ideals were consciously enshrined in a Constitution that guaranteed citizens freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom to bear arms, and if accused of transgression, the right to fair judicial process. It was a noble beginning. Even if in historical retrospect it was a hypocritical one, given the unfairness of these laws regarding slavery, women and Native peoples’ rights. Almost 250 years later, we’re still debating - what truly is freedom? Who deserves to enjoy it - or grant it?

These issues burst to life in William Klein’s intensely visual 1968 feature film, MR FREEDOM which uses extreme satire to confront the ironies of American imperialism. Exaggerating and parodying the national obsession with superheroes and supervillains, rival global entities are cast as Evil or Good, and the American Embassy in Paris is a functional supermarket. Sent on a mission to France, Mr. Freedom communicates only in ad-speak: “If you got what it takes, we’ll take what you got. And then some.” As costumes and actions get wilder, he and his followers blow up several landmarks in Europe, asserting: “Everything I destroyed, I will rebuild better.” While he never says “Trust me, I’m lying,” that‘s the underlying message of every statement he makes. The provocative work of Pop-art carnage premiered in France in July 1968 before arriving in New York in March 1970, outraging critics.

In one breathless speech, Mr Freedom alternates the buzzwords of his time with hearty bombast: “The sexual revolution, the new frontier, the proposed land, the permanent revolution. Never before on the face of the earth. It’s not for next year, it’s not for tomorrow, it’s for right now! Step right up, it’s free, and its freedom, there is only one freedom, and it’s your freedom and it’s mine, and freedom is Freedom!” His excited young disciples chant, holding placards: “In the name of Freedom! Kill for Love! Kill for Freedom!”

The rally signs also resemble those used at Republican and Democratic Nation Conventions. On some, single capital ‘F’s are arranged on a round shield, à la ‘Captain America,’ others in various shapes bear ‘Freedom’ slogans, stripes and stars in Franco-American Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. One reads: ‘Nouveau C’est Mieux’ - ‘New, it’s better.’ But what if the new is fascism? Fallen to the floor after the rally, their sentiments also seem to be abandoned underfoot.

In 2009, tech billionaire and Presidential campaign sponsor Peter Thiel published an essay where he stated: ‘‘I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Which means people must abandon either democracy or freedom in their future systems. With 1775’s revolutionary cry, ”Give me liberty or give me death,” in mind, it all begs the question: who it going to own  - or perhaps, ‘sell’ - our future Freedom?