Hello everybody on HIVE, and especially the Vibes Community. My name is Jasper, and I'm writing (and singing) to you from France (I usually live in South Africa and should be back there with more musical toys, like microphones and loop pedals, next week)! Welcome to Week 4 of the Vibes Web3 Music Competition!
The song that I’m singing this week is one of my newer original songs that I am still working on over the last year or so…
This is a song about a rather difficult theme. I believe we live in a world where it is getting more difficult and shameful to speak our opinions if they don’t perfectly agree with the “narrative”. It means our freedom of speech is at risk as people are scared of cancel culture or simply losing friends because difficult conversations aren’t being had anymore… This is leading to a world of "us" and "them"... Ah, you’re a “Communist Libtard”/”Right-wing Nazi”… why would I even talk to you?
If we can't talk to our friends about our differences, then there is a risk of just going to makes friends on the dark-web who agree with us, but are even more radical... This is how we resort to violence, because we have been so locked into our “echo chamber”, that we don’t even see the other side as human anymore…
If we can have tough, but open and civil, conversations with people who think differently from us, we may learn something new about each other's perspectives and maybe even meet in the middle.
Take this man Daryl Davis for example. What incredible bravery and what a wonderful result! Why is it that this kind of open-mindedness is becoming more and more rare, and we prefer to be polarised, and hate that which is different from us?
Remember, we are individuals… we all think a little differently from our friends about SOMETHING: abortion, gun rights, welfare, covid-19 regulations, climate change measure… the list goes on… so if you’re really going to block out everyone that disagrees with you, there will be nobody left!
So, we need freedom of speech, and with it comes the responsibility to listen with care...” On that note, one of the cool things about HIVE is that there is a lot less censorship than places like Facebook…
Ah well, I hope you like my song! Thank you for listening! I will try bring you a fuller sound next week! Best of luck to everyone entering the Contest!
If you are one of those accounts that are new to HIVE through this contest, please say hello! I would love to tell you about other musical communities here that have initiatives that you can post weekly to, like Hive Open Mic and Hive Music Zone!
My submission link:
https://twitter.com/JasperDick/status/1766758771970191862
- JasperDick
Lyrics to “Freedom Don’t Give it Away” by @jasperdick (original)
If we want diversity, please tell me why, we all must think the same?
There’s a list that keeps on growing, as the years go by, the things we cannot say… (oh no)
Freedom, don’t you give it away! Freedom, don’t you give it away!
If I can’t speak my truth, to you my friend, in a civilized debate…
I’ll make friends with all the radicals, and in the end, resort to violent hate… (oh no)
Freedom, don’t you give it away! Freedom, don’t you give it away!
Who stands the most to gain, by pointing all our eyes to this world of us and them?
Who is pulling all the strings, the fake new and the lies, to create this hate and shame? (oh no)
Freedom, don’t you give it away! Freedom, don’t you give it away!
Freedom of speech… is slipping, drifting out of reach
Freedom, oh, Freedom, don’t you give it away!