Success and Liberation
Being successful is the dream of almost everyone. Society measures one's success in life by their fame, wealth and or power. The issue of which of these components of succes leads to the other or can help obtain the other is very subjective. They may come in any order. I agree with the Hinduism belive that people are not created equal in terms of how we are endowed with different potentials and abilities by the divine. If all individuals had the same potential to do all things, and the same level of success (fame, wealth, and power ), then it would be very hard to describe how we would relate to each other. There would not be any interdependence in our society. It is my hope that our world will become a better place for all of us, and the last thing I would wish for is to be the unlucky person in the community, or the person who has the least of resources. Some economist would argue that some level of unemployment is necessary to curb inflation. It makes sense that all of us don't have the same amout of wealth. It is in the divine's own wisdom that some people are born powerful and other's are born to be the subjects of the powerful or to be ruled by the people in power. This is not to say that abuse of power or oppressing other is okay, it is not.
Success and liberation go hand in hand. If you are successful, it is most likely that you will have worldly liberation, not necessarily spiritual liberation. In addition, when an individual is liberated, it is more likely for the person to be succesful. Success was more prevalent in the songs than liberation, which was not surprising because success in life serves as a catalyst in brings liberation.
Success
1.Shoeless Jeff & Scott Free:Way to wealth
2.Lil Wayne:Got money, ft. T-Pain
3.Wiz Khalifa: Stack money
4.Gucci Mane:Making love the money
5.Sidney:Africa Money
Liberation
1.Sarafina: Freedom is coming
2.Bob Marley: Redemption song
3.The Nasarenes: Song of Liberation
4.Stevie Wonder: Redemption song
5.Nicole Mullen: My Redeemer Lives
I think it is really neat that you focused on having a common word used for each of your songs listed under a particular category. Despite your songs having a shared word in the title, each of them focuses on different things.
ReplyDeleteFrom the songs listed, it is obvious that Americans are focused on money and reaching the top in that sense. Money is the ultimate goal and success is represented by it.
The redemption songs are either personal redemption or cultural redemption in the case of Bob Marley. Personal redemption is typically more motivated by selfish reasons where as cultural redemption is typically a praise about how a group of people worked their way out of intense hardship.
I think that the Hindu sense of the words are more about the positive betterment in life and not about attaining power.
It's sad that society measures success by wealth, fame, and power when success when for some people you don't need much of the three to lead a good life and other things are more important. However, clearly, your songs show that money is what's on everyone mind nowadays. Also, worldly liberation is something worthy of being desired but in my opinion pales in comparison to spiritual liberation.
ReplyDeleteDoes everyone dream of being successful? Do you think that once one achieves success they desire more? Or realize that success isn't the key to true happiness? Are you a business/economics major? I am not familiar with purchasing power...and I don't know if I exactly think that makes sense! Good post overall though :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for for comment Rachel. What i meant was that we all don't have the same amout of wealth. No, not everyone dreams of being succesful. Yes, in my opinion it is the nature of mankind to desire more at every stage in their success. No, I'm a biology major, but i have some econimics backgroung from my previous course. I have changed that expression, just wanted to avoid using the word wealth too many times.
ReplyDeleteMany people dream of living life lavishly and being comfortable for the rest of their lives. There are a select few that could be happy without money. We see celebrities and all of their glory and fame and we want that too. I like how all of the titles of the songs you chose had the word "money" in them as well as "wealth". Just thought that was funny.
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