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9 - Knowing how it feels to be free

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

Guy Saunders
Guy Saunders
Affiliation:
University of the West of England, Bristol
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Summary

Song: ‘I wish I knew how it would feel to be free’

I wish I knew how

It would feel to be free

I wish I could break

All the chains holding me

I wish I could say

All the things that I should say

Say ’em loud say ’em clear

For the whole round world to hear

I wish I could share

All the love that’s in my heart

Remove all the bars

That keep us apart

I wish you could know

What it means to be me

Then you’d see and agree

That every man should be free

As we reach the concluding part of this book, I want to try to gather up the main conceptual work of what’s gone before this point. And I wish to use the song lyrics above as a way to do it. If I had to sum up the conceptual work of this book in one sentence, it would be ‘I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.’ What follows offers a commentary that shows my workings out. Once we understand acting freely as a new way of seeing, I believe that we have a way into this song and of understanding our shared humanity.

Type
Chapter
Information
Acts of Consciousness
A Social Psychology Standpoint
 , pp. 260 - 264
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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