FREEDOM AND EQUALITY BLUEBIRDS SING AT FESTIVAL
Freedom and equality are at the heart of democracy in America, yet these concepts rarely
are explored in depth outside the classroom. In Chicago on November 14 and 15, freedom and
equality took center stage, not just at Orchestra Hall, but also at the Field Museum, Chicago
Historical Society, Art institute, Chicago Cultural Center, and Newberry Library. The occasion?
The Illinois Humanities Council’s third annual Chicago Humanities Festival, the theme of which
was “From Freedom to Equality.”
John Updike’s keynote address, Fay Weldon’s presentation, and a 90-minute concert
version of composer Anthony Davis’ opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” were among
the main events in a festival filled with main events. Presentations by David Henry Hwang,
Czeslaw Milosz, and Norman Rush were among the Festival’s other highlights. In all, the
Council and its 11 co-sponsors presented 17 programs by pre-eminent authors, scholars and
performing artists.
In Updike’s keynote address at Orchestra Hall, the author described freedom and equality
as “those two bluebirds of hope and aspiration swooping in our American skies. The two
concepts nest at the heart of what we like to think makes the United States an exemplary and
revolutionary place; yet neither is unambiguous or without its problematical aspects.” America
promises equal opportunity for everyone to get ahead, but toughness and ambition are required to
fulfill this promise, the author said.
Updike devoted the second part of his address to the more “subjective” and
“metaphysical” concept of freedom. He said that his early works, including Rabbit Run, were
concerned with the elusive nature of freedom. The fictional character Rabbit, Updike said,
discovers that “freedom is a momentary sensation, a running to nowhere, after running from one
set of entanglements to another.” The book also illustrates that one man’s freedom often is
purchased at the price of other person’s suffering.
He added; “To be free, often, is to be alone. ... Freedom, at any rate, was and is
universally cited as the treasure beyond price, worth any ordeal of battle and suffering.” As de
Tocqueville defined equality in contrast with European aristocracy, Updike said, Americans,
over the past 45 years, have defined freedom against the example of communism.
But both communism and American democracy involve an exchange of freedom for food
and security, Updike said, adding: “The genius of our founding fathers was to invite Nature’s
turmoil into the system; to let the torrents of the marketplace shape the economy, to anoint
natural human selfishness – self-interest, the pursuit of happiness – as the system’s central
energizer.
“Under recent presidents, selfishness became not merely an energizer, but the only idea
in the field. The concepts of equality and freedom are bound together. Citing equally oppressed
citizens of a tyranny, De Tocqueville thought that you can have equality without freedom; but I
believe that you cannot have freedom without equality. I mean without the sensation of equality,
since absolute equality is impossible and, in terms of American dynamics, undesirable. But if
inequality becomes too great, in fact, the sensation of it will diminish, and I fear that is the
present trend.”
He ended his address on a note of hope tinged with pessimism: “I am very grateful to
have been born an American in the 20th century and devoutly wish that my grandchildren and
their children will find cause to be grateful in the next century, while our ever-endangered
bluebirds continue to sing. Amen.”
Fay Weldon’s audience found her hoping for an end to the gender war. Though she called
for a truce between men and women, Weldon still managed to get in a few digs toward the
opposite sex. She said: “We have no magic right by virtue of our gender, alone, to be
disagreeable, unhelpful and negative; whether we are men or women. We must stop pointing our
fingers at men and saying ‘oh, you’re the ones who make war, who rape and pillage, who
abandon wives, who fail to support children, who can’t express feelings, don’t have feelings, are
insensitive and crass; to put it bleakly, are baser human beings.’ It may be true, but simply to
blame is not to teach, educate and change. It is only an attempt to cow and intimidate, and most
likely we will suffer from the backlash of our attack because men have power and we don’t.”
Weldon put forward a reductionist view of human nature, whereby, “most of our
activities, from politics to art, are replacement activities for a simple reproductive urge,” and
nature’s purpose is “to get us to breed and breed, trying out different combinations, different
assortments of genes.” She encouraged men and women to unite behind our sense of right and
wrong and nongender-specific traits, such as “intelligence, goodness, aesthetic refinement, and
the capacity to aspire and hope.”
Weldon’s words were met with laughter and cheers at the Cultural Center, where she
addressed an overflow crowd of about 300. Updike addressed a nearly full-house of 2,000 people
at Orchestra Hall. The auditorium also was filled to the rafters for both performances of X: The
Life and Times of Malcolm X. In all, 10,000 people attended the third annual Chicago
Humanities Festival.
One-third of the house for both performances of X was set aside for students and
teachers. Forty percent of all those who attended the concert were at Orchestra Hall for the first
time, according to a study that measured audience characteristics.