Not everyone would rather be free. Even if most of us think we would like to be free, very few of us would be willing to pay the ultimate price for our liberty. Not everyone prefers death to loss of a little bit of freedom — or even a lot of freedom. In The Debt Collector, the conflict between those who prefer to be free over those who prefer to be safe is played out in a recurring song. Sometimes the song is called “I’d Rather Be Free.” But in more somber moments, it is called “I’d Rather Die Free.”
Why would anyone need to own guns — especially assault rifles that are meant to kill other human beings? Why not just join the police force, if you want to fight crime? Or the army and Navy and Air Force if you wan to fight for the common defense? There are pensions and health benefits and you could still do the work you love, fighting for justice.
In the first scene where Blood sings “I’d Rather Be Free”, it’s by way of explanation for why he isn’t a police officer.
Blood does not want to be someone who just takes orders. He wants to be free to pick and to choose what foul foe he will fight. But Blood is not the only person in The Debt Collector who wants to be free.
Carl Lark is the welfare father, who is facing a battle of his own. He does not want to work only to have his wages garnished. Siren, the social worker, is encouraging Lottie to divorce him, just so she can collect on child support.
Lottie, the children’s mother, feels the need to be safe much more strongly than the need to be free. But Carl would rather live free.
Meanwhile, their daughter, Sophie, who is being held captive, gagged and bound in the basement of a woman who wants to adopt her, would rather die free.
There is only one person who could save Sophie from her predicament — and that is Blood, The Debt Collector. But when he is injured during the rescue, and Siren wants him to get help, he would rather die free.
Since not everybody puts freedom above survival, it is very important that people who do love freedom work together with people who long for safety to create communities where relative safety is the result of freedom, rather than allow the enemies of freedom to get us all to trade liberty for their false promise of absolute safety. Otherwise, we will have neither freedom nor safety.
[The Debt Collector is libertarian musical, composed by Daniel Carter and written by Aya Katz. Performing in the demos are Kelly Clear as Blood, Kade Smith as Carl, Mindy Pack as Lottie, Katie Lobrot as Sophie, and Nate Ginsberg as Dexter.]
I hope you find a place for your musical to be performed. I would like to see the end product.
Thanks, Julia. I do hope we find a way to get it produced, too. Most local productions these days rely on grants whose source is tax funding. I am sure no government authority would ever fund a true libertarian musical. If we do manage to get a production together, it will have to be in the for-profit sector.