Slavery: one word, three syllables, and seven letters.
Freedom: one word, two syllables, and seven letters.
How many lives have been lost in the process of going from the 1st to the 2nd; how many rallies, marches, protests, and suffering? Absolutely, numerous. The most famous type of “revolution” regarding enslaved people or at least people suffering discrimination is the one related to a person’s color. To put it bluntly, it is the infamous racism regarding “white” people and “black” people. I quoted the colors because the only reason I’m stating the different colors of people is to ensure clarity in this article; I refuse to regard people the same way I would regard crayons or pens. In the United States, hundreds of years ago, people would be brought from Africa and entered through the slave-industry. They would be given few to no rights, put under heinous work conditions, and treated extremely unfairly. Many years after that, they were given rights to be free. That is they would be able to get an education, own property, marry (only those of the same race!!!), and go about with their lives. They continued to suffer racism, lynching, torture, and mainly injustice in all its kinds until finally integration was forced and people slowly started regarding those of a different color equally. Bravo to those who fought and demanded and did not submit because if it weren’t for them, nothing would have changed.
So the above paragraph is mainly me going on about slavery and freedom and an example of how people went from the 1st to the 2nd. But come to think about it, I was only talking about PHYSICAL slavery: a person owning another person or a group of persons. Just like if you own a piece of clothing, a kitchen utensil, a car, or any other object. So basically, it was the body of person B that was owned by person A; not B’s mind or thoughts.
B’s mind was always free.
Does this mean that slavery only applies to the physical state? Is it possible for an enslaved person to be free; or for a free person to be a slave? Can a person be the slave of his/her own self?
My answer to these questions is “No, Yes, Definitely … respectively.”
First answer: Why “no”?
Slavery DOES apply to the physical state, but it can also apply to the mental and emotional states. Mental-state slavery is very famous in the relationship between (many) governments and their people. Because, although, in almost all (if not all) countries, freedom of speech and expression is a sacred right. This right however suffers a LOT of violations and in most of the cases people don’t even realize it. An example of this case is the current state of many news media. While broadcasting about a war, one channel, would say A is committing mass-murders and genocides of innocent people while also using internationally-banned weapons against B. Another channel would say B is committing mass-murders and genocides of innocent people while also using internationally-banned weapons against A. (yes, I did type(not copy-paste) the same sentence but changed the “attacker”) A very curious person would call an acquaintance living in the war zone in order to get the facts straight. He would either be surprised to know that there isn’t a war going on in the first place but rather some teenagers having a very very wild party or that there is, in fact, a third party called C that is doing the above actions against A and B.
The reality of the situation is that those watching the first channel would develop opinions against A and those watching the second would develop opinions against B. And we all know that the number of people who would actually do what Curious did or at least research what’s happening are very few because, to put it in short, most people don’t care about anything happening outside of their friend circle or the circle surrounding their celebrity crush! And so the poor ignorant masses watching both channels had become 1) slaves of the mental state, 2) ignorant citizens, 3) tricked individuals, and 4) (God forbid these people actually choose to protest in favor of the person they think is the one being wronged) tools of the media-enslavement industry going on which will only lead to more slavery!
I won’t divulge deeply in talking about emotional-state slavery but I will make it clear. A guy is in an abusive relationship. He loves his girlfriend even though she’s abusive. He won’t leave her because he loves her. He continues to suffer because he can’t leave her BECAUSE he loves her! He won’t help her change because he is either afraid of confronting her or doesn’t want to hurt her. (And I’m talking about real love he has for her not the sick kind). Common sense would say for him to let go and never look back but love is, sadly, blind. And so, as much as it’s not acceptable, this guy has fallen a slave for his feelings towards her; simple as that. His feelings for her have stripped him of his own free will.
Second and third answers: Why “yes” and “definitely”?
Ted Bundy, if you don’t know who him, was an American killer, rapist, and kidnapper who was later executed due to his actions. He was free in the physical meaning of the word. He had a house, a car, and any other thing that reflects a person’s freedom. Yet, in my opinion, Ted Bundy was a slave. He was a slave to an unhealthy upbringing and a deviated mind that, together, stripped him of his own free will. I am not, in any way, justifying his actions. BUT I AM saying that we can all agree that no sane/mentally-healthy person would commit crimes and besides this point will be later explained thoroughly. BACK TO THE TOPIC!!! Ted Bundy’s unhealthy upbringing rooted certain things in his twisted mind, mainly his hate for woman and subsequently his need to be the powerful/dominant one regarding them. His twisted mind fogged society’s norms that determine right from wrong and eventually he surrendered to his urges and became the monster he was. He surrendered his sanity and his power, simply gave it up and as explained in Answer #1, all people with lack of free will/choice are NOT free and thus Ted Bundy, despite his physical freedom was, in fact, a slave, and a slave. Of what? As mentioned above, of an unhealthy upbringing that fueled a twisted mind into empowerment, a mind that is part of his self. Ted Bundy, thought physically free, was a slave of his self.
Mary Antoinette, if you don’t know her, was the last queen of France. She is said to have consumed most of the French people’s money in her extravagance and political/financial corruption. At the height of the starvation that hit France, she was told that her people were dying due to lack of food, to which she replied with “Let them eat cake.” Diseases, illnesses, hunger, and lack of hygiene spread through France during her reign and were the trigger to the French Revolution, on the light of which, she was later executed. In my opinion, Mary Antoinette was also a slave. She was a slave of extravagance. A need to hold parties, to eat, to drink, to wear the best of the best and the finest of the finest. Like Bundy, she no longer cared about others’ lives, freedoms, or existence. Her life centered on indulging herself and satisfying all needs that her mind would conjure. So in fact, and for lack of needing to explain any further, Mary Antoinette was, like Bundy, a slave of her love for extravagance. As for whether or not she was physically free, I think it’s pretty self-explanatory that the Queen of France be free. In fact, royalty, at that time, were at the epitome of physical-freedom.
With that, my lovelies, the questions have been answered and the only remaining point of discussion is whether or not mental and emotional enslavement are sound justification to the actions of some people.
No one can judge an insane person based on an action he/she did due to his/her insanity. No one can judge a child for doing something wrong when they haven’t been yet taught right from wrong. But the difference between an insane person or a child and a person who is the slave of his mind and feelings, is that this person STILL has a completely functioning mind. Since we so boldly support revolutions against physical enslavement why not recognize other forms of slavery and encourage those who will fight against it. Mental illnesses are like physical illnesses, in their early stages, a person suffering them can detect something is wrong. It is this person’s responsibility to seek help. If A knows he is being dragged into the slave-industry and has all means of escape but chooses not to, A is then responsible for all the injustice he will suffer. Ted Bundy and Mary Antoinette are both very extreme examples of enslavement. If we look at the example of those who accepted what the media told them, we can see, that they had full freedom to NOT be enslaved, but still chose to “go with the flow” and become so.
And so, in the end, I couldn’t care less how any dictionary defines Freedom.
My own definition of it is the following:
the state of free will* in the physical, mental, and emotional state.
*free will that can separate right from wrong in a way that is approved by the majority of the WORLD’s population, beliefs, and laws and not just the surrounding society (because who says the people around you aren’t slaves??)
My last words?
Do not be slaves.
