Emancipate yourselves from mental slaveryNone but ourselves can free our mind
-- Bob Marley
I'd seen those lines on so many T-shirt and dorm-room posters that they'd lost their meaning. Now that I find myself living under a totalitarian dictatorship, with no end in sight, things are different.
Freedom of action has been greatly reduced, and will likely be reduced further. Freedom of expression, likewise. These are external vicissitudes, largely beyond our control.
Freedom of the mind, though, and of the spirit -- that is our own responsibility. No one can take it from you unless you give it away. No one can give it to you unless you reach out and take it.
The great temptation is to consent to mental slavery in order to lessen the pain of physical slavery -- to tell yourself that your masters know best, and that what they command you to do is really what you would prefer to do anyway. Life in this world is so much easier and more comfortable if you can manage to love Big Brother.
And if an easy, comfortable life in this world is all you know how to aspire to -- why not?
4 comments:
Well put. Freedom from is becoming increasingly difficult. At the same time, freedom for is always accessible . . . if you want it.
Don’t let them rule yah. Or even try tah school yah. Loved those 2 lines since the day I first heard them. Knew immediately that it was right.
Emancipation from mental slavery has, for the past couple of generations, been equated with rejecting Christianity and whatever tradition/ your parents say. For the average adolescent, freedom of thinking means freedom to go along with the current peer group and mass/social media.
This goes back to the Victorian self-styled 'Free Thinkers' - ie. atheists who favoured the sexual revolution (at that time: divorce on demand and extra martial sex).
@Bruce
As always, war is peace, freedom is slavery, etc.
I tried to join a "Students for Freethought" club my freshman year in college, not realizing it was a euphemism for atheism. It was very surreal being told I wasn't welcome in a "freethought" organization because of my beliefs.
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