Master.
Slave. Is it harder to live life as a free man, a free woman than as
a slave? An ancient idea, but is there still some kernel of truth in
it? Truth perhaps that we daren't voice, daren't consider? We are
“free and equal by law.” Are we? And even if we are or feel we
are lawfully as compared, say, to slavery times or more snobbish
eras, is being free – and knowing ourselves to be free and at
liberty – not just a feeling, one which can be suppressed or
explored as the mood takes or as our own circumstances change or
demand? Does being a free man or woman, in the modern age, mean
having the ability to impose – to impress upon ourselves – the
conditions of our own freedom? I
am, in effect, Freedom's master and as its master I can usher in as
well as abandon old laws. Freedom chained; Freedom controlled.
A thought
which occurred when reading Deceit, Desire & the Novel
by René
Girard, written July 2022.
Picture credit: Chained Prisoner, 1806-1812, Francisco Goya, (source: WikiArt).
