Free at last, free at last, the slave’s resounding words of relief, of manumission, of hope and freedom, made perfect in substance. And so we stand as former slaves, on the hills of freedom gained and gaze into the land of opportunity with anticipation as free men. And so our sons and daughters will reap from the seeds of our struggles, sown with our chants for freedom, from our pains and our blood, from the dark plague of slavery, from the harsh torment of reality and from the unending struggles of a slave’s life.
Life! The perfect description of everything beautiful, imperfect and out of control but we love it just the same and cling to it no matter what, until our final breath. It is our God given right to be free, to exist absent from the torment of the oppressor, to flourish in the full splendour of life, free and wild. But reality paints an ironic picture of modern life, as we have come to painfully realize, that freedom does not indeed come free!
Every man must rise to claim and take his freedom by his will, by force if necessary and establish his footing on the ideal that all men are born free, unconditionally, not defined by colour, or race, or tribe. We are free men and in principle, no one can take that away from us. But what is this freedom we have bled and died to pursue? What defines the act of being free? What defines a man free from the chains of struggles, from the enslavement of life and its uncertainties?
The visible chains may be gone but men are trapped in the wrought-iron mind-set of the long-oppressed slave. Run or be whipped to run, the results may seem similar to the blinkered, closed and oppressive mind. Submit or be whipped to submit? Work or be whipped to work? These are the cruel and limited options of the oppressor, the greedy user of lives, with a gimlet eye on profit and no thought to his fellow man. Live a full and happy life of your creation, or be shackled to the avaricious dreams of another? Only you can decide that. We are Free – are we not?
What is Freedom? A life absent of the prejudices of men, or a world absent of physical enslavement? How do we define our lives as being free? What makes us free? Is it the absence of visible chains and shackles, or the appalling, haunting shroud and the hellish imagery of slavery? Or is it rather the predominance of liberty?
To be enslaved is to be bound beyond will, not denied choice but rather liberty. A man is free whether he is in chains or not, it is his liberty he must fight for. He must exercise the will to do, the will to be. That is what makes a man free. That is the true definition of freedom. If a man be free from the prejudices of life, what will he do with it? What will you do with your freedom? Too much liberty without restrictions eventually leads to chaos, every man free to do as he deems fit with scant regard for others, is in short lunacy.
The chains are gone but slavery remains, a slavery of the mind, programmed from centuries of oppression and single-minded greed. And the war against it is no longer on the battlefields but on the planes of reason. Pride, ego, ambition, greed, skewed social standing are all garments of the oppressor and men driving onwards with the notion of superiority, with the striking resemblance and terrifying mien of the oppressor.
Nothing is given freely, it must be taken by force if necessary but the voice of reason should always be the first salvo. Our forefathers built on this and every man rose to the call, to defend his honour, to ward off any perceived oppression or any definitions that would limit his liberties. Freedom is not given freely; it must be taken like a prized possession.
The essence of war is peace. What is the essence of freedom? To be free to do as you please? Cherish your freedom as your life and strive to make meaning of it. In freedom we rise to the call of liberation, to stand and march together, to defend our freedom and to devour the oppressor, denying him his own freedom. To be the victor, to achieve true freedom, you must fight for it.
Well that’s how wars start, every man defending his God-given right to be free. Every man waging war against the oppression of self, of people, of society, of culture, of nations and to the pursuit of freedom. If peace is not the absence of war but the predominance of tolerance, so therefore freedom is not the absence of enslavement but rather the predominance of perceived liberties.
A man who has perceived his own liberty believes he is free. He does not bother to ask what this freedom is. Or what defines his freedom. He just accepts it to be true and that he is free. So he lives his life like a free man until the moment he crashes headlong into the brick wall of reality and he is stunned, stunned with the dazzling, awesome revelation, that he is indeed not free.
So are you really free? If you are, cherish it and make a true meaning of it, for if you do not, what next?
We declare our rights on this earth, to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being, in this society, on this earth, in this day which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.
Malcom X
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