A slave may well decide that his master’s fight with another slave owner is none of his business. Good luck with that. Or better yet, perish the thought. “Why should I fight for someone who has mistreated me, or against another who has done me no harm?” you asked.
“Before you race to the perilous conclusion that your freedom is assured if your master’s death or misfortune is secured, consider the matter well. In which heaven does your salvation comes through another’s hell?”
Would you build your mansion of freedom from another’s pain or bandage?
“I suppose you are correcting a wrong perpetuated much too long. You do not ask me to agree, just to understand the loss you have suffered. Perhaps yesterday I would agree with you. But not today.”
We have suffered so much as slaves we have become comfortable and accustomed to thinking like slaves. We are men.
“But we are slaves,” you say.
“And that we are, though we cannot remain so. But if we are comfortable to be about our master’s demise so as to be un-owned in a world of masters, our tepid grasp of freedom should eternally provoke a shocking gasp. I cannot countenance freedom by default.”
Can you or I demonstrate mastery of freedom by learning to be a slave? Or be so practiced by the abuse of victimhood that we contemplate aid and comfort to anyone who quarrels with him?
In the exercise “freedom of choice”, the capricious malice you wield towards another is neither liberty nor justice. It is your desire, your pent-up rage, asking leave of others not to be outraged by what and who you have become.
Your master’s welfare, indeed your enemy’s welfare is most assuredly your responsibility. See to it that your responsibility is your response. Freedom is an enigma.
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Peter Peterkin, Readers Bureau, Contributor
Edited by Jesus Chan
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