120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 74

Chapter 4 Section 14 Slavery

[Lebanon] Gibran
Man is a slave to life.Slavery covers people's daytime with insults, and drowns people's long nights with blood and tears.

It has been 7000 years since man was born, and all I have seen are tamed slaves and prisoners in chains.

I have traveled all over the world.On the road of life, I have experienced light and darkness.I've seen everything from people who settled in cave dwellings to people who lived in modern buildings.But what I have seen so far is only the neck bent under the weight, the hands chained and the knees kneeling in front of the idol.

I have entered palaces, schools, temples, stood before thrones, pulpits, and altars, and everywhere I have seen: the worker is the slave of the merchant, the merchant is the slave of the soldier, the soldier is the slave of the ruler, and the ruler is the priest The priest is the slave of the idol, and the idol is the illusion of the devil, the phantom on Calvary.

... I see that servility always goes hand in hand with honor and dignity.People bow their heads before slavishness, saying that slavishness is the shadow of God that fell on the earth.

There are many names of servility, but only one essence.It takes many forms, but the content remains the same.Slavery—this is a sickness with many symptoms from ancient times; children inherit it from their fathers with life; years sow it in the soil of time, and reap it, like a season of the year reap the fruits of another season.

This is the grotesque form of slavishness I have encountered.

blindness.It connects the life of the present with the life of the ancestors in the past; it forces young bodies to imbue them with old spirits, and turns them into graves of ashes and decaying matter.

〖JP3〗Slavery.It rations a man to a loathsome woman; makes a woman a mattress for the man she hates; makes him like a shoe that is too narrow, and she like a sandal under those dirty feet. 〖JP〗

Deaf slavishness.It compels people to conform to the crowd, to paint their colors and wear their favorite clothes; it turns their voices into echoes and their bodies into shadows.

Lame slavishness.It compels the strong to bow before the liars; it forces their wills to obey the sexual inclinations of the ambitious; it turns them into machines at will.

White-haired slavishness.It pushes the hearts of children from the sun-drenched heights to the abyss of misery; here poverty and ignorance wander side by side, humiliation and despair are neighbors; children grow up in misery, live in sin, and die in obsession .

……

The slavishness of bowlegged legs.It uses threats to compel the weak to use their tongues, to utter duplicity and ulterior desires; these people are like rags tossed about by poor hands.

Hunchbacked slavishness.It uses one group of people to make laws to govern another group of people.

Ringworm slavishness.It bestows the crown on the sons of emperors.

Black slavishness.It curses innocent children.

Slavery for servility's sake.This is the power of inertia.

【Together with you】

People are willing to blame others for their leadership and rule, but they are actually willing to be slaves themselves.The servility in most people's bones makes them not only feel no pain when they are ruled by others, but instead exchange flattering smiles for the master's satisfaction.

Slavery is a cancer in the bones of human beings. If it is not cut off, it will make people's dignity fall to the ground and their personality will be completely lost.

Slavery can make people learn to flatter, distort their personality and lose themselves.The proliferation of slavishness is the disappearance of good humanity.

In his own articles, Mr. Lu Xun repeatedly "sorrows his misfortune and angers him not to fight" against the slavish people, and sharply criticizes and denounces them. This is worthy of our deep vigilance.What is vanity?That is, when others value you too much, you are not guilty, but complacent.

(End of this chapter)