TOO FREE TO BE FREE

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.
Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

We will talk freedom, walk freedom, proclaim freedom, strive and even kill for freedom should it come to that. But romanticizing with the idea of freedom is one thing, being indeed free is quite another ball game entirely.

Our western friends never cease to bemuse me. First they explored the world to make slaves of fellow men. To me there is no greater prove to depravity than this.

Accepting the facts of man’s equality was though a concept to concede. Years and great sacrifices after, the black man is considered human and equal at least.

With so much freedom and no one to exercise it upon, they’ve found new ways of expressing their freedom. Truth is; when freedom lacks boundaries, even slavery becomes a preferred option.

However, legislating on how citizens can dress of not dress is a direct product of idleness. I will never recommend jail terms for homos; it’s as silly and as thoughtless as legislating on adultery! Total crap! Rather I think the act is so low and condescending in itself to be enough punishment.

Around here, the freedom of choice is usually exercised in our ‘copy catting’. An American artiste dances nude one day, Nigerian artistes are dying to beat her to it by next day. Americans experiment with ‘gayism’ on day one, Nigerians are dying to make like it’s their cultural inheritance since the time of their ancestor by day two. It a choice to take back seat and copy catism.

Perhaps the worst part of this is that unlike human slavery, this type is very subtle. While we fought human slavery with the proclamation of Human Rights, with that very proclamation we enforce this new form of slavery – no one dare infringes on our freedoms: of choice, association and expression. In the end man becomes too free to be free.

Man is born free, but he is kept free by understanding the limits of his freedom. Man is born free, but he is kept free by respecting human institutions and moral instructions.

Man is free, and his freedom is his, so much so that he can decide to go back to chains – self inflicted, mental, moral and intellectual chains. The freedom of choice is his.

One thinks he is too free to mind the boundaries, but there is no greater salve than he. Too free to be free! There is no greater form of slavery where you are at once the slave and the slave master. Well, on the flip side, the beauty is also in the fact that when you are ready to be free, the choice lies yet with you.