880 - Thought enslaved

N. Lygeros
Translated from French by N. Thouvignon

Even if we easily forget the importance of the role of slavery in the evolution of human society and even if we are blind to the new forms it has taken in order not to be accused, its impact on humanity nevertheless remains most severe and dark.

Accepted as a matter of fact, an ineluctable fact, even, slavery had to justify itself to survive and subsist throughout the centuries, and thus has taken control of thought and has manipulated it freely. Although slavery is intrinsically incoherent with respect to mankind, it has succeeded throughout the ages in finding convincing arguments. Therefore, how can we be surprised by this collective blindness?

Could any fundamental reason other than sophist argumentation have generated this attitude of acceptance by the masses? Truly, have not men accepted real differences yet interpreted them their own way? Importantly, we must understand to what extent this alienation is natural. Sectarianism is an easy way out. By creating rigid boundaries, it conquers by dividing and is solely preoccupied by what seems essential to it, i.e. its own survival. Thus, its ends justify its means.

It is interesting to notice the democratic way of negating any form of slavery. By freeing slaves on the pretext of equality, mass democracy has built itself upon the manipulation of men. The freeing of the bodies has never corresponded to the freeing of the minds. How many men are truly free ? How many men are slaves of their condition ?

Nowadays everybody feels preoccupied by the enchaining of men, but only when it is visible. The chains have changed into bonds without anybody being able to fight against it, as if it were inevitable, as if slavery had to survive even if it had to mutate for that. But nothing is inevitable !