What Are You a Slave To?

"Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave." -- Frederick Douglass

What are you slave to? Are you a slave to an ideology or a belief system? To technology? Do you end up with questions that you need to spend too much time thinking about and trying to find a base of scientific support for them? Are you a slave to a government program or entitlement? A slave to voting? Are you a slave to the opinions of others? Are you a slave to...

And the list goes on and on.

If you remain a slave to "things" you may never utilize the opportunities knowledge affords where we can gain practical skills, expertise at a task or of a subject, or better understand a concept. This is how the concept of knowledge and slavery are diametrically opposed to one another. Knowledge involves the very complex tasks of perception, reasoning and communicating information, facts or skills, either by educating others or being open to the ideas expressed by others. Importantly, the absorption of knowledge is a choice.

Slavery or being a slave to "things", on the other hand, is force. It is a no-choice. It is problematic with any concepts of freedom for individuals, and the acknowledgment of human beings being autonomous.

So whether it might be coffee, adrenaline-inducing feats, work, or killing it in the money-making department, it could be worth looking at what is the force that is driving you forward or is it a force that is enslaving you. 

And does the knowledge you are discovering along your path feel liberating, or is it dragging you down? 

Work to make yourself unfit to be a slave.