Slavery

Started by Anonymous, July 16, 2009, 10:23:09 PM

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Anonymous

July 16, 2009, 10:23:09 PM
Slavery
 
The people are the slaves of Life, and it is slavery which fills their days with misery and distress, and floods their nights with tears and anguish.
 
Seven thousand years have passed since the day of my first birth, and since that day I have been witnessing the slaves of Life, dragging their heavy shackles.
 
I have roamed the East and West of the earth and wandered in the Light and in the Shadow of Life. I have seen the processions of civilization moving from light into darkness, and each was dragged down to hell by humiliated souls bent under the yoke of slavery. The strong is fettered and subdued, and the faithful is on his knees worshipping before the idols. I have followed man from Babylon to Cairo, and from Ain Dour to Baghdad, and observed the marks of his chains upon the sand. I heard the sad echoes of the fickle ages repeated by the eternal prairies and valleys.
 
I visited the temples and altars and entered the palaces, and sat before the thrones. And I saw the apprentice slaving for the artisan, and the artisan slaving for the employer, and the employer slaving for the soldier, and the soldier slaving for the governor, and the governor slaving for the king, and the king slaving for the priest, and the priest slaving for the idol... And the idol is naught but earth fashioned by Satan and erected upon a knoll of skulls.
 
I entered the mansions of the rich and visited the huts of the poor. I found the infant nursing the milk of slavery from his mother's bosom, and the children learning submission with the alphabet.
 
The maidens wear garments of restriction and passivity, and the wives retire with tears upon beds of obedience and legal compliance.
 
I accompanied the ages from the banks of the Kange to the shores of Euphrates; from the mouth of the Nile to the plains of Assyria; from the arenas of Athens to the churches of Rome; from the slums of Constantinople to the palaces of Alexandria.... Yet I saw slavery moving over all, in a glorious and majestic procession of ignorance. I saw the people sacrificing the youths and maidens at the feet of the idol, calling her their God; pouring wine and perfume upon her feet, and calling her the Queen; burning incense before her image, and calling her the Prophet; kneeling and worshipping before her, and calling her the Law; fighting and dying for her, and calling her Patriotism; submitting to her will, and calling her the Shadow of God on earth; destroying and demolishing homes and institutions for her sake, and calling her Fraternity; struggling and stealing and working for her, and calling her Fortune and Happiness; killing for her, and calling her Equality.
 
She possesses various names, but one reality. She has many appearances, but is made of one element. In truth, she is an everlasting ailment bequeathed by each generation unto it successor.
 
I found the blind slavery, which ties the people's present with their parents' past, and urges them to yield to their traditions and customs, placing ancient spirits in the new bodies.
 
I found the mute slavery, which binds the life of a man to a wife he abhors, and places the woman's body in the bed of a hated husband, deadening both lives spiritually.
 
I found the deaf slavery, which stifles the soul and the heart, rendering man but an empty echo of a voice, and a pitiful shadow of a body.
 
I found the lame slavery, which places man's neck under the domination of the tyrant and submits strong bodies and weak minds to the sons of Greed for use as instruments to their power.
 
I found the ugly slavery, which descends with the infants' spirits from the spacious firmament into the home of Misery, where Need lives by Ignorance, and Humiliation resides beside Despair. And the children grow as miserables, and live as criminals, and die as despised and rejected non-existents.
 
I found the subtle slavery, which entitles things with other than their names – calling slyness an intelligence, and emptiness a knowledge, and weakness a tenderness, and cowardice a strong refusal.
 
I found the twisted slavery, which causes the tongues of the weak to move with fear, and speak outside of their feelings, and they feign to be meditating their plight, but they become as empty sacks, which even a child can fold or hang.
 
I found the bent slavery, which prevails upon one nation to comply with the laws of another nation, and the bending is greater with each day.
 
I found the perpetual slavery, which crowns the sons of monarchs as kings, and offers no regard to merit.
 
I found the black slavery, which brands with shame and disgrace forever the innocent sons of the criminals.
 
Contemplating slavery, it is found to possess the vicious powers of continuation and contagion.
 
When I grew tired of following the dissolute ages, and wearied of beholding the processions of stoned people, I walked lonely in the Valley of the Shadow of Life, where the past attempts to conceal itself in guilt, and the soul of the future folds and rests itself too long. There, at the edge of Blood and Tears River, which crawled like a poisonous viper and twisted like a criminal's dreams, I listened to the frightened whimper of the ghosts of slaves, and gazed at nothingness.
 
When midnight came and the spirits emerged from their hidden places, I saw a cadaverous, dying spectre fall to her knees, gazing at the moon. I approached her, asking, "What is your name?"
 
"My name is Liberty," replied this ghastly shadow of a corpse.
 
And I inquired, "Where are your children?"
 
And Liberty tearful and weak, gasped, "One died crucified, another died mad, and the third is not yet born."
 
She limped away and spoke further, but the mist in my eyes and cries of my heart prevented sight or hearing.
 
-Kahlil Gibran
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