You waste the attention of your eyes, the glittering labour of your hands, and knead the dough enough for dozens of loaves of which you'll taste not a morsel; you are free to slave for others-- you are free to make the rich richer. The moment you're born they plant around you mills that grind lies lies to last you a lifetime. You keep thinking in your great freedom a finger on your temple free to have a free conscience. Your head bent as if half-cut from the nape, your arms long, hanging, your saunter about in your great freedom: you're free with the freedom of being unemployed. You love your country as the nearest, most precious thing to you. But one day, for example, they may endorse it over to America, and you, too, with your great freedom-- you have the freedom to become an air-base. You may proclaim that one must live not as a tool, a number or a link but as a human being-- then at once they handcuff your wrists. You are free to be arrested, imprisoned and even hanged. There's neither an iron, wooden nor a tulle curtain in your life; there's no need to choose freedom: you are free. But this kind of freedom is a sad affair under the stars.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker critiques the illusion of freedom under systems that exploit labor and control thought, suggesting true freedom is missing.
- In plain terms
- Freedom is fake when you work for others and are controlled by lies.
- What can you take from it?
- Economic and social systems often mask true exploitation as freedom.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is freedom possible within capitalism?
- How do systems control thought?
Another view
This view may overlook genuine personal freedoms.
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