SLAVES OF FREEDOM

(This entry’s direct counterpart Freedom Of The Unfree will be posted later on.)
The title of this entry, Slaves of Freedom, refers to two closely related phenomena: when freedom is used as a banner by the strong to enslave the weak, and also, when the concept of freedom rots in the psyche of the winner, turning it into an offensive caricature and a source of sickly self-deception.
Let us start with the first case. It must be understood that freedom cannot be harnessed, like a yoke. It is one thing to free captives from their captivity and let them go, and quite another thing to become the new master for them, telling them what to do and how to use their newly acquired “freedom.” The American example of such misuse is staring us in the face, and it is only fitting to use it in this American section.
The best characterization of such imperialist mentality, epitomized by the inglorious Bush Doctrine, as well as the best capsulation of the first instance of misuse of the idea of freedom, is found in Nietzsche’s Jenseits 19:

“I am free, ‘he’ must obey.”

(The meaning of this entry’s title Slaves Of Freedom with this comes into a haut relief, so that even the blind can feel it, if they wish to touch it.)
Taking the American superiority for granted, the rationalization of such assumed superiority is conveniently formulated as the superiority of the free over the unfree, and, America being a perfectly free society, at least in popular demagoguery, it follows that the whole unfree world must now bow down to ‘freedom’ American style, which is the most recent expression of the old concept of Pax Americana.
One would be very naïve to presume that the concept of freedom stands on its own, in this line of reasoning. In fact, there is just one criterion for freedom here, which is toeing Washington’s line. Hence, it is uncannily perceptive of Nietzsche to capsulate the idea of freedom for the weak in the eyes of the strong, as above.

There is another take on the philosophical subtleties of the concept of freedom. Without attempting to offer an indiscriminate equivalent of yet another exceptional passage in Nietzsche’s Jenseits 260, I may however recommend that it be carefully analyzed. America’s origin was that of a free-spirited nation (providentially, this free spirit was kept alive and well in the pioneer spirit, and in constant struggle against the adversity of the elements and other circumstances; it was only through settling down in a petit-bourgeois manner that the glorious free spirit would start to ail!); and free spirit is hardly compatible with the level of coercion applied by Washington on the weaker nations, all in the name of freedom. Such close association of the concept of freedom with the coercion of others, self-centered ulterior motivation, and underlying selfishness, can only do damage to the national psyche, where the idea of liberty and freedom rests, corrupting the national soul in a terrible way, with the eventual necessity of purification becoming an increasingly harder task, demanding a degree of repentance and admission of shame that the great-power pride may never agree to bear. (But if it does, a level of self-cleansing would be so great that such a nation can readily be accepted by the rest of the world as a shining example of greatness, worthy of universal admiration and the desire of emulation.)

So, here is that promised Nietzschean passage now, containing an interesting twist, that makes me wonder:

“One last difference: the longing for freedom, the instinct for happiness, and the subtleties of the feeling of freedom belong just as necessarily to slave morality and morals, as artful and enthusiastic reverence and devotion are the regular symptoms of an aristocratic way of thinking and evaluating.”

I wonder, whether the current promotion of freedom, done by slave-masters trying to recruit slaves for their private use, is also a reflection of the underlying slave mentality not on the part of the American nation, of course, but on the part of the policy-making ideologues, whose cynical manipulation of the term “freedom” leaves no doubt about their real attitude toward this terribly complicated concept, and about the true nature of those, whose own “spirit” is more than suspect.