“And an orator said, ‘Speak to us of Freedom.’ And he answered: ‘At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom, even as the slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them. Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel, I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff–

–and my heart bled with me.” 

Kahlil Gibran, ‘The Prophet,” 1923.

Gibran here isn’t saying that freedom itself is negative, but as an icon, it is. That icon would be used against those who would raise it up and worship it, as well as it is a very real “fantasy" to nearly all. Only by exceptional self-mastery and a disregard for the icon could you be free.

"You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief…In truth, that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.”

And does not the idea of freedom and justice caress one's heart? When the national anthem is played or some presidential candidate stands up on stage and says he will defend, “Freedom…" I say unto you that the American conservative word of ‘freedom’ holds the same intonation for their soul that ‘social justice’ did for liberals for quite some years. If I wrote that “Freedom lost its meaning,” that would be coming from a place of nostalgia, from a childhood remembered through the veneer of time (and i.e.: true ‘justice’ doesn't need the additive of ‘social,’ which is just an amplifier word to what is already a trigger word). Rather, freedom is a state of being that some politician wound into a harness for people to place on themselves.

“If it is an unjust law that you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.” Gibran wrote – and is that not a mirror to the people, and government now? Both that conservatives seem happy to lay down ever more laws and that they also deify the “concept" of freedom rather than the reality of it. They are glad to take away the freedoms of people to marry those of the same gender, when it costs them nothing to let it remain a possibility for others.

And as a young conservative boy, I found it awkward and even sad that liberals would deify Obama as they did. I was not alone in conservative circles, thinking that it was so strange to raise any person that high. But is it too late for Conservatives to disconnect themselves from him, who would threaten to go after reporters, as he did with Jonathan Karl?

Gibran adds, “And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne within you is destroyed.”

On multiple occasions, I have heard conservatives or Trump defenders say that the President “sticks by his guns. He follows through on his words.” Is that like he is doing with Ukraine? Saying he is going to end the war in days, then proclaiming Ukraine (which was invaded) was somehow the villain (by a nation that swore not to do so if Ukraine gave up all of its nukes to them), only now to flip again and make a deal with Ukraine to give them weapons? Or how about tariffs? Some companies (like Apple) give Trump a gold and glass idol, and “unrelated," they get an exemption from tariffs.

Idolatry is one of the gravest Christian sins… and yet those internal thrones will remain as long as people make excuses for their leaders.

"For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride?”

Slogans and trigger words are there not for any other reason than to tie a whole complex emotion down to its smallest, “core" form, which is easy to digest and remember. Soon, those slogans are your – or their – retorts to arguments, rather than whole arguments themselves. German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sent to prison by the Nazi’s for his dissent to their rule. In prison, he commented and lamented on how even the most intelligent people who had devoted their lives to research and study became “stupid." That ‘stupidity’ was a social disease which people unwittingly accepted. Part of that had to do with slogans.

To see flags with the names of politicians, or even shirts outside of election week, is shameful, and the opposite of those who are free. To argue with slogans or to use the “strong" words that your party revolves around – liberal or conservative – is a place of ultimate intellectual poverty and enslavement.

“And my heart bled with me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.”

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

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