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 its 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 bind the life of a man to a wife whom 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, 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 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 and rules of another nation, and the bending is greater 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.
slavery will remain slavery in all her horrible form, even if she calls herself liberty.
khalil gibran
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