Tweet

Generally speaking, Mental Slavery refers to a state of mind where discerning between liberation & enslavement is twisted. Failure to engage in individual thinking & conscious upgrading causes one to depend solely on learnt behaviour (traditions, religion, media messages etc) to navigate through life.

For instance, the shackles and chains as in (physical slavery) were legislatively removed for centuries but there are no tangible means of removing the Mental Slavery that occurred. Influences such as Religion, The Media, Ideologies promoting Inferiority & Superiority as well as  age old Traditions, maintains a strong hold on the way some navigate life – so much so that they are incapable of even recognizing they’ve been brainwashed into thinking & behaving a certain way.

The physical barriers are are removed but religious teachings of obedience & salvation for instance, have the mentally enslaved behaving like they are still shackled.  Many, of African heritage remain   in denial of the long-lasting affects of the traumatically brutal institution and think they are acting on free will.

Harriet Tubman in the meme below spoke to this mental state:

“Emancipate yourself from Mental Slavery” – a portion of a speech given by  Pan-African Visionary Marcus Garvey in 1937  –  this was eloquently quoted by Bob Marley in his acclaimed “Redemption Song”! The quote shed light on the reality of mental slavery BUT the thought remains elusive as too many are still mentally incapacitated! 

Far too many remain mentally enslaved to states such as miseducation of self, fear, ignorance, low self-esteem, self-doubt and pessimism.

The challenge

Most people are more interested in entertainment than they are in real education! To unchain the mind, we need to engage in gaining new knowledge, insights, ideas and paradigms. Although learning through entertainment is important, it is also very limited. There’s too much information with limited substantive content. There’s also the issue of (movies, music, music videos, comedies and even sports) reinforcing negative stereotypes which keeps us chained to such behaviours because we are tricked into thinking that’s all we are or can be.

Imagine if we knew and understand the important role we played in history, no one could tell us all we deserves to be are thots  & gangsters! Problem is we don’t know so we stick to what we are told. History is recorded – Read!

Until learning becomes entertainment we will be stuck here for a while. If we are not engaged in conscious upgrading we will remain imprisoned by old ideas, beliefs and perspectives that are of no relevance or little relevance  NOW.

“Every breakthrough started with a breakthrough in thinking. The path to emancipation is through the systematic development of your mind. A good first step is to divert some of the time and money used in entertainment into self-education. Commit to read one book about career or business success every month” – Glenford Smith, Career Writer

Marcus Garvey’s original words which inspired Bob Marley Redemption Song:

“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind….” Marcus Garvey, Nova Scotia, October 1937.

The moral is – the power to create positive and necessary  change lies within the innerself/the mind! However, if that mind is chimed by old ideologies that doesn’t serve growth, mental slsvery persist.

Fear of changing and Ego stands in the way of accepting change is necessary! We can get so locked into the fear frequency that you rarely consciously realize how much of a hold that it has on you. It’s too terrifying to even consider, let alone confront. If we can shake the fear are on our way!

The path of unslaving the mind is truth that you intuitively know and viscerally sense when you hear it, see it, feel it and experience it for yourself; an observation in accordance with reality. This is hard to discern if their are psychological constraints such indoctrination of any kind!

To paraphrase Emerson in Self-Reliance, ‘The deepest, most valuable truth cannot be expressed by a coward. So go upright and vital, and speak your truth in all ways. Speak out and speak with boldness!

Truth takes effort; we can’t be too lazy to seek! If we remain too lazy to become enlightened, we continue to live by expired ideologies! We must replenish our thought systems; otherwise we remain slaves mentally!

VM