Domination….

I have come to believe that freedom is a hypothetical concept in the real world as we have structured our norms of interaction with the world to ensure that the being remains in a constant state of wishing to be free; and yet be surrounded by forces small to large, hence remaining in a state of constant want to try and forge ahead “to be free”. This in turn ensures that the human mind, body or spirit (metaphysically speaking) is never truly free. But I think if we were truly ever able to attain true freedom, there would be nothing better to achieve and strive towards with the progress of civilization coming to a standstill.

As an example, I have often pondered over the fact of the quantum of wealth that sets you free, financially that is. When I was in college with limited pocket money, I would often work part time in jobs that I do not quite fondly remember, to buy my way into a rather wasteful night life. At the time financial freedom meant going AWOL with indefinite timelines to mend ways. Towards the end of my engineering studies I began to feel that I was financially constrained. And to this date I can not figure out why! I however did take up a full time occupation with what I consider meager pay today. At the time, for the moment the pay allowed me to afford my own mobile phone and broadband internet and a bedroom (in a 3 bedroom apartment) to myself. Very soon I added part time employment to support further luxuries until the definition of financial freedom changed and I moved on to pursue an MBA and another job. The associated perspective of financial freedom was short lived and the rest is history. It appeared to me that I was adept at defining dominating constraints to overcome. Financial freedom now appears to me as an insurmountable obstacle dominated by ever expanding needs to fulfill an inherent need to work and strive towards something.

It is quite a cliché to talk about financial freedom but then as I reflect on other less shallow aspects of life, I see the the same principle going around. The British ruled over my country for hundreds of years through plunder and force and my forefathers fought with sweat and blood to overthrow their domination. As a nation we were granted independence from a long eon of domination. I tend to believe that we merely progressed from one form of domination to another, one that was dotted by political, legal and social boundaries. And, over 50 years later, we are still fighting to liberate ourselves from domination of one form or other. The most brilliant example of this is the concept of the elections. Every five years or so we fight the old in hope that the new shall dawn upon us an era of freedom from oppressive domination. And the terms of freedom range from fuel prices, employment and literacy rates all the way to our defense policies. All these are individual aspects of constraints that we have adopted and then strive to seek freedom from.

Whether it be tyrannous rulers or the unsatisfactory relationship with the college sweetheart, the battle is endless. I knew a friend who defined freedom from domination as being able to philander at will. We would ridicule him for his shallowness until one day when he started talking about how meaningless his life had become and how he wanted to rid himself of being dominated by his urge to maintain continued and frequent change of sexual partners. And imagine our surprise when he got serious with a woman and declared to the world for a very long time that he was happy in marriage. We would not believe and accused him for the longest time that he was philandering on the side. He opposed it vigorously and very soon we began to believe in the ‘power of love’ and that he had finally seen the light. And all it took was one drunken night when he declared in no uncertain terms that he wanted to be done with the ‘slavery of marriage’ where the relationship was always ahead of the individual freedom and the domination was killing him. He was divorced within the month and has now joined the United Nations to help in the service of under-developed economies. I wonder when it might actually seem like the developed world is dominating the development of the under-developed world and sacrifice this recent pursuit altogether. 

I have forever complained about being dominated by the society and held my head very high in an “I don’t care” attitude in whatever I did. And then I got married too. Was that to seek freedom from being single to to seek freedom from being bothered by a society that would not let me express my affection without being socially recognized for approved intimacy? It has kept me awake for many nights and in vain I try and seek the answers. I have however come to believe that the human nature is complicated to the extent that we cannot live without being dominated and therefore striving to gain freedom from the domination. Imagine a world where the discovery of fire would have been considered as the sign of absolute freedom from all domination. Would we be a satisfied race, maybe not! Would we have been happy? Now, that is a theory worthy of further consideration.