This is a question greatly open to errors of presumption. With the priceless gift of political freedom as found in my beloved country, the presumption can be that one is free on all accounts. This can be a serious error for there are literally countless ways to be enslaved spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually. Intellectually our perception can be encroached on all sides by false assumptions. Emotionally we can be enthralled by sentimentality and sensationalism, or laid waste by fatigue. Spiritually we can be hopelessly lost in desert country. Yet, when God sets us free, we are free indeed. For then we do not serve man, but God. Thus the principle danger presented to the human species of enslavement to what other people think is greatly ameliorated. The most important manifestation of this freedom is not in huge earth-shattering issues, but in many small perceptions and decisions in everyday life--in myriad existential moments. Regard for the opinion of mankind can amount to indentured servitude when we become its toady and robot-like forsake beneficent truth and compassion. Then enslavement is less in the form of iron shackles than in clammy self-induced spiritual, emotional, and intellectual death.
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