Pursuing Individual Freedom for Collective Progress

(The following is a speech delivered to an educational institution on the occasion of Emancipation in the Caribbean - a celebration of the end of slavery. Presentations by departments featured Freedom Fighters from various continents)

We have chosen to focus on the freedom fighter – and that is admirable in its recognition of the contribution of individuals to the progression of humankind. It is also serendipitous that I am asked, having been associated with the Centre for Leadership, wherein we can appreciate the challenges in influencing the behaviour – and in many instances the will of people – to effect change.

We have heard from the various centres on the struggles of people throughout the world, and whilst it suggests that trouble; problems and challenges that we may wrestle with are common to persons on the other end of the earth, it also gives hope that in every instance there were persons with the fortitude, the drive to see things the way they should be and then go to whatever means to realise their visions – even if it costs them their lives – even, in fact, their knowing that they may never live to see the results.

But the challenges they faced are as diverse as their approaches to resolve. It is in recognition of this fact that I focus on the changes in the forms of domination over the ages of man.

Firstly there was physical control – accentuated by firstly strategies to conquer and later on developments in weaponry. But the downtrodden outnumbered the privileged, and the control was not sustainable. Then the domination evolved into political control, and took root. But the migration throughout the globe to some version of a democratic model – 1 individual:1 vote - meant that again the vastly outnumbered privileged class could not sustain their power and control.

They found infinitely more success in their economic mechanisms, and the lower classes of society were suddenly caught in conflict between castigating the opportunists and aspiring to their luxuries. The opposition has been and still is growing – but has been unable to date to effectively curb the advances made through economic penetration.

The single visionary hope of the non-aligned movement has faltered, and bi and multilateral trade has been dominated by the forces in power. Ironically, the economic mechanism on the macro level was and is still being fuelled by the economics at the micro level – individual greed and the thirst that perpetuates corruption.

Today, the mechanism of domination has emerged seemingly based on people’s aspirations to comfort – and is wielded under the banner of culture and social conformity. Today, we are barraged through the media with foreign values that appeal to the 'Id' in us all.

And this barrage has broadened in scope as it has delved in depth.

It has accompanied the media interfaces of the technological applications that have meshed into the very fabric of our lives – making us slaves to its lure. It has become distilled to almost the subconscious, leading us on to arrive at those very conclusions that would perpetuate our submission.

And how can we resist? When values and norms are in question, and the real becomes the ideal, the only avenue open to us is the power of the idea. The idea of a new ideal – one that would elevate and sustain the lives of the common man. The idea of a balance between our individual rights and responsibilities to our fellow human beings. The idea of being the pivot in the ever-changing struggle for equity and equality. Essentially, the idea of justice.

This is how we endure. We can be robbed of our liberty and our justice. We can be butchered outright or in slow, spiralling cycles. But we can never be deprived of our thoughts. Ideas. The singular infection that can override the shackles of restriction and the imposed ceilings of compliance.

The real power is the power to think. The power to choose. And action will follow. Naturally.