Neurosis deepens as we retract into ourselves. Selfishness compounds parochialism, inspires boredom, and entrenches guilt. The majority of us are born innocent, raised to believe guilt is both ubiquitous and innate, and approach death filled with fear and self-loathing. Neurotic, guilt ridden individuals - eager to obey, yearning to be accepted - are easier to govern and, possibly, to manipulate. Inquiring minds, set to challenge and contend, are naturally more difficult to deal with. However, as Kant implies, an enlightened person is occupied with problems beyond the individual by requisite. Enlightenment permits a perspective outside of the self. Slavish guilt constrains the individual within the confines of a psychic enclosure.
Kant lucidly expressed an ambiguity between political stability and enlightenment. Even the enlightened despot - and luminous figure in Kant's "What is Enlightenment?" - Frederick the Great lamented, on his deathbed, that he was "tired of ruling slaves". The vibrancy of a society, driven by the discourse among its citizens, cannot be seen as being mutually exclusive from its viability. Slaves, as it were, are only as efficacious as their leader allows them to be. Thoughtful and "enlightened" citizens, however, remain unconstrained - to a certain extent.
But what constitutes a slave? This, of course, poses an important yet oft-avoided question in political thought, "Can a free man be a slave?" In a kingdom of unsaid depravity, a free man cannot recognize his chains.
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