I watched 12 Years A Slave last night, and was most moved by a line at the beginning, I dont want to survive, I want to live. I thought of Malcolm X immediately, and his criticism of the house slave which was that when they were asked if they wanted to escape they answered the question with another, essentially, Where am I going live better than this?. The lifeblood of humanity hinges, I think, upon the idea that simply surviving is not good enough, that the point of life is not to merely be or stay alive, but to live ones life on their own terms, to see what there is to see and explore of it what there is to explore. Empires have been built and have crumbled because of this notion, and people have fought and died for it. Consequently, when the field slave, who lived in far harsher conditions than the house slave, was asked the same question, according to Malcolm X he replied, Hell yes! Because anyplace is better than here! I think more of us could benefit from the attitude of the field slave. If anyone is interested in reading Malcolm Xs speech, you may find it here: teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/message-to-grassroots/
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 02:28:31 +0000