Excerpt from The Culture of Make Believe

Leash That Doesn't Exist (p. 370)

From chapter "Production"

Our culture has made us all slaves to an idea, an idea that takes precedence over everything, over our own lives and the lives of others. And slavery to an idea is far more dangerous than slavery to a human, because we do not even know that we are slaves. We pass through our days with the freedom of a dog who never reaches the end of its leash, certain that what we see is all of reality, all there ever was, all there ever will be, all that is possible. Having enslaved ourselves to this idea, we then enslave others, passing on the knowledge of how to be a slave from father to son, father to daughter, mother to son, mother to daughter, sibling to sibling, teacher to student, owner to laborer, boss to employee, slave to slave.

It’s not easy to remove this leash we’re not wearing, to break this leash that doesn’t exist. How could I be a slave when I live in the land of the free? I choose my jobs, I choose where I live, I choose how I spend my time. I am not enslaved to industrial mass production. I am not enslaved to the perception of others as objects to be exploited. I am not enslaved to anything. I am a free man, and nothing you can say will convince me otherwise.