For most people, the impression presented is that territorial and movement freedom alone is enough. For them, the mere change of people in power and administration is enough to be convinced they are truly free.
From one angle, such conviction is fairly justified. This is because, for someone who has never known freedom of movement or speech for decades, even a little freedom of movement or speech would mean so much.
The problem is when this is taken with no safeguard against ignorance and complacency.
Someone who has only had provision of one loaf of bread may celebrate when such ration is increased to two loaves because they have no idea that they rightly deserve 10 loaves.
The struggle is not over, but it mostly seems to be over because, for most, the only conception of a struggle we have is a militaristic one.
From this struggle kind of premise, we become oblivious to the fact that, as life goes on, humans learn to adapt.
This adaption is not only for survival but also strategic in every sphere of life.
Therefore, this requires mental and ideological adaptation if we are to eventually attain ultimate freedom.
There is no doubt for those with the mental fortitude of discernment to realise the absence of militaristic war does not mean there is no war.
This is just as it is easy to notice that the declaration of the end of slavery was not the end but rather an extension of it to be inclusive.
The war of divide and conquer still goes on. However, it has found many sophisticated and subliminal tactics.
The mind has become the battlefield and the soul is the prize.
In recent days, the battle has become eminent, yet obvious.
It has moved from militaristic methods to an infowar. To capture and conquer the mind of a people, one must have a monopoly on information.
One must also then find a way to influence the institutions that are entrusted with such information and, in the same vein, as custodians of truth.
It is for this reason that we must not be naïve, nor take anything like freedom for granted and take the world as an amusement park.
These are the times when we are called to be vigilant and safeguard the principles and aspirations of our forebearers’ heroine acts. Our goal, first and foremost, must be to learn and establish who our true enemy is; not the perceived one or the one we are told.
With that established, for our true emancipation, we must then know how he operates. Even if that means we may realise that, after all, we may be our own worst enemies or accomplices.
The struggle is not over until our minds are free.
It is not free until we guard against the subliminal enslavement of ourselves.
It is through its exposure to information that our perceptions, beliefs and ideologies are created, as well as our experience and reality thereof.
* E-mail: karlsimbumusic@gmail.com
Uncommon Sense is published every Friday in the New Era newspaper with contributions from Karlos Naimwhaka.