What is a slave and what is a prisoner? (rough notes)

What is a slave and what is a prisoner? (rough notes)

I was born into slavery. And fought my way up to prisoner!

The slave obeys. The slave subjugates his will to that of an other or others. The slave is never under duress -- that is the prisoner. The prisoner makes no pretension of submission. From the outside the two may be indistinguishable -- but they are totally different -- opposites. The slave is a slave in mind, the prisoner is always really free.

There is no shame in being a prisoner. Anyone can be overpowered, outwitted, outnumbered.

These are absolute considerations: one-thousand years is not a mitigation: she is biding her time, in stealth... waiting to make a break for it. No outward symbol can ever demonstrate slavery because slavery is not an incongruity of will and situatedness(?). Shackles, bars, whips and chains... these are the common condition of slave and prisoner.

Motive: The slave seeks to preserve his life, the prisoner seeks to preserve her will.

Will is not a component, sub-machine, of life; it is not. Will preceeds life, and life depends on will. We will ourselves to die and we will our life. If you die in your dream, you die -- this folk wisdom has no experiential proof, yet it creeps in by necessary logic. The last free act of a a prisoner might be to will the eradication of her life. The slave never does this, he is a slave to life. No one can have everything she wants all the time -- if ever.

A prisoner's will is obstructed, but it is not subjected. (This is a fault that society values life, and not liberty; but a society must -- and an individual must never -- or he becomes a slave.)

The radical freedom of God's will is identical to his animals. No animal has a life; no imaginary cares; if an animal can perceive her escape -- born free -- she takes it!