Who Then is Free?

Curiously, however, the one question which was never raised in my youth was what “freedom” meant. Or as Horace asks in his second Satire, “Who then is free?”

It seems like an easy question in the dialogue. The slave, Davus, asks that question of his master, Horace. Softball question, right? Obviously Horace, the master, is free and Davus, the slave is not. But, in five quick pages, that answer is shredded.

Who then is free? The wise man, who is lord over himself, whom neither poverty nor death nor bonds affright, who bravely defies his passions, and scorns ambition, who in himself is a whole, smoothed and rounded, so that nothing from outside can rest on the polished surface, and against whom Fortune in her onset is ever maimed.

If you were like that, you truly would be free. Davus then asks Horace (and implicitly you, Dear Reader): “Of those traits can you recognize any one as your own?”

That is a devastating question. As Davus proceeds to show, his master is very much the slave of his passions, constantly afraid of losing his comfort or his mistress or his fine food. Davus notes, “You cannot yourself bear to be in your own company, you cannot employ your leisure aright, you shun yourself, a runaway and a vagabond, seeking now with wine, and now with sleep, to baffle Care.”

Things haven’t changed at all, have they? Here is Josef Pieper, a couple of thousand years after Davus: “Leisure is only possible when a man is at one with himself, when he acquiesces in his own being, where the essence of acedia is the refusal to acquiesce in one’s own being.” We are so busy, so filled with the worries of the world, we suffer from acedia, sloth, because we are not in control of our own lives. Pieper again:

No, the contrary of acedia is not the spirit of work in the sense of the work of every day, of earning one’s living; it is man’s happy and cheerful affirmation of his own being, his acquiescence in the world and in God—which is to say love. Love that certainly brings a particular freshness and readiness to work along with it, but that no one with the least experience could conceivably confuse with the tense activity of the fanatical “worker.”

This portrait of the person who is free is jarring to the modern ear. We think of the freedom which could be bought by wealth, the ability to buy whatever you want, but do possessions bring security? Do people with extensive security systems around their houses sleep free of the fear that caused them to install the security system in the first place? The correlation with the defense mechanisms we all put up against the world is obvious: how free are you when you live a life constantly worried that people will find out what you are really like?

Who then is free? A pair of literary examples is illustrative. Take Game of Thrones. (Did you see that coming? If so, you are officially a GoT nerd.) Davos Seaworth is nothing other than the stand-in for Horace’s Davus. He is a man who is completely at home with himself, despite being totally subservient to the ruler of the moment. Who is more free: Davos or Stannis? Not even a contest. [Curiously, my quick Google search did not reveal any places mentioning what is surely the source of Davos’ name. Is it possible that the type of people who make Game of Thrones fan pages do not read much Horace??]

An even better example from literature: Jeeves. Indeed, it would be harder to imagine a more perfect representation of the free man. Jeeves is a servant, a gentleman’s gentleman, but this is quite easily the best summary of his character I have ever seen: “The wise man, who is lord over himself, whom neither poverty nor death nor bonds affright, who bravely defies his passions, and scorns ambition, who in himself is a whole, smoothed and rounded, so that nothing from outside can rest on the polished surface, and against whom Fortune in her onset is ever maimed.” Absolutely perfect.

Want a role model for living a free life? Want to get rid of your anxieties and the passions to which you are a slave. Well, read more Wodehouse! Study Jeeves.

In doing so, in thinking deeply about your life and the needless anxieties and passions which enslave you, you will of course be following the advice of another, who noted, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” If you want to be free, if you want to be like Davus or Davos or Jeeves, it is hard to think of a better place to start than this:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.