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Divided Spirits: The Illusion of Control

Which class ends up owning you? That has always been the state of middle and lower-class people. What can I say? There is always a class that ends up ruling over you. During the time of the Spaniards, there were conquistadors and viceroys who ruled over you; in the time of the British, there were colonial governors and masters who ruled over you; in the time of the French, there were also colonial administrators who ruled over you. Throughout history, we have witnessed a form of control where there is a ruling class and the ruled. The cycle is that we end up changing our positions. There have been revolutions and uprisings to overthrow the ruling class throughout the world, but there have also been long periods of subservience. People have been ruled over, and there are those who rule over them. That has always been the state of the world, and you cannot convince me that right now is any different. I cannot pass judgment on who is in the right and who is in the wrong, but I can say for certain that this is the way the world has been. Mind you, it is not due to any difference in the color of the skin, religion, or geography, but due to a difference in spirit. Man has always been divided into two: within and without. This is by no means a justification for the way the world is—that is far beyond my comprehension—but I can tell for sure, as a person who is here right now, living, breathing, taking in everything that is in front of me. I know that I am full of contradictions. I have thought of myself as being right and, at times, as wrong as it can be. This division is inherent in us, and those of us who can see the divide might just have the chance to overcome it. If you have a conflict within you, I only mean to say that you are the one who can judge which side you take. Without this division of thought, without this division of belief, would we even be ourselves? This division, being the illusion that it is, can free the spirit who sees through it.


"The Third of May 1808" by Francisco Goya

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