All men are born slaves. A baby relies on others to feed it and clothe it, its conception itself is reliant on others. In our physiology hormones/emotions tie us to other people and them to us. Right and wrong is determined by the opinions and tolerances of those around us and our rights, conceptions of self and opinions are constrained by them. As theirs are by us.

In a well known experiment, babies raised in isolation from touch and sound all died after refusing to eat or drink. They commited suicide not from a midlife crisis but from simple withdrawal of the strangest drug there is. Humanity? Reassurance? I’m unsure what single word can be used to fully encompass it. Bonding maybe.

The idea of a smiling Sissyphus, one who triumphs in the Singular becomes a fairytale. The meaning found in a fate diametrically opposite to the socially accepted norms and values of all of society- not the fate of a rebel among rebels- falls flat. Nihilists seek the comfort of other nihilists and existentialists, they have websites and subreddits and twitter space. People who claim to have supposedly wakened from the shepherd simply moo along to a herd of fellow wakened. We are our own jailers.

Human beings are slaves to our own humanity, like a thousand chained stampeders, you can either go with the crowd, reacting to sudden and diverse forces or you choke to death. And if humans are seekers of pattern, knowledge and predictability, then Death, the great unknown, is our pure Nemesis.

The desire to survive, at least of our bodies if not our minds, could push some to ask, “If I am a slave, and my choices and life are not my own, and can be ended by the whim of others, via for example social ostracization, how do I ensure my survival/independence.” It is of course hollow to imagine that we should, or even do desire freedom as a human in the singular. Freedom from Humanity would be death for the human, like an addict hooked on drugs, or simply someone deprived of oxygen. True survival for the human in the singular would be to become inhuman.