Angel Rosas

12/10/2021-12/12-2021
FIRST DRAFT - Essay on Self-Slavery
Word Count: 2,139

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.” These are the words written in America in 1865, which forever impacted the
nation, and ultimately changed the world. Slavery was abolished, people are finally free now!
Aren’t we all able to do as we please within the law? We are all free, right? In order to fully
comprehend the answer to this question, we have to ask ourselves another question, what
exactly is freedom?
By its definition, one will never be truly free. We will never have the ability to do whatever
we want without constraint. Nature, morality, and society are primary examples of what stops
one from doing as one pleases. But have you ever considered, am I myself stopping myself
from doing anything? Is there anything in my life which I allow in that is taking away my
freedom, my ability to do what I aspire? Am I having trouble being the best I could be because
of my own actions? It is true that under the law we are all free, we are able to do what we want
as long as we don’t interfere with another’s life. To the eyes of the law we are free, but there is a
catch. In reality, we are all free as a means to choose our own way of self-destruction.
Today, the average person eats a credit card worth of plastic every week. Our foods and
drinks are contaminated with many types of chemicals, an example being bottled water having
BPA and fluoride, along with many other chemicals in a simple sip of what seems to be clean
and purified water. Many of these things can be explained due to things like efficient packaging,
cheaper materials, or even for a better taste, but without a doubt are the foods we eat and
drinks we drink significant and impactful to our bodies and minds. A large amount of the
chemicals and plastics that negatively affects someone can be found in fast food. That being
said, a third of Americans can be found eating fast food regularly, 83% of families eat at a
fast-food restaurant at least once a week, and a tenth of the expenses of an average American
household goes to fast food. We have many times been told that these foods are unhealthy, and
to some extent, we know it is true, yet many of us tend to find ourselves consuming sugar and
chemicals for a good taste, temporary pleasure. According to data collected by the NHANES in
2013-14, two in three adults were considered to either be overweight or have obesity, and one in
six children and teenagers 2-19 were considered obese.
 On another note, according to HealthGuide, a nonprofit organization to help understand
mental health, “Nearly 23 million Americans—almost one in 10—are addicted to alcohol or other
drugs.” When consuming a drug or alcohol, the human brain is exposed to a large number of
feel-good chemicals for a short amount of time. The reward system of the brain is flooded with
rapid and temporary dopamine, slowly conditioning the amygdala to this high amount of
temporary satisfaction. Soon, the brain expects more dopamine than what is usually granted
through regular activities, causing a lack of motivation for them and a strong craving for what the
brain associated with this temporary and now essential pleasure. Over 25% of people 18 or
older reported having drank alcohol in the past month, over 25% of that being heavy drinking.
According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “An estimated 95,000
people (approximately 68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes
annually… making alcohol the third-leading preventable cause of death in the United States.”
Similarly, pornography use has nearly identical brain activity patterns to that of drug
usage, it is just as, or even more addictive than drugs in the long term. What makes the problem
of pornography addiction stand out over others, with 420 million pornographic websites on the
internet and 25% of search engine requests, is that it is the most accessible rabbit hole of all,
with over 42% of internet users viewing internet porn regularly. The most shocking factor of all of
this is that this is being fed to children, to the future of our nation. The average age for the first
viewing of pornography is 11 years old, for it is everywhere. The simple act of doing your
homework leads to pornography exposure, with 90% of children 8-16 being exposed to it,
intentionally or unintentionally. Most children who search for pornography for the first time seek
it out of curiosity, a reason being that is being promoted everywhere in the media(commercials,
movies, shows, magazines, billboards, etc) and is normalized through the education system. A
simple typing of words out of curiosity can lead to a lifetime of struggling and harm for a person
and their family. This is the most accessible drug of all, it can be anywhere from your
workspace, to your room, to your pocket without making any effort to obtain it.
Over 25% of Americans spend 8 hours a day sitting, with 40% reporting not exercising at
all. According to CompariTech, over 7 hours of the average American’s day is spent looking at a
screen, with a majority of it spent on a computer screen, and a close 2nd of the mobile device.
Once again, these numbers are not only affecting adults but are affecting the future generations
of Americans as well to a higher degree. Nowadays, 72% of Americans use social media
regularly, with an average screen time of 2 hours and 25 minutes.
Now that we know all of this, we must ask ourselves, is this what freedom looks like?
When people advocate for and fight for “freedom”, you have to ask yourself what that really
means. When people advocate for and promote capitalism and the free market in the name of a
free and prosperous society, what are they really pushing? They are pushing a market that is
willing to exploit people for a profit, a system that feeds from getting everyday people, even
children, addicted and enslaved to instinctual desire. This is not freedom.
In the 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great listed up the 7 deadly sins in Roman Catholic
Theology: Pride, Envy, Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, and Wrath. These are the capital sins that
defined the moral code for the majority of the Western world for hundreds of years, and these
immoralities are exactly what is being pushed today by businesses and people in power. Are
you really free if you are trapped with sloth through sitting in front of a screen for over 7 hours a
day, or with greed and envy through social media? Are you really free if you are enslaved by lust
through the very welcoming and open trap of pornography? Are you really free if you’re filled
with gluttony and the urge to overeat? Are you really free if you are filled with wrath as a
symptom of these vices, and moreover when you don’t obtain what you want?
These capital sins, which are promoted and enforced through the system, lead to the
great sin, the deadliest of all: pride. Pride, being the raising of the self above morality and
authority through the blindness and fog of the mind, caused by everything mentioned above. But
ultimately, what is the biggest manifestation of all of this in society, what is the natural
conclusion to the enslavement of the self in our society? It can be summarized together in one
word: despair.
Despair: “the complete loss or absence of hope.” Depression rates hit an all-time high,
affecting the youth of America the hardest. Every twelve minutes, someone commits suicide in our
country, with white males accounting for over 69 percent of the total suicide deaths, being 31
percent of the US population. We are in the most prosperous time in history, one where you can have
whatever you want through Amazon with the click of a button and a couple of dollars. One where you
can go to the supermarket and get foods and products from all over the world, all down the street of
your home. One where we have the most information internationally and historically than we ever
had, where we have the most facts and data from the world to further improve it. Why is it that we
are living in the most prosperous time in world history, yet for some reason, the 21st century seems
to be a time of despair, a time where people are killing themselves in extreme numbers?
A study conducted by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that there is a link
between social media and self-isolation, “Not surprisingly, it turned out that the more time people
spent on these sites, the more socially isolated they perceived themselves to be. And perceived
social isolation is one of the worst things for us, mentally and physically.” It has also been found
that social media is directly linked to envy and jealousy, as well as it being linked to overall
higher depression and anxiety. Similarly, too much screen time, aside from many health risks to
your eyes and physical health, can negatively affect your self-esteem, your learning, emotional
judgment, cognitive ability, and social skills.
It is no secret that drugs negatively impact your life and that of those around you. An
explanation to why our society is the way it is today could be partially explained due to the slow
pushing of drugs into legalization and normalization, with so many harmful effects to your own
body and mind, and to the lives of the ones you love. What isn’t, and needs to be taken into
consideration is how the drug of pornography can affect you and your mental and overall health.
Pornography, like most other drugs to the eyes of the brain, will lower your motivation to do
everyday activities, it increases depression.
A study conducted by Kevin B. Skinner demonstrated a coorelation between pornoraphy
and higher rates of depression, in this survey of 450 people, of which most were men, “Nearly
30 percent report that they view pornography at least three to five times a week and over 25
percent indicate that they view pornography daily…The general population on this particular
measurement scores about a 6.5 on depression. When I looked at individuals who viewed
pornography at least three to five times a week they averaged almost 18.” To further prove the
evidence, people who viewed it daily scored at an even higher range of over 21.
In my personal experience, I have witnessed many cases regarding everything listed
above, people who struggle with an overuse of technology and social media, overeating of food,
especially junk food. People who struggle with alcohol addiction, drug addiction, and/or
pornography addiction. I have seen and witnessed many cases of people with these struggles,
and how could anyone not have? The 21st century, at least the first 21 years of it, will be looked
upon in history at the rise of technology, the acceleration of industrialization in the food industry,
the normalization of drugs of all types, but mainly, it will be recognized as a great depression, in
the literal sense. It will be looked upon as yet another dark era of dispair in world history, but the
question now is: how do we change things?
We must first recognize these problems. All of this must be talked about, be brought
attention to in order to make a real change in how the United States of America, and even the
whole world works. We must bring attention to these problems and take action ourselves. We
must fight temptations and be sure to regulate every one of these issues in our lives, we must
actively work to better ourselves before trying to better society. And finally, these issues must be
talked about, and put to action at large. If you care about yourself or your family, you must
recognize the simple fact that we live in a society, in a collective, a larger family. If you care
about this family in any way you must care for the wellbeing of its members, and take action to
regulate, either through the government or through the mainstream conversation, anything that
will harm them.
In 1865, the 13th amendment was abolished, and we were all officially freed from any
type of slavery or involuntary servitude. How is that looking today? Are we free, are we the best
we can be? We are not, and in order to change that fact we must act, now. It all starts with you
and me.

[This is a first draft, it could definitely be improved and changed up, I just wrote facts, ranted, and briefly revised it]