View of Karl Marx and Thomas More about slavery in the essay "Freedom".

In the essay, "Freedom" which is actually a radio Talk on freedom; delivered by G. B. Shaw on 18th June, 1935, going to discuss how far freedom can really be enjoyed and to elaborate the concept that there is no "perfectly free person", Shaw tells us about two types of slavery -- "The natural slavery of man to nature" from which "we take the greatest pleasure" and "the unnatural slavery of man to man" which is "hateful to the body and the spirit".




          In this conception, Shaw refers to the two great personalities, Karl Marx and Thomas More. According to Shaw, "natural jobs cannot be shirked"  and men do this for their own pleasure but "The slavery of man to man is the very opposite of this." Karl Marx, "the latest of the great Jewish prophets", says that "there is no extremity of selfish cruelty at which the slavery of man to man will stop, if it be not stopped by law." In short only law can stop this unequal condition of slavery. And if this will not be stopped, then "it produces a state of continual civil war -- called the class war --- between the slaves and their masters......"

                And another great saint Thomas More opines that we will get a peaceful society , if this slavery will be demolished -- "We shall never have a peaceful and stable society until this struggle is ended by the compulsion of slavery altogether" and he also says that the slavery of man to man is perished when "The compulsion of everyone to do his share of the world's work with his own hands and brains and not to attempt to put it on anyone else."

             Here Shaw is a very critic of this society. He very intellectually uses the reference of Marx and More to establish his view point. The Shavian ideas and practicality are also expressed in these references.