This illustration can be interpreted in many ways as we are prisoners of our own limited attitudes as much as circumstances imposed on us.  There is a 'chicken and egg' debate as to which is cause and which effect, the truth is, as usual, neither on one side nor the other but embraces both.  Attitudes determine circumstances and vice-versa, in a vicious circle.   Wage slaves has been a familiar term which is cast in stark shades by the ultimate sanction of couples in the affluent west who find themselves unable to afford to have children by the demands of their mortgages, the measure of their lives before they die.  Even in ancient slavery, this sanction would generally have been considered a great misfortune.

More important is the realisation this all serves a greater purpose, however wrong and inhuman it may have been.  As the modern prophet has said,

"All that suffering is not to be compared with the glory that is to be."  

                                                                              In the Summertime, Bob Dylan.


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