short questions and answers of the essay Freedom by G.B. Shaw.

1. Who is a completely free person?

Ans: According to G.B.Shaw, a man who can do anything what he wants or like is a completely free person.

2. Is there any such person?

Ans. There can never be any such person because we cannot ignore slavery to Nature. We must spend at least two hours eating and drinking and two more hours in getting about from place to place. We are for half the day slaves to necessities which we cannot shirk. Hence there is no absolutely free person.

3. How does a man make others lose their freedom?

And. If one can get the upper-hand of other men by force, fraud or trickery, or even by teaching them that it is their religious duty tosacrifice their freedom to you, one makes a slave of others and makes them lose their freedom.

4. What are the natural jobs that cannot be shirked?

Ans. The natural jobs that cannot be shirked are eating, drinking, sleeping, washing, dressing and undressing. These are all what may be termed man's slavery to Nature

5. "So beware!" What should one beware of?

Ans. If one allows any person or class of persons to get the upper hand of you, he will shift all that part of his slavery to Nature that can be shifted on to your shoulders and one will have to work for about fourteen hours a day. Shaw asks us to beware of this situation.

6. What should be the object of all honest governments?

Ans. The object of all honest government should be to prevent some people from being imposed on by some other clever people and make the former work for the latter.

7. What is the object of most actual governments?

Ans. Instead of preventing some people being imposed on by others, most actual governments do the exact opposite. They enforce your slavery and call it freedom.

8. What is chattel slavery?

Ans. Chattel means personal belongings that are not land or building. Formerly even women were regarded as chattels. Negro slaves were regarded as personal property of the owner. Negro slavery is chattel slavery.

9. What is wage slavery? Why did it make its appearance?

Ans. When chattel slavery of the Negro sort became uneconomical it was replaced by wage slavery. Men were engaged and salary paid to them for their work. 

10. What do the newspapers assure you regarding election?

Ans. The newspapers assure you that your vote has decided the election and that this makes you a free citizen in a democratic country.

11. What is the most amazing thing about this newspaper propaganda?

Ans. The most amazing thing about the newspaper propaganda is that the people are foolish enough to believe them.

12. What sort of slavery is pleasant to man?

Ans. Man's slavery to Nature is pleasant Nature forces meant  eat and drink, but she makes eating and drinking so pleasant that when we can afford it we eat and drink to excess. We must sleep or go mad. But nature has made sleep so pleasant that we have great  difficulty in getting up in the morning.

13. What is the nature of man's slavery to man?

Ans. This sort of slavery is hateful to the body and the spirit. This slavery of man to man produces a state of continual civil war called the class war have peace unless the slavery of man to man is abolished?

14. Which British saint believed that we shall never have peace and stable society without slavery being abolished altogether?

Ans. Sir Thomas More held that we shall never have peace and stable society without slavery being abolished altogether.

15. What does the master class desperately try to prevent us from realising?

Ans. The master class makes the most desperate effort, through its parliament, schools and newspapers, to prevent us from realising our slavery 

16. What is Magna Charta?

Ans. It is a charter that King John was forced in 1215 to sign by the powerful Dukes, Lords etc. of England. In the charter the king agreed to respect the rights of every Englishman. It is one of the foundations of the British constitution.

17. What is the Bill of Rights?

Ans. William and Mary became King and Queen of England in 1689. At the very beginning of their reign the British Parliament passed a Declaration of Rights which came to be known as the Bill of Rights. This Bill limited the powers of the monarchs in many ways. 

18. What was the Spanish Armada?

Ans. It was a vast fleet of Spanish ships numbering about 130 with which Spain attacked England in 1588. When the fleet reached the English Channel a gale force wind dispersed it and Spain was totally defeated.

19. When was the Battle of Waterloo fought?

Ans. The battle of Waterloo was fought in Belgium in 1815 between the army of Napoleon and the combined army of England and Prussia. This was the final defeat of Napoleon after which he was exiled to Saint Helena. It is said that the discipline and training that they received in the playing fields of Eton helped the English officers to defeat Napoleon

20. What do you know of Trafalgar?

Ans. Trafalgar is a Spanish cape North-West of Gibraltar. In 1805 The British Navy under Nelson defeated the combined naval fleet of France and Spain. 

21. What are the Wages Boards?

Ans. Wages Boards are organizations set up by the British Government to determine the wages of factory workers and settle disputes regarding wages.

22. What are the Factory Acts?

Ans. The Factory Acts lay down rules and regulations regarding who protest against the imposture of the ruling class? factory work the length of working hours, pay and working conditions, and all other aspects of factory work. 

23. What are the people taught about the famous writer?

Ans. The people are taught that persons like Voltaire and who protest against the imposture of the ruling class are atheists and libertines, murderers and scoundrels. Often it is made a criminal offence to sell their books. 

24. What do the British ruling class do when people make a revolution?

Ans. When the people make a revolution, England immediately declares war against them and lends money to other powers to join her to crush the revolutionaries and restore the slave order. 

25. What happens when the revolution wins?

And. When the revolution wins, as for example in Russia in 1922 the fighting stops, but the abuse and calumnies continue till the revolutionised state grows into a first-rate military power. Then the British diplomats do an about turn and invite the leaders of the revolutionised state to dinner. 

26. How do the people of the master class delude themselves?

Ans. The people of the master class permit themselves to be deluded by all sorts of false propaganda. The man belonging to the upper class comes to believe that he is a very fine fellow superior to the common run of men whose duty it is to brush his clothes, carry his parcels and earn his income for him etc. 

27. What did Aristotle say about the maintenance of law and order?

Ans. Great men like Aristotle have held that law and order and government would be impossible unless the rulers are beautifully dressed and decorated, robed and uniformed, speaking with special accent, travelling in first class carriages etc. You must make men ignorant idolaters before they will become obedient workers and law abiding citizens

28. Do the common workers vote for the members of their own class?

Ans. Though ninety per cent of the ers are common workers, it is with the greatest difficulty that a few of them can be persuaded to vote for the members of their own class.

29. What happened when women were given the right to vote in England?

Ans. When women were given the right to vote, they did not vote for the women candidates of devoted and distinguished service. As a result they were all defeated. The women voters elected only one woman, a titled lady of great wealth.

30. How is your freedom restricted when you live in acivilized country?

Ans. When you live in a civilised country, your freedom is restricted by the police who oblige you to do this and not to do that, and to pay rates and taxes. If you do not obey these laws the courts will imprison you, and if you go too far, will kill you.

31. What happens if the laws are reasonable andimpartially administered? 

Ans. If the laws are reasonable and applied impartially, you have no reason to complain, for they increase your freedom by protecting you against assault, highway robbery and disorder. 

32. What is, as per Shaw, the far more intimate compulsion on you in society as it is now constituted?

Ans. In society as it is now constituted, the far more intimate compulsion on you is that of the landlord and that of your employer. The landlord may refuse to let you live on his land if you go to chapel instead of to church or if you vote for anyone but his nominee or if you open a shop or practise osteopathy. Your employer can turn you into the street at any moment and you may be obliged to join the band of the unemployed.

33. Why sane Trade Unionism would never support more than one big strike at a time?

Ans. If all the Trades Union struck work at the same time, it would extinguish the human race in a week and the workers would be the first to die for they do not have sufficient savings to see them through the period of strike. Hence sane Trade Unionism would sanction only one big strike at a time. All the other Trades Union would work overtime to support the striking workers.

34. Which character of Shakespeare said : Put money in they purse?

Ans. In Shakespeare's drama Othello, the villain Iago said this.

35. What is the old English name of Freedom?

Ans. Leisure is the old English name of freedom.

36. Why do the English people not know what is freedom?

Ans. The English people do not know what freedom is for they never had any.

37. What happens if a man suddenly comes into a fortune?

Ans. It is often found that if a man suddenly comes into a fortune, he loses his happiness and health and finally his life.

38. What is a conundrum?

Ans. A conundrum is a confusing problem or question that is very difficult to solve.