The major world powers use the rhetoric of freedom actually to oppress, enslave, and re-colonize the rest of the world. This can be demonstrated most dramatically, as a painful case in point, by the decades of oppression, humiliation, starvation, and genocide that the people of Iraq have been subjected to since 1979, in the name of freedom and democracy. Freedom was used as a label, a convenient lie, in fact, because it was never more than empty rhetoric.
Similarly, the discourse of postcolonialism and hybridity is another example of a discourse of liberty that actually serves to betray it. Fundamentally, postcolonialism implies that colonialism is over and hence it postulates a situation of freedom where none, in fact, exists. It calls for a third space (outside the colonized/colonizer binary), or a hybrid state where freedom is obtained, thus creating an illusion of freedom that seeks to pass over the real contradiction that is still determining our lives—that between the people and colonialism and imperialism. The task at hand is to move beyond so-called postcolonial literature and write new anti-colonial, anti-imperialist literature. It is unfortunate that there is still great confusion on this point even among intellectuals regarded as at the forefront of the fight for genuine freedom internationally. This paper will attempt to link the current situation to the use and abuse of the rhetoric of freedom, referring to the works of such theoreticians as Chomsky, Edward Said, Aijaz Ahmad, Tariq Ali, Arundhati Roy, and others.