the thing about empire is it's so encompassing and people are so individualized they can't see it happening and they can't detach from it because it implicates everyone and forces an obedience from birth so people forget what came before it, and may not be capable of recognizing there is reality underneath the empire until it collapses, if they are lucky. but some of us were always in it and not of it. we knew all along we were born for liberation. we could see the empire from the inside out. not that we are free of it, but we can see it working, and in a way, yes, we're free by knowing in the system imposed we can't be free.