In the midst of exam season, let’s discuss what probably made you pick up this paper — procrastination.I’m sure you’ll go back to studying after you finish this column.Between 80 and 95 percent of college students procrastinate regularly, according to a meta-analysis I’ll come back and cite before deadline.And — according to my own un-scientific study — 100 percent of the college-aged people I questioned on Facebook chat are procrastinating like there’s no exam tomorrow.Fortunately, I’ve stumbled across a way to overcome that devil.It’s real. It works. I’ll tell you about it later.First, let’s examine a metaphorical slave and slave-owner.Imagine the plantation owner has saved enough money to buy a slave. With blatant disregard for the abuse of humanity, the slave owner thinks of the other human as an animal to be commanded.The slave is trapped in an almost hopeless situation. Force will be used against him anytime he tries to live life by his own wants and needs. If he tries to defend himself, the backwards legal system will persecute and prosecute him back to a state of involuntary servitude.If he tries to escape, the force of the state will encircle him like hounds around a hare.The slave only has one hope. It is not enough to free him, and it is not enough to free others. But it is enough to make slavery happen less often, and thus save others from enslavement.The slave can make slavery as costly as possible.Instead of creating a quality product he can take pride in, the slave can create substandard work. Rather than leaping to help whenever possible, he can put off his unchosen obligations until the last minute.In other words, the slave can procrastinate.Instead of simply sitting back and watching his investment work, the slave owner will have to constantly check on the slave to ensure he isn’t shirking. Like a farmer struggling with a stubborn mule, the slave will have subtly worked to destroy the master’s piece of mind.Through his passivity, the slave will enslave his master to a frustrating obligation and recreate his own suffering in his tormentor’s soul.This is the natural reaction to being enslaved, and if any of us were stuck in an environment as morally depraved as the Antebellum South, we would react the same way.This week, perhaps we procrastinate because we have a similar relationship with our history, our goals and ourselves.We procrastinate with our work, education and other obligations, but no one hems and haws about playing more flash games. No one makes empty promises about checking StumbleUpon after they finish their homework.When our motivation is internal, hard work is as natural as breathing.When our motivation is         external — whether from the brutal oppression of the whip or the persistant nagging of an internalized voice — work is a chore.The solution is to reflect on freedom. Not as a political ideal or a deferred dream, but as a metaphysical reality.Truly, there is nothing in the universe you have to do. You don’t have to go to work. You don’t have to take your exams. You don’t even have to pay your taxes.You are free to escape from making any unpleasant choice or taking any unpleasant action.Sadly, we are not free of the consequences — namely an empty stomach, an empty spot on the wall and a place in our over-occupied prison system.Given the alternatives, it is not at all inaccurate to say we want to do these things.There’s nothing you have to do. There are only the consequences you choose.The next time you find yourself not working like you want,   remind yourself that you don’t have to perform the unpleasant task, and ask if you really want the fruits of the labor.In your personal life, you’re not enslaved to anyone — there’s no reason to live like it.Daniel Morgan is a 21-year-old economics junior from Baton Rouge.—-Contact Daniel Morgan at [email protected]