It does not suffice to be free to do something. Rather, what is needed is one's ability to participate in determining the course of historical events. Liberty cannot be reduced to the sentiment that one has about it. For that matter, both the slave and the robot could equally well perceive themselves as free. The meaning of liberty is inseparable from the founding anthropology of man, an individual sharing a common history and common culture in a common community.
Decadence vaporizes peoples, frequently in the gentlest of manners.
This is the reason why individuals acting as individuals can only hope to flee tyranny, but cooperating actively as a nation they can often defeat tyranny.