Where the mind is without fear? Really?

A great man once said this about a great nation:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Perhaps my take on it is more relevant:

Where the mind is numbed by fear and the head hangs in shame
Where nothing is free
Where the world has been broken up into fragments
By silly, narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depths of deceit
Where tireless striving is only saved for instant self-gratification
Where the clear stream of reason has lost its way
And further damned by corrupt, self-serving leadership
Where the mind is misled into useless pursuits
Abject apathy and slothful inaction
From that hell of so-called freedom, my Father, let my country awake.