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LadyEllen -> RE: Slavery (10/2/2006 8:54:24 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lashra
Nope not a trick at all, just wanting to get an idea of what people really think of the subject.
The reason I ask is because the other day I heard a man say that he felt all black people should be enslaved because they couldn't think for themselves, they needed a white man to do it for them. Then a few days later I heard another man say all women should be enslaved for the same reason. Now I seriously do not agree with that, but I was just curious if asked how a person here would respond.
I personally don't believe in slavery unless its totally consensual between the parties.
~Lashra
Absolutely. There is no group, however one might define people into groups, which should be enslaved in the true sense of that word, just because of one characteristic shared by that group, whether that is race, religion, gender, sexuality or whatever.
Any group one might care to define by naturally shared characteristics, consists of such a mix of people of all qualities, abilities and intents, that such grouping is totally inapplicable as a means of prescribing anything about that group other than that its members share one common characteristic. Being white does not mean anything other than that one is white, being male does not mean anything other than that one is male. To prescribe superiority over all others in any way, based on one natural characteristic such as race or sex, is ridiculous.
However, true slavery has never been about who is more intelligent, who is bigger/stronger or the like. True slavery has ever been and still is in various parts of the world, about who is rich and who is poor. The poor have ever been the mainstay commodity of slavery, just as the rich have been the owners.
If we reinstated slavery on the sort of grounds I suggested in the post above, ie that we enslave all those who lack any direction and/or success in leading their lives, then it could well be that the owners in some cases would be black women, controlling white male slaves. I'm sure Oprah could afford quite a few, for one. This is the nature of slavery - it has no respect for racial or sexual supposed superiority - it is all to do with money, who has it and who doesnt.
The real reason true slavery died out in our economies was because it became uneconomic to continue it. Instead it was replaced with a far more viable means of controlling labour to produce wealth in the modern market - wages which whilst enough to survive on, obliged the worker to turn up and work ever harder the next week, in order to continue to survive.
True slavery as it was practiced in the past, is an abomination. I do sometimes wonder though whether some people in our society might benefit from some greater supervision of their lives and being directed to something of use - albeit without the sort of evils which appertain to slavery proper. To see how some of them live, in a situation of hopeless squalor and poverty and subject to every evil of society, it makes me kind of think if only I could take control of them and get them out of that situation and give them some purpose and happiness? A sort of maternalistic slavery!?
E
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