Rendering Unto Caesar: Varieties of Slavery

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

In the introduction to my observations on the Vatileaks affair I mentioned a transition into the adult world of slavery. One person took this as the topic of the posting. This got me thinking about the issue of slavery and how best to discuss it. I thought back to a time when slavery was mentioned in high school. The teacher asked the students what slavery is. One student answered that it means working without pay. The teacher affirmed this definition of the word.

During the Antebellum period in the US, a northern industrialist criticized the institution of chattel slavery on economic grounds. He claimed that he could hire an Irishman at a fraction of what it costs to retain a chattel laborer. His opposition was not based on humanity, but on inhumanity. He favored "free" labor because it could use a person up and discard him more efficiently than could the institution of chattel slavery. Marxists refer to this more efficient form of employment as "wage slavery."

We sometimes think of freedom as the opposite of slavery. Given certain conditions, freedom can be more brutal and degrading than an explicit master/slave relationship. Life for Irish industrial workers in the US during the nineteenth century was marginally free and substantially inhuman. Work was difficult and physically dangerous. Play tended to squander meager wages on alcohol, gambling, and prostitution. Old age was not pretty, when achievable.

The same forces that degraded the quality of life for the immigrant worker of yore continue to exist. There are people who work their fingers to the bone in order to eke out a meager subsistence. There are people who suffer a premature demise due to physical and emotional degradation. There are other people who profit from this kind of dehumanization. There are the economic cheerleaders who point to the opulence and declare it to be a wonderful boon.

The slavery that we do not see with our own eyes, or even speculate about, is perhaps the most pernicious. When I learned about the British bankers' club, I caught a glimpse of plush prison slavery. I imagined how empty life must be for a woman who lives in the isolated prison of opulence. Her husband used her as a baby maker and now pushes her into the hands of pharmacological bondage. The man of the house flies off to meetings at exotic locales where he indulges in exploitative pastimes. The woman of the house is stuck at home or at the garden club slowly rotting her brain with drugs and idle chitchat.

There are other kinds of slavery that can bend flaccid hair. The movie Second Skin shows the dark side of Internet game addiction. A mother lost a young son to suicide with he was online. This drove her to try to rescue game addicts without a clue of what she was doing. The ikon of her own spiritual bondage was prominently on display in her home.

There are people who are so slavishly obsessed with the artificial institution of sin that they incarcerate the minds of children with the straitjacket of fear. This video reveals the textbooks of this enslavement effort:

Examples from A Beka Book and Bob Jones University Press Curricula from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

Notice how the textbooks portray creationism as science and biological evolution as religion. Klan terrorism is whitewashed with a shabby veneer of civic pride. The math that is used in computer science is withheld from children as if it were an untested innovation. The Roman aspects of Protestant Christianity are ignored with a sleight of hand technique.

What experience do you have with slavery?

Links: Trailer for Second Skin (full upload).

Comments

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Jeez monday already

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I had to post it early due to a planned trip on Wednesday.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Marxists weren't the ones to originate that concept here. The Slave Power did, to argue that slavery should be exported for industrial workers and even that slaves were better-off than factory workers.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Much of what Marx described had been detailed elsewhere before him. William Paley, for example, observed the way that people were addicted to the trappings of religion.

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Cool!

[fierceleaf.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

[paedraggaidin.livejournal.com]

The Man keeps me down, yo, with his "Domino's doesn't deliver to your area" and "our iced tea machine is broken, try a different Sonic."

FIGHT THE POWER!!!!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

What is your opinion on the red-lining of distressed neighborhoods? Do you have any ideas for solving the problem of half-assed emancipation?

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

THERE IS NO SONIC WITHIN A HUNDRED MILES OF ME AND YET THEY KEEP SHOWING COMMERCIALS!

[fierceleaf.livejournal.com]

> The math that is used in computer science is withheld from children as if it were an untested innovation.

I can't understand how math (such as the set theory which was mentioned in video) can jeopardize the Protestant worldview.

The math is free of any ideology. That is strange that obscurantists attack it. May be they are idiots?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I thought that went without saying. Idiot would be a polite way to put it.

[fierceleaf.livejournal.com]

I think it is not a good idea to make this term even more ambiguous.

The good old slavery with masters who can buy, sell, mutilate and kill his slave still exists in many regions.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Falun Gong make those claims about labor relations in China. Stories of indentured servitude in African cocoa production are pretty harsh. Iraq under Bush's occupation was also notorious for the trade in feminine flesh.

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Oh don't worry. If it can be made ambiguous, someone will do it so that it relates to them. Nevermind the real oppressed.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

My main experience with slavery comes from killing the slavers in Fallout 3 many times. It's always very fun and the loot you get after is pretty sweet.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

What did you think of the movie Second Skin?

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I was once a slave to the public education system. Luckily, after 12 years they let me go.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Those were my sentiments upon graduation. It was more like an escape than a reward.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

You started off strong, but after the first 4 paragraphs you seem to go off into random unrelated musings. C+

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Yet another dick move on your part. Should anyone be surprised?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

It may seem unrelated on the surface. They say that prostitution is the oldest profession, but it could be said that marriage is the oldest form of slavery.

[il-mio-gufo.livejournal.com]

hmmmm, i guess i would have to say that whatever experience(s) i have with slavery have been, if any to date, unrecognizable to me. it would be rather interesting if one could assist me, examine my life experience so far, and pin-point when/where i was living in any type slavery.

I suppose, I might also want to ask to what extent are children in bondage to their parents? But then that might be an absure question to begin with....

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I would not characterize that as an abuse of the question. Chattel slaves were treated like children. Emancipated slaves were still treated like children. Most states have laws that confer economic slave status on children entitling parents to control of a child's income. Children are not entitled to practice informed consent when it comes to their own medical care.

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

>>What experience do you have with slavery?<<

I've been a slave trader for almost 30 years now, and have experience in sizing up the quality of slaves, marketing slaves for sale, and selling slaves. I am an expert in disciplining slaves and will be releasing a tutorial audio book based on my many years in the business.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

So, your experience has been limited to chattel slavery.