tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post942255047583710661..comments2024-03-28T17:44:11.289+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Galley SlavesBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-60049854407612636422011-08-15T03:05:59.173+01:002011-08-15T03:05:59.173+01:00Every time I drive past an squalid apartment cramm...Every time I drive past an squalid apartment crammed with electronic junk, or a rusted and rotted shack with a high-end sports car next to it, I am reminded that slavery was for the most part probably a benign institution. I do not mean this in a racial context; I mean this in the context of European serfs and later indentured servants and captured slaves in wartime. Slavery guarantees survival through management of the affairs of those who are otherwise incompetent to do so. Wage-slavery merely doubly punishes them, first by making them work ugly jobs and next by punishing them for their own incompetence, then when they decline at the end of life, passes the expense on to the socialized fund.Brett Stevenshttp://www.amerika.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-87660057958552684902011-08-06T02:59:59.401+01:002011-08-06T02:59:59.401+01:00real slavery was so appalling that I dislike all e...<i>real slavery was so appalling that I dislike all equating of other things to slavery</i><br /><br />I hope you don't think that "real slavery" was always the same as "the worst excesses of Caribbean or antebellum South plantations" -- because it wasn't. And even the antebellum South wasn't as bad as it's made out to be. Almost every history today takes the abolitionist point of view, of course.JPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-53354974807712095072011-08-05T21:23:55.816+01:002011-08-05T21:23:55.816+01:00I find the concept of being "appalled" a...I find the concept of being "appalled" a very strange one. It suggests being a mere observer, as in watching a movie. An essentially passive condition. <br />When one actually participates in the process of life, one ceases to be appalled. <br /><br />I've done jobs that were no different to slavery. <br />To survive, I had to do them, yet they did not return energy equal to energy expended. <br />One escapes by not being attached to survival. <br />And lo: I survive, anyway.The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323413604073160469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-66434209271897426642011-08-05T16:35:00.536+01:002011-08-05T16:35:00.536+01:00@dearieme - "real slavery was so appalling th...@dearieme - "real slavery was so appalling that I dislike all equating of other things to slavery " - well, I don't want to seem an apologist, but that isn't really true of all slavery, for example among the Romans. House slaves were often treated reasonably, even when field slaves were worked to death.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.com