Is human life a form of 'slavery'?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I understand that the current period of human existence is one of the richest and most peaceful ever since societies began hundreds of thousands of years ago and one could argue that we’re ‘happier’ than before.

But even with all that, looking around I’ve talked to find that our ‘greatness’ is vastly exaggerated when we a lot of us seemingly ‘enslave’ ourselves with ideologies.

Some of us are born into highly unfavourable cirucmstances that’d be of poverty, dysfunctional families, poor health or physical,gender,aesthetic,racial markers that subject us to discrimination when something can be easily done to avert that from happening, whether by simply not having children or even taking small steps to prevent it. Worse of all is that a lot of us may never receive help and are told when growing up to ‘deal with it’ as ‘that’s just life’.

What’s really irking though isn’t the unfairness of life. I can understand it is what it is that’s something that simply can’t be averted in a lot of circumstances. It’s the fact that people willingly choose to enslave others and themselves to an existence of suffering. We can’t kill ourselves because it would hurt our families and what I don’t understand most is ‘the coward’s/easy way out’. If we lash out against society once we get thrown in prison. Some even tell themselves that a life of happiness would be boring and pain is ‘nice’.

There are undoubtedly fleeting moments of ‘pleasure’ between calmness/normal emotions that can last for the lifetime of some people whereas for a sizeable majority, their lives will be sentenced to despair, lack of hope and unwilling acceptance to mediocrity in their lives.

Living in a developing and developed country, it seems that all of this is the same just to different degrees. What do you think?

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I think one Machinaforce is more than enough for this message board.

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If you don’t like it, there’s a simple solution.

4

Seen him around being discussd in the Pit but don’t know much about him. Details?

5

Sullen, moaning nihilist with obsessive fixation on the meaninglessness of all life and weird predeliction for citing sociopaths to support poorly (in)formed arguments.

Your OP is right out of his playbook.

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I am not going to make fun of your question because I have wondered the same thing. I have come to the conclusion that almost all marriages are slavery and many employment arrangements are as as well. I personally don’t participate in anything like that anymore because being a slave isn’t my thing and I don’t want to have a slave either. There are ways to refuse virtual slavery but it is surprisingly easy to get temporarily trapped in it even if you don’t mean to. A whole lot of people want nothing more than to completely control another person with no regard to their virtual slave’s wishes. It could be a spouse, parent or boss among many others but I fully believe that anyone that displays that type of behavior needs to be destroyed.

The thing that irritates me the most is middle-aged men that get beaten down by their wives. First of all, your wife is hideous by all objective standards. There is no reason to be pussy whipped by Shrek. Secondly, you shouldn’t be taking orders like a bitch in a supermarket. It is pathetic. Get a divorce, grow a pair and go fishing in Montana or something.

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Well to be fair, I think that the OP has a point, to a certain extent, though it is poorly expressed; see Shagnasty’s response for a more informed, balanced position.

Considering my debt load, and the substantial difficulties/financial peril I’d be in if I lost my job, I can’t help but think that I’m “enslaved” to a certain degree to Corporate America.

And I fully acknowledge that I willingly put myself in my current position with choices that I consciously, deliberately made.

I say “enslaved,” so as to not insult or otherwise trivialize the circumstances, historical and modern day, in which people were and are literally enslaved, mere chattel, and treated in ways that pudgy, white, middle-aged/middle-classed Americans can scarcely imagine.
Even if I were “debt-free,” unless I had a patch of suitable land and the tools/time to build my own home and grow my own food (all of which would still have to somehow be made/crafted, earned, or given to me/inherited), I’d still need to make a living somehow, to put a roof over my head and food on my table, and I’d still be “beholden” to a “job,” and thus some form of “management,” which IME, can be arbitrary, indifferent, capricious, even malicious; occasionally, cruelly so.

And that’s for fairly civilized values of “arbitrary,” “indifferent,” “capricious,” and “malicious.” In less “civilized” regions of our world, those terms are literally a living Hell, unrelenting terror, backbreaking labor, pain, misery, rape, torture, and suffering, for real life, flesh-and-blood people.

So, all things considered, I’m not complaining about my lot in life; not being particularly religious, I don’t pray to or thank some invisible “deity” that probably doesn’t exist, but maybe does.

Inasmuch that I do “pray” to said probably imaginary/maybe not deity, it’s for mercy and compassion for those whose circumstances are “less than” mine, and Wisdom for me, to appreciate my “lot in life,” the good people and good things that I do have, and to make better/more informed decisions about my life.

In the meantime, I do what I can; for me, my family and friends, and for those less fortunate than me, and keep my head down, 'less fate/fickle fortune/asshole boss look my way.

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That’s sig material right there.

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Actually, this is just a slightly exaggerated common philosophical development stage.

It is most often the result of the person having realized how thoroughly true it is, that with all choices, there are losses of alternatives; and that with all “toys” possessed, come “maintenance tasks.”

The next stage after this, is the recognition that the term “slavery” actually doesn’t apply at all. It’s more akin to “bartering.” In exchange for toys, you take on tasks of various kinds. In exchange for overall life comforts, you accept the work required to maintain it.

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Life in general in developed countries does not compare to the chattel slavery practiced in much of the world well into the 19th century, nor to, say, the slavery endured in concentration camps in the 20th, or that endured by trafficking victims working as prostitutes, fishermen or brick makers under threat of force and violence. The comparison is ridiculous, and makes light of the fate of those who did or do suffer under those circumstances.

That doesn’t mean life is fair, or that there isn’t real agony and despair in the lives of some or many in our society. But it isn’t slavery, and odds are, experiencing actual slavery would make this clear very quickly.

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If a free person considers himself a slave it’s usually because he’s too immature to accept responsibility for his own actions and needs to blame his problems on a fictional slave master.

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Painting yourself as a victim is a common trope in our society. It makes people feel less responsible for themselves.

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Then just who is the Master ?

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Um, Cecil.

Duh.

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It’s a simple fact of modern life that it is impossible to live legally for free, unless you are living off of someone else’s largess. If you don’t want to sign up for that, move to someplace without civilization. (and let us know how that works out for you).

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Me, now go wash my car.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

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Exactly. You have to work for a living, because food doesn’t grow on trees, except for certain kinds like apples. There’s only so much land on Earth and 7 billion humans so getting your own wilderness area stocked with everything you need to live without working means somebody has to keep the other 6,999,999,999 people out of your private paradise so they don’t ruin it by picking your free fruit.

There are people who live without working, but those people are supported by the work of others. Yeah, you saved up your money and investments for retirements, and now you don’t have to work. How does the food arrive at the supermarket where you shop? Lots of people worked to put that food there, and when you pay for your groceries you’re paying for that work. If everyone saved up all their money and retired everyone would starve.

Note that I’m not arguing that you didn’t earn that money, maybe you did and maybe you didn’t. I’m just saying that for every good or service you consume, you either produced it yourself or someone else produced it for you. And even if in the future we have a Star Trek style postscarcity utopia, somebody’s going to have to work to build the robots that will do all the work from now on.

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Caveat: I only skimmed the previous posts.

Femmejean, I think it is a great question that you posted. Most people have pondered the same question although in different words. It is something I think about a lot.

In an attempt to be helpful I want to share the wise advice of my Buddhist teacher. Paraphrased, he said try to enjoy life, every moment as much as you can, even the parts that you may find boring or difficult. Use these moments as a meditation practice by completely immersing yourself into it.

There are many ways to do this. One general method of meditation that I have found interesting is to observe all the senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, etc.) as you do something. You might experience something different.

You can apply this meditation technique to anything you want. Try to relax and breath by inflating your belly not just your chest for a more relaxation.

So many great thinkers have asked this question. I found it helpful to read about existential philosophy and religions.

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One more thing, in terms of advice that you may find useful.

There are many things that you can’t control in life. Try to focus on the stuff you can control.

I think the Serenity Prayer (or some non-god-centered variation for atheists and agnostics) is pretty wise.

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Fiona.

Kind of like Shrek…until he met Fiona.