You guys have all been in a situation where you been pampered and waited on…tell me that don’t feel freaking awesome?
I want me a slave now.
Idiot.
I, as an adult human, have too much empathy for my fellows to own another person.
A person who I respect very much once said that the best way to treat others is to treat them as you would like to be treated. Owning a person does not meet that criterion.
People are not property, and despite your immature fantasies slavery is not acceptable. Would you would like to be the slave, instead of the slaveholder?
I didn’t mean this to be an open-topic…but it would be cool if you had someone doing that stuff. Now I just need to win the lottery and all my dreams will come true.
[Moderator Hat ON]
Not in GD, dude. (Is it a full moon tonight or something? I’ve posted four warnings within an hour.)
[Moderator Hat OFF]
That’s why we need PERSONAL ROBOTS! Slavery without the moral qualms.
In the mean time, I have children. Now, if I could just figure out a way to get them to work that doesn’t require more effort on my part than doing it my own damned self.
Then maybe you’re thinking about a maid or a butler? Slaves carry with them, at least to some of us, the implication that you’re not going to pay them.
People who do stuff for free are called volunteers. Last I checked very few of them cleaned houses and did laundry for free (unless you count spouses:)).
[joke]And of course now someone will be along with a group that does exactly that . . . like http://www.cleanyourhouseforfree.com, or somesuch.[/joke]
Ick.
Well, if we’re going to be utterly pragmatic about the situation, then it probably would be quite nice to own a slave. After all, think of the time that we could save in our lives and the lower costs over time as opposed to hiring a maid.
However…is anyone on this board a total pragmatist??? I think that almost anyone would have at least a rudimentary set of moral guidelines that would prohibit the idea of ownership of another man (at least in the literal sense…but that’s another thread…). Personally, if I believe that I have the right to live my life as I see fit so long as I don’t infringe the rights of others, then I implicitly grant that right to others as well…and slavery surely would be the biggest infringement of the rights of another that I could possibly fathom!
Just to throw a little gasoline on the fire, consider this. Athens, considered the cradle of Western democracy, had a massive slave population that played important roles in society. Yet they had (for men, anyway) as much or more of a democracy than we do now.
What people don’t realize is that owning a slave is not like hiring a maid or butler. I don’t care how nice you are, your slave is going to hate you. How could you sleep at night knowing that your slaves might sneak into your bedroom and slit your throat from ear to ear.
Plus, you pretty much HAVE to be willing to use physical violence to assert your authority at any moment. If you aren’t a vicious bastard, you slaves are going to stop working. Oh, you could hire an overseer to beat and torture your slaves for you. Maybe you could live like that. I couldn’t.
Slavery degrades the master as much or more than the slave.
I couldn’t do it. Even something robotic, if it in anyway resembled a person, wouldn’t/couldn’t work for me. Something about the whole “Person” thing bothers me. People aren’t what you/I demand every day/minute/second. I like the fact the people I am around are real. They have good days nad bad days where they might abuse me and later regret it, aren’t in the mood for “that shit”, etc. It’s what I cherish most among my friends. Someone always subserviant…ugh! I’d rather they tell me to “fuck off” and we can work from a level playing field. They also tend to be more understanding when I go off the deep end and deserve an ass-kicking, but instead ignore me rather than smearing my useless and fat ass all over the parking lot. Is that empathy or self-perservation?
To me, owning a slave is for the selfish and there’s too much LIFE out there to demand my own wants…from anyone. My needs are up to ME to fill, not another.
Rebuttal: Free Men born into or granted citizenship had more liberty. Majority of native born Athenians did not have full civil rights. So the comparision becomes rather specious since citizens were effectively, in modern terms, something of an aristocracy living off the fat of the slave and non-citizens.
Not too attractive.
I want to BE a slave. I want to be kept in a cage and whipped regularly and…
Oh wait…maybe that’s a subject for a different thread. Besides, I was thinking only a weekend at a time would be more than enough.
-L
I would definitely NOT want a slave. Someone losing their own freedom for the sake of another is the most vile and repugnant thought I can muster. I think John Galt’s creed is applicable here:
I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, or ask another man to live for mine.
Sort of rules out slavery there.
In my freshman year of high school, a friend (female) of mine asked another friend (male) to borrow money, and in return would be his slave for a week (didn’t even consider paying him back might be a better option…). Well, he accepted, and as long as he didn’t make her try and fuck him or anything, everything was good. She had to speak in third person at all times, refer to him as “Lord And Master (Name Omitted),” and do all sorts of wacky things… he could have been very cruel if he wanted, but he wasn’t.
And My Point Is:
We’ve become much more tolerant now, and if we did have slaves, it’d probably be more like a friend that does stuff for us (unless you truly want to be elite.) I wouldn’t even call them a slave… I guess it’d be more like a butler… so I don’t want a slave, I want a butler. Specifically, Alfred, from Batman. And I’ve completely fallen off topic. I’ll shut up now.
There was a time when all human beings had a monetary value, and contrary to popular lore, religion is NOT a vain attempt to correct the suffering, but in fact allows feudalism and helps the serf or slave feel better about it.
Since someone brought it up, our democratic founding fathers (in Greece) did employ slaves, but these were considered different than the slaves their neighbors in Persia had. Greek slaves could purchase freedom from their bond, and they did have some rights granted by differing laws in differing places. The ancient Greeks never succumbed to owning slave armies like most of their neighbors, hence their victories at 5 to 1 odds at Salamis and Marathon, which are thought by many to be the ultimate battles in Western history.
It is noted by many Greek scholars that the Greeks were the only ancient civilization to question slavery. To make matters more confusing, Greek slaves are virtually identical to European serfs, similar to being bonded in contract, not in chains, but the bible reflects a different political order to hide this fact. Jesus, Paul, or any new testament writer never defied slavery, but plenty of Greek orators did.
Personally, I can show that any economic hierarchy enforced through property law is also economic slavery, although the treadmill is more modern. As the OP suggests, it is due to a mindset of master-slave, where people only see opposition in being (having something because someone doesn’t). The slave is enslaved by his desire to be a master too, so he buys into the idea, thereby sealing his fate. All masters have the slave mentality, and their are slave to it, and not intellectually or morally superior to their slaves, but beneath them. The trick is to get off the parasitical wheel and cycle of predation. Communism, like religion, is a false option.
If I could convince both Christian Bale and Ewan McGregor to leave their wives and become my completely devoted love slaves, I might be happy…
I’m noting a large number of statements about slavery which I think are… not very supportable in historical terms. I would like to recommend to those wishing to delve into comparative slave systems on a global scale, including issues of treatment, legal status and the like: Orlando Patterson Slavery and Social Death which is a world wide survey of slave systems.
I don’t know of a more thorough or balanced work, although as it was published in 1981, I am sure it may be slightly dated in re the latest scholarship. Nonetheless, I think reading it would help correct some facile comparisions being bandied about.
I think many people deny that they would ever own a slave because it’s the PC thing to do.
If I hire a maid and pay her minimum wage or less if she’s an ‘illegal’ that is OK. But if I directly provide her with food, shelter, clothing, and medical care (no paycheck) thats evil.
Hmmm… Boston suburbs? Maybe we can work something out. 