tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post5592912018581718319..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Slavery and Following OrdersAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-83187536564576314862020-12-22T16:10:48.076-05:002020-12-22T16:10:48.076-05:00The "I was only following orders" critic...The "I was only following orders" criticism assumes a knowledge that obedience is criminal, so the excuse is contemptible. Slightly more tolerable is the explanation "I would have been shot dead if I'd refused, and I'm just not that brave; are you sure you are?" Neither of these has any place in a discussion of how people reconciled slavery with their consciences in times and places where slavery was universally accepted, the luck of the draw, something that could very nearly happen to anyone. That goes double when we consider that the dividing lines among slaves, servants, subjects, wives, and children was pretty murky. In a lot of societies not that many people lived a life we'd consider anything like "free."Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-30202063626458425002020-12-21T20:48:35.268-05:002020-12-21T20:48:35.268-05:00"People only pretend to be against slavery. L..."People only pretend to be against slavery. Look at the generations (and still counting) people who defended socialism in one country, whether that country was Russia or Cambodia." <br /><br /> Or Canada, most of Europe, in fact almost every first world country in the world. That socialism = slavery is very funny indeed. ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-13500230663467810152020-12-21T12:29:51.188-05:002020-12-21T12:29:51.188-05:00"It's my usual rule: always be most suspi..."It's my usual rule: always be most suspicious of "what everyone knows."<br /><br />Rather like what the last kid on Telephone has to say (WHERE/HOW did THAT come from?????<br /><br />Mass hysteria, perhaps?<br />Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-78383824504234264582020-12-21T05:57:25.596-05:002020-12-21T05:57:25.596-05:00People only pretend to be against slavery. Look at...People only pretend to be against slavery. Look at the generations (and still counting) people who defended socialism in one country, whether that country was Russia or Cambodia. They were happy with slavery. I had one socialist tell me the USSR’s slavey wasn’t really slavery because no one owned the slaves, like in the Confederacy.<br /><br />If people were against slavery, they’d be against socialism. it’s that simple. It America slavery means American must be abolished, then socialist slavery means socialism must be abolished.ErisGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09383064735664269791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-14185972249650425202020-12-20T23:48:32.413-05:002020-12-20T23:48:32.413-05:00Ancient slavery was also heavily female, so the tw...Ancient slavery was also heavily female, so the two things you're talking about overlap. When Troy was conquered, men and all but the youngest boys were killed; women were enslaved.<br /><br />In part this was because the thing slaves were wanted for changed. Before the cotton gin, slaves were wanted for textile production -- but it was mostly sheep tending, weaving, and so forth. Weaving was women's work almost worldwide (and still is in places). The ability to produce woven and dyed cloth meant a cash commodity, just as after the cotton gin slaves were wanted for a harder manual field work that made male slaves more desirable. <br /><br />Of course there were eunuchs, and a certain number of people who entered slavery voluntarily (usually because they faced starvation, and accepted the deal of submitting to slavery in return for guaranteed food and shelter). There were a certain number of galley slaves, who of course were men, and had to be kept chained. And there were a certain number of field hands even in the Hebrew days, as we know from reading the Bible. Still, by and large it trended female, which meant that it overlapped with the general sense that women should be subordinate. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-66680395256563052312020-12-20T18:30:14.033-05:002020-12-20T18:30:14.033-05:00Another change was that raiding for slaves began t...Another change was that raiding for slaves began to be seen as less honorable than conquering for slaves. Not a distinction we would likely make now.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-79052892103056801232020-12-20T18:24:25.422-05:002020-12-20T18:24:25.422-05:00Some slave occupations were lethal--especially min...Some slave occupations were lethal--especially mining--which changes the calculus a bit. (And in some places, slaves were first on tap for human sacrifices.)<br /><br />And there's the curious disappearance of black slaves in Persian lands. The women seem to show up, at a low rate, in the genetic mix, but men seem to disappear. Some were made eunuchs, but likely the mines consumed many of the rest. (It has been a few years, but I can try to find the citation.)jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-19896664538301163052020-12-20T17:42:18.548-05:002020-12-20T17:42:18.548-05:00Very thoughtful and interesting. I have often thou...Very thoughtful and interesting. I have often thought that when Jesus spoke of slaves it was just the normal rat race of the day.stevohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12393254273631852865noreply@blogger.com