Larry Elder wrote this about slavery.
It’s fascinating and you should read it.
The part that struck me was this:
…Thomas Sowell, the brilliant economist/historian/philosopher…writes: “Of all the tragic facts about the history of slavery, the most astonishing to an American today is that, although slavery was a worldwide institution for thousands of years, nowhere in the world was slavery a controversial issue prior to the 18th century.”
Owning a slave was like owning a horse or a goat.
If you shout “RACIST!”, I’ll know you didn’t read Elder’s article.
Slavery happened on every continent (except Antarctica) throughout history.
Kinda like pet ownership.
What do you suppose future generations will say about our owning animals?
Five hundred years from now, when mankind has decided that domesticating animals is immoral…
…you will be remembered as a villain because you own a cat!
Sure, you feed the cat.
You shelter the cat.
You take the cat to the vet.
You think of the cat as a member of the family.
There is nothing controversial about what you’re doing.
That doesn’t excuse the evil.
The people who live 500 years from now will be more enlightened than you.
They will be morally superior to you.
They will just be better people than you.
Their judgment of you will be perfect.
There is no excuse for your wretched behavior, you awful cat owner.
Does that seem unfair?
It is.
So quit doing it to your slave owning ancestors.
12 Responses
I appreciate this article from Mr. Elder and his willingness to put himself out there on this topic. I wish I had it a couple of years ago when subbing for a World History class and accidentally stepped before a firing squad. The simple question that was asked was why it seemed so many wars ended with people being taken into slavery. I agreed that was a sad fact that most people have forgotten. They think of slavery as just those taken from Africa and sold into slavery in Europe and America and forget that slavery has been going on since the beginning of mankind with the spoils of war often meaning the defeated became slaves. (And here’s where it went awry.) I said: “Sadly most people believe that only blacks were slaves, when all cultures have been touched by it in one way or another.” Well, that got these students bringing up blogs to combat my horrible “lie”. I brought up excerpts from books written on the subject, but they couldn’t be credible against their mighty blog writers (with no history background to speak of). It wouldn’t have been so bad, but someone emailed the teacher and he basically emailed all his classes that I was a racist and that most white racists use the lie about there having been white slaves to assuage their guilt. (This is a white male teacher that expounds to students about the horrors of white privilege after coming into teacher later in life after making his money in business (I believe), yet he hasn’t gotten rid of his expensive car or giving away any of his earnings that he must have obtained because of his privilege.) Anyway, I have saved this article on the off chance I ever get to give it to one of those students to read. I doubt I will. I hadn’t subbed for this teacher in a long time because of what and how he teaches. I was placed into his class because of a mixup and the principal not knowing that I didn’t want to sub for him. They know now that I will never take one of his classes again. Still can’t figure out how he is still teaching when so many parents have their kids take their World History credit by taking the on-line class instead of taking his. Ah well, one more reason we homeschool, but subbing thankfully gives me reminders as to why we do.
Well, the problem I have is that I think we already do live in a world that is “backward, superstitious and barbaric.” I have no idea why anyone seems to believe we’ve “progressed.” That continues to baffle me.
We actually have more slavery in the world today then we did in the 18th century.
Also, people who own cats really are weird. Real cat owners understand cats own us.
I have three cats. Despicable me! LOL! Future history revision aside, the truth is our cats own us. We are the slaves.
Great article by Elder, btw.
That’s the point that most people forget about. When I first began to study the Bible, I had a pastor that told me repeatedly to keep it in context with the time it was written. In both the New and the Old Testament, I have to remember when it was written because how they lived then, is different then how we live now. Even though the Bible shares truth that is relevant for us today, it will be lost if we apply parts to our standards today.
King David would’ve been impeached, Moses would have been put on trial, Rahab would’ve been arrested, and Paul would have been heavily medicated.
Context is very important!
Well as someone who has two cats I would like to let the future generations that I do not own the cats it is more like they let me take care of them. They only come around when they need something much like a teenager but at least my teenager doesn’t paw me in the face at 5:00 am wanting to be fed.
Did you just compare slavery to parenting?!
Careful with that!
I prefer indentured servitude.
Makes no difference! Now you’re just back-tracking! 🙂
(And I should know. I’ve been a Slavery Apologist for awhile now… https://culturesatwar.wordpress.com/2016/10/06/the-slavery-post/ )
Interesting post there, courageous on your part knowing what it would probably mean in the responses.
Nah, it’s only courageous if there’s a chance of being misunderstood and chastised by smart people.
But in this case, the only “criticism” came from those who already don’t like me and who couldn’t think of any objections I hadn’t already raised in the op-ed. 😂
The people I trust were supportive because they got the point.
Well, John, I know I am a bit dense, but I just did not get this one at all! Explain please.
Slavery wasn’t always considered to be a “bad thing”. We are looking back through history and applying our standards and values to ancient people. It’s not fair to do that.
An immediate problem is people read about slavery in the Bible then lecture Christians about God’s immorality. They say the Bible “condones slavery”. Their concept of slavery is skewed because they don’t understand the historical context.
500 years from now, culture will probably be quite different. If future generations use their culture to judge our behavior, we will be seen as backward, superstitious and barbaric.