A New Slavery

Slavery goes back thousands of years.  Even some Jews had Jewish slaves.  Slavery was more about Labor and Economics, and taking care of the poor as well as providing labor forces for the rich or the state.  It had little to do with racism.  Cheap labor, today, that is provided for immigrants is really no different than slavery.  Slavery is not caused by racism, but by poverty.  Those who are the poorest and most defenseless are the most subject to slavery, whether they are white or black, brown, yellow or red.

Slavery is an ancient form of welfare; a concession to the poorest of the poor and a commodity for the State and the wealthy.  Slaves were sometimes pitied by the State and wealthy, but seen as inferior and sub-human, and then as objects of possession; not unlike the way some parents see their own children.

Slaves were not brought into America because they were black, but because they were poor and uncivilized or underprivileged.  They were not made slaves because whites hated blacks.  It was all about labor needs and money, while rationalizing that it was progress and charity.  The Civil War cannot be compared to Americans fighting against Nazis or White Nationalists.  There were slave owners on both sides.  Both sides, the Unionists and Confederates, were Americans and represented America.  There was opposition to slavery on both sides, as well as opposition to ending slavery on both sides.  Even some slaves were opposed to ending slavery.  It depended on who their owners were.  In addition to “just” reasons for ending slavery, politics, power, and money played a big role.  Both sides continued to see the slaves as inferior.

We know, today, that slavery is evil, even if it is for supposedly good reasons.  The abolition of slavery is good, even if it is for evil reasons.  Slavery robs people of their humanity and turns them into nothing more than objects for personal gain and use.  But, the Civil War was not a war between good people and bad people.  When slavery was abolished, for many slaves, it produced even more hardship.  It took a long time before freedom produced good fruit for slaves.  The Exodus is an example.  Many preferred to return to slavery in Egypt rather than face the hardships of the desert, the hardships of working for freedom.  Every immigrant group knows the hardships of making a new life in America.  For the past 200 years, every nationality that has become part of America has had to suffer abuse from other nationalities.  But, they persevered.  They didn’t expect it to be easy.  They did not easily take offense.  They worked hard, made sacrifices, and eventually came into their own.  Immigrants were a mixture of wealthy, middle class, and poor people seeking a new life.

Today, there is so much division, anger, hatred, and violence going on, throughout America and in the hearts of many Americans.  A new hate group emerges every day.  Instead of being united, we are fast becoming segregated again; segregated into thousands of different groups.  Every group demonizes anyone who is different than them or does not agree with them, and blames it on racism.  Anyone who is for immigration control is seen as a racist, bigot, and evil.  If anyone is opposed to destroying statues of Confederate Soldiers, they are racist.  No other reason is possible.  No other reason is acceptable, because today, all Confederates were evil.  We are becoming a people who have lost the ability to reason.  We are incapable of making right judgments because there is only one choice—what I want, what I believe, what I think, and what I feel.  Anything else is evil. 

It is all about money, power, and politics.  We look for any special interest group we can find in order to have something to crusade for, without really even understanding what we are fighting for.  Why?  Could it be because we no longer know who we are or what purpose we have to exist?

Whether it is a war or an election, the loser is always subject to a lot of anger and hate.  That sets them up for projection.  People look for scape goats to project their anger, hatred, and violence onto, as well as everything they hate and see as evil; while they project their lost virtues, values, and ideals onto those who agree with them.  This is the seed bed for racism and prejudice, and for a new slavery.  Perhaps this is what happened in the aftermath of the Civil War.  Many of those who lost the war began to project their bitterness onto the slaves that were set free.  Racism became rampant.  Formerly, they were treated like animals because they were poor, by many on both sides.  After the war, they were hated because they were black, especially in the South.  However, there are no blacks today who were ever slaves, or who knew any Confederates or Unionists.  There are only a small number today who lived before Martin Luther King.  Today, all blacks are free, and numbered amongst the affluent, educated, and powerful.

There is a new kind of racism emerging today that has nothing to do with race.  It is actually hypocrisy; individualism and relativism, posing as love of neighbor and justice, but has all the marks of bigotry, superiority, prejudice, hatred and violence.  It crosses all lines; race, creed, religion, sex, gender, age, political party, education, and family.  It attacks and condemns anyone that is outside one’s little tribe.  It strikes first, and asks questions later.  A man is guilty until proven innocent, and no proof is trusted.   

So, where is all the hostility and rage coming from?  What are we really afraid of?  What is missing today that makes us so afraid of our history, and of our future?  Why are we not able to see the good within our neighbor?  Why are we not able to see our own faults and sins against others?  Why are we not able to forgive others, or ourselves?  Why are we not able to love our neighbor and to pray for our enemies? 

When did we begin to hate our creator?  When did we begin to hate our religion; our country; our heritage; our ancestors; our race; our parents; our siblings; our extended families and relatives; our body; our color, our sex, or our gender?  When did we start “down that slippery slope?”  Was it when we began to hate and kill the weakest, the most vulnerable and defenseless among us, and see them as nothing more than a blob of tissue instead of a human person?  Did it all begin within the womb?