Thanks, Woe, for this interview. Interesting and thought-provoking -- and yet another book to add to the To-Be-Read stack!
Off-topic, but I cannot resist:
"Third, slavery was virtually eradicated from the world thanks to the efforts of the “evil” British Empire and, especially, by Christians."
Not to take anything away from the British or Christians, but I think this misses the mechanism. Would any of us rather work in the field from dawn to dusk scratching out a barely-adequate diet -- or would we rather go and enslave the tribe from the next valley and make them do the hard work? Because human nature is what it is, slavery was thus an element of human existence from the earliest days of agriculture until ... the steam engine. Or, more generally, the harnessing of the energy in fossil fuels through mechanization. To put it bluntly, slaves simply could not compete economically with energy-driven mechanization. Britain and other Euro nations led the way in eliminating slavery largely because their leadership in mechanization and the use of fossil fuels enabled them to salve their consciences over the moral downsides of slavery.
And let's also recognize the facts -- ending the institution of slavery did not end one human's exploitation of other less fortunate humans. Think of the Usual Suspect protesting the cause-du-jour while wearing clothes & shoes made by Third World humans laboring long hours for minimal pay. Maybe our consciences should not be completely salved?
"Maybe our consciences should not be completely salved?"
This is worthy of an article in its own right. A very good point, succinctly made, without any judgemental-ity in it.
Quick response-thought of mine upon reading it was:
"Salving conscience means you know you've done wrong and doesn't want to own up, nor change what you're doing (or you are unable to change because of matters out of your control)"
Being unaware of that process, assuming my spontaneous reaction is a capital-T true one, means disassociation between how you, I, we think about ourselves and what we're actually doing, which in turn sets off the ole' rationalisation-routine, and makes us expend mental/spiritual energy in dodging cognitive dissonance:
"Preaches tolerance -> beheads a Trump-piñata" to use a recent memetic example.
Technology clearly reduced the incentives for slavery, or perhaps moved them to a subtler type of slavery, debt slavery. I believe his point was a moral point, i.e., the British and Christians generally were the moral engine behind its general eradication.
Thanks, Woe, for this interview. Interesting and thought-provoking -- and yet another book to add to the To-Be-Read stack!
Off-topic, but I cannot resist:
"Third, slavery was virtually eradicated from the world thanks to the efforts of the “evil” British Empire and, especially, by Christians."
Not to take anything away from the British or Christians, but I think this misses the mechanism. Would any of us rather work in the field from dawn to dusk scratching out a barely-adequate diet -- or would we rather go and enslave the tribe from the next valley and make them do the hard work? Because human nature is what it is, slavery was thus an element of human existence from the earliest days of agriculture until ... the steam engine. Or, more generally, the harnessing of the energy in fossil fuels through mechanization. To put it bluntly, slaves simply could not compete economically with energy-driven mechanization. Britain and other Euro nations led the way in eliminating slavery largely because their leadership in mechanization and the use of fossil fuels enabled them to salve their consciences over the moral downsides of slavery.
And let's also recognize the facts -- ending the institution of slavery did not end one human's exploitation of other less fortunate humans. Think of the Usual Suspect protesting the cause-du-jour while wearing clothes & shoes made by Third World humans laboring long hours for minimal pay. Maybe our consciences should not be completely salved?
"Maybe our consciences should not be completely salved?"
This is worthy of an article in its own right. A very good point, succinctly made, without any judgemental-ity in it.
Quick response-thought of mine upon reading it was:
"Salving conscience means you know you've done wrong and doesn't want to own up, nor change what you're doing (or you are unable to change because of matters out of your control)"
Being unaware of that process, assuming my spontaneous reaction is a capital-T true one, means disassociation between how you, I, we think about ourselves and what we're actually doing, which in turn sets off the ole' rationalisation-routine, and makes us expend mental/spiritual energy in dodging cognitive dissonance:
"Preaches tolerance -> beheads a Trump-piñata" to use a recent memetic example.
Technology clearly reduced the incentives for slavery, or perhaps moved them to a subtler type of slavery, debt slavery. I believe his point was a moral point, i.e., the British and Christians generally were the moral engine behind its general eradication.
Another author to try!