Being a libertarian, I have wondered if such a philosophy allows for slavery. That is, if you believe in freedom, you have to believe that there are people who can enter into servitude voluntarily. But is this really slavery? In a free-market system, this could be service in exchange for food and shelter, which is hardly slavery. When someone keeps someone else in service by force, then it becomes slavery.
I’m sure many people have written on the topic and maybe I’ll read up on them someday. In the cases of slavery in the United States, it was clearly not a voluntary system and one the most ugliest periods in our history. It has had lasting efforts on our society and directly lead to the entitlement mentality among blacks.
In any case, slavery is an evil blight on humanity. It still exists, though largely in certain countries, but remains just another sin against fellow man. But what is slavery exactly? I define slavery as when one individual owns another individual as a form of property. The slave’s life, liberty, and property are forfeit to his or her master and the master can use force to obtain it.
This is the very nature of oppressive governments. Individuals are subject to the whims of tyrants and are, in effect, slaves to the state. When you life, liberty, or property can be forcibly removed from you without cause (that is, you haven’t committed a crime), you are essentially a slave to that entity.
While it is barbaric (well, maybe, I don’t know if barbarians had slaves or not), it is a plain fact: slaves are property to their masters. There is no in-between, despite the legal precedents that the various states set back in the days of slavery. In most cases, this is probably similar to the laws passed by the states for people’s pets. Pets are property too, but since they are animals and not people, I don’t have a problem with that. Also, animals aren’t sentient beings, as far as I can tell, no matter what level of intelligence they apparently do have.
It is unfortunate that man would seek to rule over man in such a manner, but it is what it was. I actually agreed with the Dred Scott case, despite the horrendous outcome it brought on. Slaves are property.
In a weird way, this is how I viewed prostitution for a time. I viewed it as voluntary servitude in the most degrading form unless the pimp forcibly kept his hooker on a tight leash. That is when it becomes slavery.
So really, what difference is there between what the government does that infringes upon our right to life, liberty, and property without due process and what a master does to slave? There is none and the sooner that people begin to realize that Socialism and pretty much all other Statist ideologies merely reduce the individual to a slave to the state.
I guess this notion of freedom was fun while it lasted. Too bad I was born too late to really enjoy it.