Not following this.Kenny wrote:If we look at slavery as practiced in the USA during the 18th and 19th centuries, the society practicing slavery saw the primitive people they enslaved as inferior to themselves. They didn’t have the modern POV that all people are equally capable of contributing to society, they felt they were more capable of thinking and controlling, and those they enslaved were only good for working and taking orders. When you dehumanize an entire race of people that way, the psychological effects you spoke of isn’t going to apply to them.plouiswork wrote: Slavery is one of many things that causes problems for our society. I don't just mean from a utilitarian standpoint of what children born into slavery can accomplish for society. I mean from a psychological perspective of what it does to all citizens, both would-be slave owners and those who are put under subjugation. It fosters the belief that a person is deserving of respect, not for their inner qualities or contributions to society, but for the status of their birth. More importantly, it curbs the development of empathy, limiting it only to those people who are "like me" on both sides of the divide. These psychological effects, of course, have corresponding manifestations in behavior.
Again; if you were raised to believe the enslaved race is inferior to your race, to mistreat them would be akin to mistreating your dog.plouiswork wrote: One of the biggest dangers in today's society is the "us vs them" mentality. Small, dedicated groups (such as terrorists) have required our society to heighten security measures and breaches of privacy just to contain this real threat. Slavery would extend this threat to every household in which it's implemented, as slaves have been designated as outside of those with protection of basic rights. What motive do slaves have to cooperate with society if their basic rights are being overruled by the personal preferences of others? The only reliable motive I can see is through the use of force that slave owners have through their power over their slaves, and this behavior has further implications for the issues of domestic abuse and violence within families, to say nothing of the rising resentment of the oppressed.
Ken
Are you saying it is wrong to be raised to believe an enslaved race is inferior?
What you appear to be saying is that the slave holders weren't really wrong, because they believed that slaves were again to a lower animal.
But it seems once again you are smuggling in OM, in saying that the modern view is BETTER. Again you are measuring without grounding any standard of measure.
