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No, slavery is not forced labor. It is not a legal term. It is not a form of property. It is not racism, or nationalism, or an empire. These things are the symptoms of slavery, but they are not its essence.
It is not a “mode of production.” Neither is it an “historical stage in the evolution of humanity.” These are only convenient mantras used by those who want to conceal the real essence of slavery.
The essence of slavery is elsewhere. Few are those who understand it and are willing to say it publicly. Even fewer are those who self-consciously stand against it.
The essence of slavery can be seen clearly in Moses’ experience with the Hebrews. The nation of Israel was in slavery in Egypt where they were forced to heavy exhausting labor under cruel taskmasters. They had no so-called human rights, and their children were being massacred by their oppressors. And when Moses led them out of the land of slavery to take them to the Promised Land of Liberty, they rebelled against him and complained: “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic” (Num. 11:5). The former slaves didn’t remember the slavery with the taskmasters, the whips, and the forced labor. They remembered it with the things that they “did eat freely.”
The Strugatsky Brothers—well-known science fiction writers in Russia—see the essence of slavery in the same way in their novel The Second Invasion from Mars. In the “first invasion from Mars” in H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, the Martians come with weapons and force. The Martians in the Strugatsky’s novel are smarter, and they know well the very nature of man. Instead of force, they offer goods. Freely. And conquer without a shot.
The triumph of slavery.
Slavery doesn’t start with the slaveholders. It starts with the slaves. It doesn’t start when someone draws a gun and forces others to work for them. It starts when the others refuse to take care of themselves and their families, when they ask for someone to give them what they want—from cradle to grave. Freely. Slavery starts when a man abandons the responsibility to make decisions for his own life and let others make those decisions. The real essence of slavery is in the deliberate surrender of individual rights and responsibilities to others. Slavery is in the instinct to be a sheep and find others to feed you and shear you.
In today’s world, slavery is government welfare. Government healthcare is for those who never do anything about their own health. The government Social Security is for those who refuse to care for their own future. So-called free government education is for the children whose parents can make children but refuse to take the responsibility to educate them. Government regulation of the economic and family life of a nation is slavery. The government bailouts for irresponsible corporations and banks. The tariffs that protect inefficient domestic industries against domestic customers. The labor legislation that regulates employers and gives security to workers irrespective of their skills and work ethics. The government academic tenure for life for professors to protect them against younger and innovating competition. The government licensing regulations for whole industries to protect the old guilds against effective newcomers. The racial and ethnic quotas that favor people on the basis of their belonging to a group rather than their skills and commitment. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
All these are slavery. They have the same motive for their foundation: Man’s desire to escape the responsibility for his own life and work. The people who want them, raise the same cry as those Hebrews in Moses’ time: “We were doing so good with the fish that we did eat freely, and with the leeks, and the garlic, and the onions.” We had others to think for us. We want others to think for us. Even if that entails whips and forced labor under the scorching sun. Even if that means 60 percent taxes, waiting for hours at the mercy of faceless bureaucrats, humiliations and forfeiting our rights to life, liberty and property. Give us our free piece of bread every day!
A nation of slaves has no future. Eventually it dies. Whether of invasion, or of extinction, one day it ceases to exist. No government can save it. No promises for daily pieces of bread—freely —can save it. Slaves have no future-oriented worldview, and therefore they have no future.
Only those who are free indeed have a future. The future belongs to those who take the responsibility for it. Anything else is a lie and self-deceit.
A Reformed missionary to his native Bulgaria for over 10 years, Bojidar preaches and teaches doctrines of the Reformation and a comprehensive Biblical worldview. Having founded Bulgarian Reformation Ministries in 2001, he and his team have translated over 30,000 pages of Christian literature about the application of the Law of God in every area of man’s life and society, and published those translations online for free. He has been active in the formation of the Libertarian movement in Bulgaria, a co-founder of the Bulgarian Society for Individual Liberty and its first chairman. If you would like Bojidar to speak to your church, homeschool group or other organization, contact him through his website: http://www.bulgarianreformation.org/ 
Sounds like he's talking about the American people…well, I can tell you I don't feel free. I don't like it either! I was raised to appreciate the freedoms I had. It gives me pride to serve my country. I don't want her to fall.
This article is about conditions created by our government for decades. Make people dependent on you, poor things, and then stripe it away. Just like our checking accounts, IRA's, stocks, bonds, personal investments, financial investments, housing, economic, and all the other reserves each American had. Then Tax us heavily to keep us dependent.
Yes, socialism, marxism…whatever you chose to call it…SUCKS!
Thank you for elucidating the position of the hyper-conservative movement. You have indeed embraced the Pauline position of no work, no eat literally, as commenter AHN has pointed out. However, as with most things, reality is a little more complex.
I agree that liberal policies have created a welfare class that is a force to reckon with today, both politically and socially. Empire builders within these Godless bureaucracies have indeed built a mighty house in the sand. It is bound to topple by lack of a real foundation based on productivity. And here in lies the rub, we must deal with people, society, government etc. where they currently are, not where we wish they were. When God asked Cain where his brother was, he asked God if he were his brother's keeper. Cain's presupposed answer to his rhetorical question was apparently wrong in God's eyes. Thus, when liberal welfare programs with no accountability became the norm, the church abdicated its God ordained responsibility to help those less fortunate. People of Jesus' era would voluntarily enslave themselves to others as a means of support, true. The missing point is without the voluntary enslavement they would have died, along with their families.
To put this in perspective, I am apparently one that does not "do anything about their own health" or "care for my own future". I have muscular dystrophy and was forced out of my job due to disability. As a result, I am losing my insurance, of which cannot be replaced because of my "pre-existing" condition. In an attempt to "care for my own future" I had put back some money for retirement. I spent almost a quarter of a million dollars last year to clean up all outstanding debt. I owe nothing, but if it were not for social security I would be completely broke in the not too distant future and on the street. My personal goal as well as the goal of the conservative movement should be back to accountability and self support. Dehumanizing those that necessarily rely on the current network of "safety nets" is not helping the movement.
In responding I have made some guesses as to how you believe. If I have placed words in the writers mouth, please let me know. In the part time ministry God has entrusted me with, I try to balance our Christian principles of work ethic versus care for the less fortunate.
wow
Your article is right on target. No one asks to be a slave, is certainly true to Ben's point, but by virtue of not taking responsibility for one's self, we become slaves. Our failure in today's culture is , we are ignorant to the trade off!
The Bible teaches a biblical priniciple or ethic of work. Paul spells this out clearly in the "if you don't work you don't eat" priniciple. This is a priniciple which needs to be revisited again in this country if we are to survive.
This is political opinion and has little to do with the evils of slavery. Having worked with slavery in the modern world the people I've encountered we all forced and tricked into unbelievably horrible lives of labor or sexual slavery. They were indeed trapped. To take this to a political conservative-speak level and blame the victims is incredibly stupid and reveals the moral blindness of the writer. Just to touch on one point he discussed, the medical system in the US, the major cause of bankruptcy in our country is medical disaster in the family. I know this from personal experience. I know several, as I am sure the readers must, who even had very "good" health insurance, a long work history, and a solid financial background that was totally destroyed by the incredible effects of cancer. To look the other way in matters such as this, to blame the victims is an example of "life boat morality."
Obviously you are a thinker and highly motivated person. I find a state of progression that may link both opinions. First, oppressors are opportunists and they typically position themselves in the streambeds of money and power (government, religions, etc) like bears feeding upon migratory salmon. The migration begins with healthy energetic fish with a God-given desire for something more.. By the time they reach the spawning pools they are exhausted from the journey and many become lunch for grizzlies. A civilization becomes ripe for enslavement when it’s reach for clear individual achievement is exchanged for grasping at amorphous unattainable group “equality.” leaving society depleted and an easy prey for slave traders. Slavery, in the end, is the ultimate in equal rights: none for anyone. Our penal system serves as Exhibit A. Most crimes fall into the category of attempted “unearned equality” by means of theft or violence. Are the prisoners victims? Many in our society think so. Their enslavement is obvious.
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The Democratic Party is being infiltrated by socialist, communist and Marxist. Practically all the nominee by the president has communist, socialist and Marxist roots.
Progressive is “Marxism through evolution”, Hitler’s is “Marxism through revolution”. The name does not matter, the end results counts.
Every policy or law passed so far WILL weaken and bankrupt America in the long term. Our extreme deficit spending WILL force this country into bankruptcy within ten years. The dollar WILL collapse and then the government WILL take control (it is already controlling the banking, automobiles and health care sector, working on communication; and the newest is the financial sector and oil drilling sector).
Very soon we WILL lose our freedom and liberty, and be the SLAVE of the government.
A demagogue politician uses class-warfare to creat hypothetical victims; victims who then put on a road to serfdom and slavery.
I appreciate your perspective on socialist policies, but I'm not sure I agree with the analogy as it applies to modern or even historical slavery. Having worked in the abolitionist movement, I can tell you nobody actively seeks out and agrees to become a slave. They are either deceived, threatened, manipulated or coerced into circumstances where they no longer have the ability to walk away. Often, people become victims precisely because they are trying to take care of their family – they think they are getting a better job or an opportunity to improve their situation when in reality they are being trapped.
Ben – I believe that you and the author are saying very similar things. I see that the initial enslavement of the Israelites was different as they were conquered and forced into slavery, but their convoluted thinking that they wanted to go back to slavery because the food tasted better and it was just supplied to them freely (not connecting the dots that they had to labor for long hours with whippings, punishments and death of loved ones to get the 'freebies') was what demonstrates the slavery or victim mentality (essence, the author calls it) that so permeates humanity. The person who ends up enslaved in a free society initially goes along with it because they think that it is a way to provide for themselves and their families, because they either do not understand the deception behind it, or they are drawn in by the appeal of provision that seems so easy, "free" if you will. Really, I believe that it is some of both that lures them in. Then it is like the frog that did not know that it was being cooked because he was thrown into tepid water at first. By the time he realized he was being cooked, he could no longer jump out of the pot. At least that is the perception of the person who finds himself now enslaved by the system, so he cries out for more 'free' things instead of beginning to take personal responsibility and resolving to do the hard work of liberty and of taking care of him/herself. It is like the character in the Matrix who chooses to go back to it because it feels better than the fight against it, but he gives up all of the freedom and truth that he knew in order to go back. I am afraid that if we don't teach and encourage liberty and the fight for it, especially to our young people, that we will end up like Greece, devastated by the inability of the government to sustain our lifestyles, and violently rioting to demand (which is futile) that they keep supporting us, because we will be dominated by this 'essence' or mentality. Rush Limbaugh said the other day that America will survive this administration and it's push for socialism, but it won't survive the majority that voted it in (if they do not learn and embrace the truth).