JW's are slaves- but not in a good way

by joey jojo 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  joey jojo

  I was reading about the American slave trade again recently. As anyone who has read anything about the subject knows, it makes for very uncomfortable reading. Every time I read the history, I'm left with a sense of outrage and seething anger at the pure inhumanity and injustice of what life must have been like for those people.

  I came across an unsettling quote from a publication written in 1850 which described how slave owners can produce and maintain the 'ideal slave'.

  1. Maintain strict discipline and unconditional submission.
  2. Create a sense of personal inferiority, so that slaves "know their place."
  3. Instill fear.
  4. Teach servants to take interest in their master's enterprise.
  5. Deprive access to education and recreation, to ensure that slaves remain uneducated, helpless, and dependent.

  Sound familiar?
  
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  jwfacts

  The GB should be renamed “the Faithful and Discreet Slave Owners.”
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  scratchme1010

  JW's are slaves- but not in a good way
  

  First time I hear that there's a good way of being a slave.
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  cha ching

  Haha! Good one, JWFacts! "Faithful and Discreet Slave Owners!"
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  stuckinarut2

  What makes it even worse, is that JWs have been conditioned to actually think it is a GOOD thing to be a "slave" to the "truth"!

  Just as they are proud of being a "sheep"!

  Amazing how they don't see the problems with that...
  
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  Odrade

  They even use the language of the slave trade, calling all of the positions "overseer," instead of more traditional religious terminology like deacon, priest, pastor, minister, bishop.
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  stuckinarut2

  And they do like the term "the Rod of discipline"....
  
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  jwundubbed

  First time I hear that there's a good way of being a slave.

  Well, there is a good way. It is called a consent based relationship. People willingly go into a contract fully informed, having negotiated terms and consenting to follow certain roles/rules. This types is not found in the black slave trade. It isn't found in the white human trafficking slave trade. It wasn't among white men who made slaves of indigenous people, though it was sometimes found among indigenous people who made slaves of white people or foreigners. It is found in the indentured servants of the 1800s England and America. It is found in ancient Rome, ancient Greece, and a whole bunch of different eras and societies. You just have to look a little harder for it. Even in this type of slavery, there are abusers and predators. That happens everywhere humans are. But you can find some amazing stories of real life atypical stories. You just have to look for them.

  In ancient Rome, there were certain slave positions that were sought after and had an elevated status. Most people don't want to be slaves and that is when it is bad and wrong. But history is actually full of examples (rare though they may be) of people who actually went into slavery willingly. Slaves had something that some other people didn't have. They had a roof over their heads, fully bellies, and even protection from harm. If you had an owner that treated slaves well, if you have a higher status, etc. then slavery wasn't always the worst thing in the world.

  There are also forms of prostitutes in some former societies that had a slave status which gave women certain freedoms. The Hetaera of ancient Greece were one of these. They were like really highly educated and high priced companions. They couldn't marry at the highest level of society but once they worked off their service term then they were able to work for themselves. They were highly educated and had a very high status in society. They were often able to own land, have their own slaves, hold positions in government, and had the ability to acquire large amounts of money. Their counterparts (free women of high social status/class) who were able to marry, had much more limited rights and were always under the thumb of their husbands or other male relatives.

  So... yeah... there actually are good kinds of slavery.

  
  
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  _Morpheus

  @jwundubbed- you wrote (in part)

  It isn't found in the white human trafficking slave trade. It wasn't among white men who made slaves of indigenous people, though it was sometimes found among indigenous people who made slaves of white people or foreigners. It is found in the indentured servants of the 1800s England and America.

  read it again.... and again.... see the contradiction? Its not found among white people... but it is found among the indentured servants of england and america? Those are white people. In your rush to idenitfy the white man as the root of all evil you made directly contradicting statements.

  Also never forget it was blacks who started slavery. It was the white man who ended it. Blacks still practice slavery to this day.

  Also also there is no “good” form of slavery, workout exception. Indentured servitude is simply a whitewashed term. Its slavery by any other name.

  You also said

  But history is actually full of examples (rare though they may be) of people who actually went into slavery willingly.

  sooo.... it is rare or is history full of examples? It cant be both.

  your pseudo intellectual guano needs some polish.
  
  
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  slimboyfat

  Morph, don’t want to alarm you, but you’re missing a good collapse thread.