The continuation of the quote from last week..from Revolt Against Maturity.. Yes, I know what you might very well be thinking.."oh, another quote, I don't have time to read quotes", but I'll have you know that it's worth the read. At least to me, as I tend to think about topics I wouldn't normally, and then consider how those same fruits of actions are grown in our own country..after all, slavery in one form or another is not a thing of the past. Adieu and have a great Lord's day!

Jode


"The material which this commission assembled brought some amazing facts to light. The house slaves were indeed members of the oldest aristocratic families in the land. Centuries ago, an impoverished member of the family had sold his freedom to some prince of other, whereby the rights and duties of the new slave and his descendants were exactly prescribed. The slaves were only obliged to do the work which had been done by the first of their line. And for this they were maintained by their masters all their lives and in certain circumstances they were rewarded with presents.
In the course of time, it was the princes who became impoverished and the aristocratic slaves who increased in the most devastating fashion. It thus came about that many a slave owner had to expend his whole income in supporting the descendants of his original slave. If the first of them had been a cook or a groom, all his descendants --- and their number increased with the passage of time to dozens --- could be nothing else but cooks or grooms. One slave owner with three horses had to maintain thirty grooms, who lived in his own house and demanded presents from him. Another, who was living from hand to mouth himself, had at his disposal twenty cooks, and it never occurred to a single one of them to do anything but lounge about in the kitchen. All the slaves had valid documents in their hands, which protected their position, and they regarded this attempt to free them as a brutal injustice and violation of their ancient privileges, whereas for more of the owners the riddance of their slaves meant bliss unheard of.

Not all slave-owners have had such unfavorable conditions, but the mark of a true slave, the spirit of slavery, is precisely that which Essad-Bey described. The slaves of the Causasus were some of the oldest aristocracy; today, many of the oldest aristocracy of the West, major capitalists, workers, and farmers are alike infected with the spirit of bondage or slavery, which had always a preference for security as against freedom, and the certainties of slavery as against the risks of liberty. Fear is the mark of a slave, and ultimately his fear is a fear of life and its problems and a search for the womb-like security he imagines slavery to be. The slave had the backward look, the orientation to the past, and an oblivion to the future, because he has none. True slavery is of the spirit, and it is a flight from life."

To be continued..again. :D Or should I say, to to be continued, that's how I rename files.. "newimage" newnewimage" ..."newnewernestimageanddontforgetit".