doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Are these liberals you guys talking about?

Actually, slavery in Mauritania was outlawed in 1905 (by the French), and again in 1960 (by the Islamic Republic)...but I was attended by slaves at the governor's residence in Boutilimit in 1975! Mauritania outlawed slavery again in 1981 (by the military junta), but by all accounts it continues today.

Interesting thing was, the slaves I saw were better dressed, better fed and better treated than most 'free' Mauritanians, because they were considered valuable property! Desert people were eager to sell their children, not just for the cash, but because slavery might give their kids a better life.

I'm not much of a scholar. I barely read anything.

That said, it seems to me that we're talking about different things. I'm not going to get into the slavery issue, with regard to "what the Bible says" because faith-based, yet scholarly, discussions always seem (or lean towards the) absurd.

We may have (animal) proclivities that lead us to commmit acts that would be perceived, by most, as evil. That is probably why people came up with tribal laws, religions, governments to begin with. There is power in consensus. That power works both for and against the "rights" of the individual, hence the need to recognize and protect the individual (animal/natural) right to self preservation.

"Liberals" are the FIRST people who should recognize this! They share something in common with the "founding fathers" of our "government"... They don't trust THEMSELVES!~) I'm not sure how that translates into trusting their respective governments.

That's not too far off what was crossing my mind in regards to the Bible about the "buying" of others regardless of the term being used such as servant, bondman, slave, etc. How many were similar to being indentured servants vs. captivity against one's will? No doubt there were those held in captivity by Israel against their will that were likely captured during wars with the Phillistines and other nations just as Israel was taken into captivity by the Babylonians.

...and the point is?

Effectively, almost all mericans are enslaved by our dependence on credit!~) In any case, being an armed slave is always a better deal.

Jacob, good point. Actually I had much more profound points to ponder on the second amendment and liberals than I did on slavery, but the slavery business is so misunderstood that I was almost forced to comment on that rather than the theme of the thread! A "liberal outlook on the second amendment" is not to be confused with "liberals versus conservatives" in modern U.S. politics. They are two very different uses of the L word.

"The separation of the classes by economics in our world today is to some a prediction of the return to slavery in even the most enlightened societies."

A profound observation, eightbore, and it seems there aren't enough of core beliefs and intellect to do anything about it.

Well, King, I sure can't do anything about it. I'm not going back to school for a more technical education and I'm nicely involved in a defined benefit retirement program and am looking for a few minutes of free time to apply for my first SS check, due in October. I am truly a dinosaur who will not be enslaved, but as for my grandchildren, I don't know. Is there a book I can have them read that explains adequately the way they may be denied partication in a free economic society as they mature?

How is "the separation of the classes by economics" any different today from other times? The classes have always been separated by economics, and always will be.

JJE: "Our dependence on credit" is voluntary servitude, not slavery. Only the addict believes he is not free to choose.

Jack, at least on this side of the pond that divides us from Europe, the gulf of separation between the haves and have nots (or, more properly, between the "have lots" and the "haves"--CEO's and workers) has widened significantly of late. In Europe, at least if you go back to the time of nobles, peasants and serfs, the gulf of separation has grown narrower--partly, at least, because of the tax structure in most European countries. And the fact that it's fairly hard to find peasants and serfs these days. So while the classes are still separated, they're separated in a far different fashion today than in the past. And there are also far more people in the middle, compared to those on either the high or low end.

Voluntary servitude... Yep... Too danged much of that going around!~)

Luckily(?) for me, "credit" is one of those few things to which I have never been addicted. I am currently debt free...and have the dearth of goods to prove it!~) This sloth addiction is killing me, though!