Slave (slerv) - n
1) A person legally owned by another and having no freedom of action or right to property
2) A person who is forced to work for another against his will
3) (fig) A person under the domination of another person or some habit or influence: a slave to television
4) A person who works in harsh conditions for low pay
5) a. A device that is controlled by or that duplicates the action of another similar device (the master device)
b. (as modifier): slave cylinder
Origin: via Old French from Medieval Latin Sclavus a Slav, one held in bondage (from the fact that Slavonic races were frequently conquered in the Middle Ages), from Late Greek Sklabos a Slav
In current Western philosophy and literature and popular commentary, any form of slavery is considered to be, and to have always been, a Very Bad Thing, and now, happily, it's been completely eradicated, thanks largely to the Americans following the Civil War.
Both parts of this statement are untrue.
1) A person legally owned by another and having no freedom of action or right to property
2) A person who is forced to work for another against his will
3) (fig) A person under the domination of another person or some habit or influence: a slave to television
4) A person who works in harsh conditions for low pay
5) a. A device that is controlled by or that duplicates the action of another similar device (the master device)
b. (as modifier): slave cylinder
Origin: via Old French from Medieval Latin Sclavus a Slav, one held in bondage (from the fact that Slavonic races were frequently conquered in the Middle Ages), from Late Greek Sklabos a Slav
In current Western philosophy and literature and popular commentary, any form of slavery is considered to be, and to have always been, a Very Bad Thing, and now, happily, it's been completely eradicated, thanks largely to the Americans following the Civil War.
Both parts of this statement are untrue.
- Slavery comes in many forms, and while most of them are morally indigestible, slavery is generally pretty good for the slave owners (from whom most of us descend at some point), and not all types of slavery are bad for the slaves*. There is a 2001-Nobel-prize winning model of economic development which argues that more-or-less-slavery is more-or-less responsible for modern life. which I will get to in due course, possibly in the next post because this one has taken me so long.
- Slavery has not been eradicated. True slavery - being legally owned by another human being and forced to work for no pay - is a normal condition of marriage for many of the world's women due to tradition, religion, or circumstance; and is part of normal life for most children in the developing world, and much of the rural and urban poor globally. We - those with computers and the leisure time to sit and read blogs on the internet - know this but deliberately and carefully forget it. We also deliberately forget that we benefit quite nicely from this in our day-to-day life. Furthermore, by the loose definition - working in harsh conditions for low pay - many of us have access to slave-type labour for our own benefit.
