Article by Bob Podolsky republished by permission on Oct. 27, 2015
Originally published at Titanians.org
It’s Not What You Thought
Most people realize that slavery still exists in the world today. And often, with this awareness, comes the mistaken belief that it happens elsewhere than here at home. Too often we think of slavery in terms of “human trafficking”, and imagine it confined to women sold to wealthy middle-easterners or Asians as sex slaves.
While this form of slavery does exist, it is the LEAST common form of slavery in the “modern” world. There is another form of slavery that is far more prevalent and widespread than human trafficking – and infinitely more dangerous when it is seen for what it is.
“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves”.
– Harriet Tubman
What Is Slavery?
The common concept of slavery, is based on the historical version of it that only existed in the U.S. prior to 1865:
1. Society is divided between slaves and their “owners”.
2. Slaves have the same rights as furniture or cattle, but slightly higher than women in relation to their owners – which is to say none. No one could be held accountable for harm done to their slaves, or their women for that matter.
3. Slave owners maintain their slaves only to the minimum level necessary for the ownership to be profitable.
4. For this reason slave labor is cheaper than non-slave labor – which gives the owners an advantage over their competition.
5. Slaves own nothing – not even the clothes on their backs – and certainly not the fruits of their labor.
6. Slaves are forbidden to do many things that non-slaves are permitted to do.
7. Some slaves outrank others, as dictated by their owners.
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
– J. W. von Goethe
It is my contention that more than 95% of the people living in the United States are literally unwitting slaves to the 1% or so who are in the “ownership class”.
Our Societal Class Structure
• The Elite or Ownership Class – these are the folks who own the world’s central banks and the giant corporations. Most of them are virtually unknown to the public, and take steps to keep it that way. It is this group that makes all the important policy decisions. A very high percentage of these people are psychopaths, who have no conscience, experience no remorse, and are incapable of empathy. And they are prone to the formation of highly unethical cartels.
It is primarily this group that initiates wars, not caring how many millions of people die so they can get what they want, no matter how evil their aspirations. Through the governments that this class owns, some 300,000,000 people have been murdered in the last 100 years by minions of their own governments. They have destroyed the lives of an even greater number in this time frame – leaving them crippled, maimed, homeless, and hopelessly impoverished.
We also need to include the millions of lives ruined by the resource loss entailed by imprisoning “non-violent offenders” – especially those convicted of victimless “crimes”. And these numbers don’t even include those killed in wars (friends and foes alike).
Also I’ve heard from multiple credible sources that our ultra-rich bankers, who are also owners of large corporations, funded and armed Hitler during the 3rd Reich, Stalin of the Soviet Union, and a number of other despots in Asia and South America. Often selling weapons to armies on both sides of a conflict.
Members of the Ownership Class are effectively “above the law.” They own the monetary system, the legal system, the government, the media, the schools; they are therefore immune to any form of accountability currently in existence. They are the “nobility” of today’s world. The entire system is designed to protect them and their hierarchic “power structure”.
• The Political Class
The political class is comprised of “politicians” – men and women who aspire to membership in the ownership class. Collectively they comprise the operational robot that gives the ownership class control over most of the rest of the world’s population.
While many politicians are psychopaths, the percentage is somewhat lower than in the ownership class. For this reason ethical people occasionally get elected – only to find that they acquire no power or influence unless they are willing to compromise their ethics. Local, county, and state governments are usually just as corrupt as federal governments, and in recent years have become more so, as they morph into adjuncts of the federal government – doing their “dirty-work” for them on the local level. Hence the militarization of local and regional police forces.
Functionally, the political class is the intermediary between the ownership class and the, vastly bigger, slave class to which most people belong. Although technically the political class is itself enslaved by the ownership class, it is a slave class of much higher rank than the rest of the slaves.
It should be noted that the influence that the ownership class has over the political class is largely financial – and since they create the money out of nothing, this is easy for them to do . The ownership class funds the campaigns of the politicians – and by funding both the campaigns of the most obedient contenders, they effectively buy the election.
“I don’t care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating”.
– Boss William M. Tweed
• The Slave Class
Putting on my therapist’s hat for just a moment, I want to point out:
- when a small child cannot get love, they’ll settle for approval.
- When they can’t get approval, they’ll settle for attention.
- And when they can’t get positive attention, they’ll settle for negative attention.
Conditioning that enforces the need for approval begins usually around the age of two
years.
An inordinate need for approval, and the dependency that stems from that need, is the mind-set that enslaves most people. The parent of an approval-seeking child is typically especially stern, authoritarian, and unforgiving of disobedience or dissent. Such a parent can never take “no” for an answer and effectively crushes the independent will of the child.
This was the dominant form of parenting in Germany during the 30’s – and seems to be a parenting modality that’s on the grow in the U.S. today. It leads directly to fascism and the cruelties that accompany it.
I’ll have more to say about slavery below; but first, some recognition of the fourth and last class: the free class.
• The Free Class
Compared to the other classes, the free class is a tiny minority – probably on the same scale as the ownership class. The free class has no noble aspirations, no desire to control others (except in self defense), and is universally unwilling to accept the authority of others over themselves. In other words, these are the folks who actually live a life based on the belief: we are all “created equal” – and who won’t compromise this conviction as long as they can resist compromise without becoming victims of authoritarian violence.
Being free is not easy in today’s world; because our entire way of functioning as a society is built on the assumption that authority is valid. Note that members of the ownership and political classes always maintain this fiction, with violence or its’ threat, without which their socio-political rank would collapse. However, no factual evidence exists whatsoever that any one person has authority over another. Even parental authority over one’s children is bogus, though parents often resort to an authoritarian stance in order to manipulate their children into abject compliance
Free people only comply with those who claim authority over them when the price of disobedience is more than they can afford. So we wind up picking our fights rather carefully. For instance, I’ll usually not exceed the “speed limit” by more than 10% out of fear that I’ll fall victim to a gun-toting, badge-wearing thug in a costume.
And similarly, I’ve arranged my professional life in such a way that I’ve avoided participating in a cartel – and, though I could enjoy a more prosperous life as cartel member, I refuse to join one on principle. In case you don’t understand this, be aware that every activity that requires a license or a permit, bestowing government blessings on you, is controlled by a cartel.
More About Slavery
With the above understandings as context, let’s go back now and have another look at slavery as a concept. Our conceptual model says:
1. Society is divided between slaves and their “owners”.
2. Slaves have the same rights as furniture or cattle in relation to their owners – which is to say none. No one can be held accountable for harm done to their slaves.
3. Slave owners maintain their slaves only to the minimum level necessary for the ownership to be profitable.
4. For this reason slave labor is cheaper than non-slave labor – which gives the owners an advantage over their competition.
5. Slaves own nothing – not even the clothes on their backs – and certainly not the fruits of their labor.
6. Slaves are forbidden to do many things that non-slaves, or higher ranking slaves, are permitted to do.
7. Some slaves outrank others, as dictated by their owners.
Let’s examine these concepts one at a time.
1. There exist groups of people having the social characteristics that I outlined above in the section on class structure – and that there are different “classes” of people in our society.
2. Have you ever heard of a member of the ownership class being held accountable for their war crimes, for the unnecessary deaths of millions, for the pillaging of the middle class, for the banditry common on our roads, or the plunder of our national resources? I haven’t. For that matter, how often have politicians, legislators, judges, or cops been held accountable for their crimes? It does happen – but rarely. Usually because someone has pissed off someone of higher social rank. So criterion 2. above applies.
3. Do corporations pay you more in salary than what it would cost to replace you? Do the big corporations keep their business domestic, or do they outsource jobs to areas in the world where labor is cheaper – like China? Doesn’t this mean that Criteria 3. and 4. apply to most of us.
4. Do you own the fruits of your labor? If you pay taxes, probably not. No matter whether you pay $1.00 or $1,000,000 in taxes, the fact that you are coerced into paying anything at all means you don’t own what your body produces – hence not your body. That makes you a slave.
Real ownership of anything of value is forbidden to slaves. Test your ownership of your real estate by not paying property taxes, drive a motor vehicle without a “permission plate”, operate a business without a “tax privilege license” or even feed yourself without a “social privilege number”.
Guess what, you’re merely renting that house that you think you own! The same applies to everything that you think you own. Between “eminent domain” and “civil asset forfeiture”, everything that you think you own, including your life, is susceptible to confiscation by some bureaucrat and a thug in a costume.
5. People in the ownership and political classes can kill millions of innocents with total impunity. Can you? Probably not. Yet any cop who stops you for a minor infraction or violation of some automotive regulation can kill you for contempt of cop and face no serious consequences. This is happening all over the country with more and more frequency. The existence of such privileges defines the 5th and 6th criteria for slavery.
Conclusions
“O.K.”, you say. “So I’m a slave. So what? What can I do about it?” In answer to this questions, here are some suggestions:
1. Read “FLOURISH!” It will go a long ways toward setting you free.
2. Get paid for your work in BitCoins. Keep them safe. Don’t tell the bureaucrats. As you put this strategy in play, go out of business. Create a private club to replace your business. Find suppliers who will accept BitCoins for what you need.
3. Keep your profession; but quit the cartel that controls it. This means stop buying licenses. Free people don’t need licenses, licenses are for slaves.
4. Hang out with people who are really free. You’ll soon find that freedom is more valuable than the “money” the ownership class “produces”.
5. The maximization of freedom and the “non-aggression principle” are good ideas; they are not enough to create the paradigm shift needed to create systemic change. Learn the truth about ethics, and decide to live a knowledgeably ethical life. This step is very manageable.
6. Reduce your tax burden as much as you can. Avoid taxes when you can.
7. If you still think that taxation is legitimate, read “Why Taxation Is Slavery”. It provides three good examples supporting the premise that taxation is truly a form of slavery – and is probably second only to hierarchy as the greatest threat to the future of human well-being.
8. And most importantly, begin questioning authority at every opportunity. Prove to yourself how false it is – ALWAYS!
