The Kintyre Forum

If you had lived in Britain 250 years ago, would you have accepted slaves and slavery as just being a normal part of everyday life - or do you think would you have thought "this is wrong" and tried to change things?

What a ridiculous question.

Ah cun mind thi very sem question be'in ask'd tae me aboot 157 years ago, but furr thi life oh me ah canna mine the answer.

Terrible question, but answer has to be ''yes, of course you would put up with it''. Same as Nazi Germany, most people would have been high kicking if we had been in place/time.

It is a whole different question if you are asking '' is it wrong???????''

To me it is how much would you put up with individually, ie we are slaves to:

1/ wages
2/ work (different to 1)
3/ mortgage (biggest of all in these greedy times)
4/ family
5/ political correctness (no one wants to be seen to give offence)

As a country we have been ''slaves'' to our Southerly neibs for 250 years and to our eternal shame have never really tried to oust them so it comes down to ypur own defination of slavery.

Next!!!!!!!!!

peaceseeker wrote:What a ridiculous question.

well, what's the answer?

There are probably many things that were accepted by the general populace 250 years ago that would make us cringe today. Slavery is just one of them. Was the general public aware at that time, of what was going on in Africa/West Indies, when communications weren't what they are today?

Probably people at that time were taken up too much with their own lives and their own problems to be too concerned about what was going on elsewhere, if they even knew about it. Life was a lot harder then than it is now.

By the way, is there a supplementary question coming?

Would anyone in this country have any real notion of what slavery was? You have to remember that many of those forced to got to Canada and the US during the clearances, paid for their passage by agreeing to become itinerant slaves for a set period of time of anything up to 7 years. These itinerant slaves were treated equally badly by their English and German "owners" who thought of the highlander as a lower breed of human. The tobacco Barons of Galsgow made their fortunes from slaves working in the plantations, but I'm sure the average weegie 150years ago had no idea.

Charlie wrote:If you had lived in Britain 250 years ago, would you have accepted slaves and slavery as just being a normal part of everyday life - or do you think would you have thought "this is wrong" and tried to change things?

It has happened in the past, Plato made the same error, although It would be perhaps unkind to describe it as purely down to error, more to do with evolutionary learning, or to be correct the nature of development. I think in many respects that one particular feature of Slavery was favorable to the slave, as opposed to the conditions of today's Lumpen proletariat amongst others. That is to say that it was in the best interest of the owner to keep the wretches well fed healthy and strong- Alas today's economic forces have never taken that level of responsibility, we now enjoy the freedom to look after ourselves- like all freedom it depends on what you make of it to a certain extent. Slavery- what changes.

Can you see any daylight with your head up there?

In reply to Ionnsaigh,when you mention "Lumpen proletariat" did you mean.....

Lumpen Proletariat....a punk rock band from Ottowa??
or
Lumpenproletariat...the underclass of a human population??

...

Hadrians hiring! wrote:Terrible question, but answer has to be ''yes, of course you would put up with it''. Same as Nazi Germany, most people would have been high kicking if we had been in place/time.

It is a whole different question if you are asking '' is it wrong???????''

To me it is how much would you put up with individually, ie we are slaves to:

1/ wages
2/ work (different to 1)
3/ mortgage (biggest of all in these greedy times)
4/ family
5/ political correctness (no one wants to be seen to give offence)

As a country we have been ''slaves'' to our Southerly neibs for 250 years and to our eternal shame have never really tried to oust them so it comes down to ypur own defination of slavery.

Next!!!!!!!!!

Great post !!! But ...

1) Assuming some eastern "european" person doesn't take over your job (a willing slave, but the economic reward is so tempting?) ,
2) Even the concept of a gold watch and ass booting out the door at 65 is now becoming very rare.

a) you prolly won't work for one company for that long (they can employ cheaper, younger, more pliable & co-ercive slaves than you)
b) retirement at 65 won't be an option (face it, whatever job you do, there's no pension at the end of the rainbow ...keep slaving)
c) Greenland, Tonga, Mongolia & Peru will all be in the Eurpean Union by then (yes there is a bottomless pit of cheap migrant slave labour to be had, so don't get all uppity)

3) yes, you can slave all your days to purchase the roof over your head, but your gonna end up in a 6 foot box ( can't take it with you I'm afraid)

Sweltered wrote:Can you see any daylight with your head up there?

Here lies the proof of the pudding-your own shortcomings self evident -there for all to see.You have yet to learn the art of civilised conversation Oh your good. Ill give you that, a bit of fun here, mockery there character class assassination so on and so on. I put forward a perfectly valid point- that any civilised individual could praise or criticise without having to resort to cheap snide remarks, by doing so you immediately lose the argument - at least in terms of compliance with certain expected standards. From personal experience people like you have little in the way of desirable manners- who appear to be cowards that hide behind a plastic screen. In this world of growing Democracies, that your adopted leader favours so much- isn't it strange how you cant appear to abide by the very essence of the workings of Democracy and its subsequent requirement of opposing forms of view.
Mae heid might be up mae erse- who is yours up

That is MY point. YOUR point is lost in senseless rhetoric

And since I'm not in Drumchapel, I have no choice to be behind a screen.

Sweltered wrote:That is MY point. YOUR point is lost in senseless rhetoric

And since I'm not in Drumchapel, I have no choice to be behind a screen.

At what point do you fail to understand my rhetoric, where in my last post was it lost? reduced to a mere form of senseless gibbering- go on I wait with baited breath. Just for the record I don't abide in Drumchapel never have, and hopefully never will.