The New Slavery

E. B. Stoneham, August 22, 2010

Have we eradicated slavery in the U. S.? Apparently not—not, at least, if you define slavery as a condition in which people are made so dependent that they are unable or ill-advised to try to become independent. In that case, slavery is rampant in the United States.

The original slaves—most of them tribal warfare captives, criminals, and debtors from Africa—were brought into America to be dependents and domesticated servants of landowners. They weren’t confined in cages or bound in chains by and large, but they were dependent on their owners. Any who left the plantation had no way of supporting themselves, risked almost certain punishment, and were usually returned to a sore welcome at the plantation. For the most part the slave owners thought they were doing the slaves a favor by rescuing them from imprisonment, starvation, execution, or inhumane treatment in Africa. The slave owners were guaranteeing their slaves sustenance, health care, and employment for life and were teaching them civility. However, the owners were guilty of playing an elitist game—keeping humans as pets and as extensions of themselves. Like big-game hunters whose status depended on the sizes of their trophies, the slave-owning elites had their status tied to the number and quality of their slaves.

The Democrats in the South didn’t give up their slaves without a fight. They had to lose a civil war before slavery could be made illegal. Unwilling to give up their elitism, nevertheless, the Democrats fought to keep their segregation practices and Jim Crow laws in effect through the early 1960s. But, what is an elitist to do when he/she is no longer legally allowed to openly discriminate against a defined group of people? Is there some other way to keep everyone but themselves in a state of dependency? How about if the elitists were to offer everyone else sustenance, health care, and employment for life in exchange for certain privileges to be enjoyed exclusively by the elites? How about if these privileges would include the power to tax money away from anyone who bothers to profit from doing something more productive or who tries to become financially independent? How about if the elitists were to enact regulations that would punish anyone who tries to escape dependency? They could punish people for setting up businesses in their homes or in the “wrong” zones. They could make them fill out all kinds of paperwork and tax forms that require an expensive education to navigate. They could force them to pay for business licenses, and they could make sure they are frequently subjected to frivolous but expensive lawsuits. They could educate young people to vilify entrepreneurs and to covet the profits of the accomplished. They could arrange it so that profits are quickly taxed away. They could inflate the currency so that independence-seeking people’s savings would dwindle. They could go easy on criminals who rob or murder individualists. They could create so many regulations that people who try to become independent by conducting their own businesses will invariably be subject to prosecution for one violation or another. In short, the elitists could arrange things so that people would be unable or ill-advised to break out from government dependency.

So, all of these things the Democrats and their unprincipled elitist friends in the Republican Party did. They have managed to keep most African Americans in dependence ever since the Civil War. Currently, they are adding illegal immigrants to their kennel of big-game pets as quickly as possible. And at an accelerating rate they are chipping away at the independents, the small-business people and medium-sized-business people and employees. So now, who are the slaves but we who are not among the political elite, and we, who are not the elite leaders of big businesses and unions that lobby and schmooze with the government in order to maintain unfair advantages?

Welcome to the new slavery.

Your egomaniacal narcissistic politicians promise you sustenance, health care, and employment for life—right? Before you answer that question, consider that if you, as a business, were to make promises as ungrounded as these, you would be sued for fraud, penalized by the SEC, and subjected endlessly to bad Yelp reviews.

Please consider that government is the tool by which elitists con the rest of us into slavery. Conservatives attacking liberals for desiring social freedom and liberals attacking conservatives for desiring economic freedom are all jousting at windmills. They are playing into the hands of the elites who cunningly use these political conflicts, along with racial divisions and class warfare, to distract the multitudes while subjugating them step-by-step. The enemy of freedom is, as it has always been throughout history, the elites—the political con artists—the Neros, the Hitlers, the Stalins, the Maos, and all who would associate with them.

How can we put an end to this situation? First, we have to recognize the problem. It is purposefully hidden by the dominant politicians in government; by the big businesses, the big unions, and certain cunning individuals who use the government to gain unmerited advantages; and by the entrenched media who depend on the elites for their news feeds. What you are reading here has until now been suppressed quite effectively by the elites.

Second, we need to attack the root of the problem with an effort that everyone other than the elites can buy into. What could there possibly be that everyone other than the elites can buy into? Actually, there is a very appealing answer, something that has never been tried, but something that could be the most dramatic historical advance since democracy: MAKE IT A CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE SUBJECT TO THE SAME LAWS AS EVERYONE ELSE.

Amendment 28: The Equalizer Amendment. A constitutional requirement that government be subject to the same regulations that they inflict on everyone else.

It is difficult to be elite when you are required to obey the same rules as everyone else. It is difficult to be elite when your organization has to obey the same rules as does any other organization. It is difficult to be elite when others can sue you just as easily as you can sue them.

While the opportunity to amend the Constitution still exists, we need to pass this amendment. We can’t let elitism keep us in the dark ages forever. This is an idea whose time has come. Let’s do history a favor and put the elitists in their place once and for all. It’s time to abolish slavery!

"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session."

-- Mark Twain (1866)

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