In Rome there were very few slave revolts, by and large because fear worked, and slaves concluded that quite often they had it better as slaves than they used to living like savages. Emperial Rome offered amenities far in excess to what Gaul could offer the former tribals. But at the same time Romans mixed incompatible slaves – middle easterners and germans – belgians and etruscans – armenians and spanish. The nett effect was total culture shock and the slaves living in fear, distrust, scheming and betrayal. The dangers that came with insurrection were so severe, the potential payback of rebellion so marginal and the mistrust of their fellow slaves so overwhelming that most slaves didnt rebel – or they did so in a manner that allowed Romans to pick them off one by one and cull them in the early stages of slavery. Yes one might even argue that these overlords we have always had have always been culling troublemakers. Our society might have been a breeding experiment in applied docility and gentrified productivity. Everyone else has been weeded out and only the humble and industrious have remained.
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Little worker bees.
In the 20th century the slaves have been replaced iwth the third word and Romans are now the Americans and their aligned states. Rome also worked through subsidiaries, and they supported a transnational system that was Roman, while they themselves where not. But the Empire was Roman, and every bit of civilization was a Roman amalgem, enforced through Latin and education and slave labor. In this climate death came quick. Slaves lived short, brutal lives. The same is now true of the people in the third world, and of immigrant labor. We in the west thrive on slavery, and we think the current situation normal. Decent people don’t even see the difference anymore. They assume that was China has to go through isn’t de facto slavery – it is ‘the growth pains of becoming an advanced society’. The nearly three billion or so Indians, Mexicans, Turkish, Chinese, Polish, Indonesians who are de facto slave lanor of Japan, Korea, US, Australia, EU and United States are becoming ‘real people’, somewhere in a distant future, one or two generations from now. It is ‘the price they must pay’.
It should be clear that I do not agree with that assessment, but very few people would be inclined to consider my point of view.
We live in a pathologically conservative world. If we wanted to, we could have a paradise for seven billion people in ten years. Everyone would be fed, educated, housed properly, have decent medical care. However – it would also mean that certain privileged elites in EU, Japan, US, would have to relinquish more than half their relative affluence. It would mean an end to wasting capital and material resources on militaries. But in the current psychology of humanity that would be as impossible as it was in Roman times.
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The world I envision is not a continuation of this one. My future is one where this strangling conservatism, and this sickening lack of faith is replaced with a rising tide of equality – and not a rising tide of more of the same, more for everyone. I advocate far less disparities in affluence and far more progress. Progress in all fields.
I wish to see the Roman paradigm die, and be buried. We live in a post-Roman world. Our deity(s) are clearly laughable Roman parodies. The ‘chistian’ deity has absolutely nothing to do, other than a few haphazzard biblical falsifications, with the jewish deity – our christian god is a paulinian deity, an upgraded Jupiter. Romans would instantly see the artefacts that remain of their empire. We all live in a world saturated by lies, and by an imperial ‘divide and rule’. The patricians put an emperor in charge, tolerate his management – but in the end it is money that rules, and established rich investors that call the shots – for all we know vampires.
And yes, I would see that monstrosity die, once and for all, and be replaced by something far better. And not something that has been tried before, anywhere in history – I have something completely new in mind.
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