The Perils of Freedom - Part One "Slavery"

Indulge me. I am working up the necessary thought process behind my second novel now. I wasn't aware I was doing this until a few days ago when I realized how far along I'd become. There is actually a religious topic behind this discussion, but it might take me a couple of posts to get there and I need to walk through the entire process without jumping to the obvious ending. So bear with me.

My sisters and brothers in Christ;

Would you ever consider owning a slave? Forget the onerous historical baggage that goes with this topic, and just ask yourself the basic questions. Would you ever consider buying a person and making them your slave?

Consider the ramifications of this question before you dismiss it out of hand. First, beyond the money spent to actually purchase a slave there are other obvious issues. You would need a place for your slave to stay. For most of us in California then, where housing prices are astronomical and the thought of having "extra space" for a slave is at best a luxury, the slavery issue is a moot one. Even if we wanted slaves, most of us would have no place to keep one. But maybe you have a guest room or a small space where you could put a cot that is out of the way. Then, of course, there is the question of feeding and clothing the slave - not cheap either. Presumably, if the slave gets sick, you'd want to protect your investment with a trip to the doctor. So, there is medical, dental, etc... And, if the slave ever dies, you'd need to provide some sort of burial. Of course, I think the next question is probably the most important - what job would your slave do? Would you buy a slave to do all those menial chores that you don't want to do? (Then why have kids? ;) Would the slave clean your house and take care of your children or feed your pets or do your laundry or taxes or shopping? Why would you actually purchase a slave?

So, owning a slave would be a bit of a burden for the average person. They'd be too expensive, too much trouble to care for, and there wouldn't be really enough for them to do, anyway. I think, moral questions aside, for most of us the prospect of slavery is just a question of common sense - we don't need it because we can do without.

But for business? We've already established that agriculture could be, and in some cases still is, a perfect draw for slavery. Lots of back breaking work for little reward. Even the average farmer could benefit from slave labour. It would help him keep his prices down and his profits up. But there are surely other businesses that would benefit from slavery. Any type of business with a small skill set required could train a slave work force to do the job and then reward them with only the basics to survive. Of course, business doesn't have to worry about as many things as an individual slave owner. They would build cheap housing, send all their slaves to a single overworked and underfunded doctor's office, and wouldn't give a damn about additional expenses. And if the profit margins started to fall, they could get rid of slaves and increase the workload on the remaining slaves. Such a huge enterprise would require a large influx of slaves, however, and a constant renewable source. But with such an outpouring of cheap, expendable labour, the rest of us would benefit by having lower priced goods.

The obvious analogy is there, but I'm not writing this for cheap analogies. I'm trying to get at something deeper.

In both cases, you could draw comparisons. In the first case, slavery is very similar to having children - in that, you have to clothe them, feed them, take care of them, find something for them to do, etc... And in the second case, of course, slavery is very similar to big business in this day and age. Have we grown up in a world that treasures freedom in name, but in practice treasures something else entirely? Or is slavery a more complex issue than we acknowledge? Or, maybe, perhaps the fault lies within the concept of freedom itself?

The following passage is from Philemon 1:15-16. And I will end Part One with this passage and one more thought.

15Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good— 16no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord.

This passage is clearly about the slave Onesis (I think I got that right) who was sent to Paul in Rome while he was a captive by Paul's good friend, Philemon. But while helping Paul, Onesis converted to Christianity and became a brother in Christ. Paul was going to ask Philemon for Onesis' freedom, but instead, sent Onesis back to Philemon with a letter, explaining his reasons for such a request.

However, what struck me in reading it out of context, was the fact that the passage could also be written about Jesus Christ, who was separated from us for a while (in his death), but did so so that we might have him back for good - no longer as a slave to the world, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.

I will end these thoughts here and come back to this topic tomorrow in Part Two: Property.