I think you just made the best argument against slavery that I’ve seen in a long while, Kernher. Too bad that you still condone its use and the religion that demands it.
7 Likes
You know, after seeing what’s happening in Kahah and reading this, I don’t even know if I can make my usual, flippant joke anymore. Slavery is a blight on humanity, a naked grab of wealth and power at the expense of others to such an extreme that it becomes inhuman. The veneer of religion that the Amarr use to justify their barbarity makes them even worse than the Angels. At least the Angels are honest enough to admit it’s all about money.
I’m into quite a few kinks, but the reality of what happens to trillions of Matari (along with the Ealur and others the Amarr have enslaved) would be a living nightmare for me.
I’ve really struggled with some of my vows long held and my ethics that I have maintained for decades as a result of this. I still think that killing is wrong, but I am starting to think that maybe, just maybe, flying a Logistics Frigate with the Tribal Liberation Force might be okay.
I’ll be honest, that worries me.
Thank you for your insight, Samira.
5 Likes
It is hard to understate just how correct Ms. Kernher is. While my own experience was different, living on a farm in the Mandate with Ammatar holders, I hope she doesn’t mind me adding my perspectives.
One of the things that I remember from my time in bondage was the sameness of it. Each day blended together. There were seasons, of course, but even still, we woke up at the same time, did most of the same chores, ate most of the same food, went to services at the same time, and went to sleep at the same time. It was all so monotonous and banal. No one whipped me, or tortured me in the ways I have read about, but my spirit was seeped in the mundane.
Until my liberation, I had always eaten the same bread, made with the same wheat, sometimes with honey added into the dough on special occasion. Sometimes they added eggs, sometimes not. I didn’t even know there were so many different kinds of bread. I had never had a choice of what to eat. Meals were cooked for the whole farm by a group of women, and the menu was decided by them, with most of the meals made with what we grew and raised on the farm. If I didn’t like what they cooked that meal, I had two choices: eat it anyways, or go hungry. The mere idea that I could chose what to eat, to go to a fast food restaurant to try something new. The choices that I had upon my freedom were actually overwhelming.
Things that others take for granted as a matter of course are not present in the life of a slave. Do you pick your own clothes to buy and wear? Have you purchased a book to read from a shop? Have you ever decided to skip something that you were supposed to do and just sleep, or do something else entirely?
Things were not the best after the liberation. There were a lot of newly freed slaves and the Republic didn’t have the resources for all of them. When Empress Jamyl issued her emancipation order, things didn’t get better. Being Starkmanir might get you a cup of coffee, if you added a few credits to it. So, yes, there were times when I thought that I had it better back in the Mandate. (Excluding the fact that the Amarr still wanted to kill us.) But then, one day, with some money in my pocket, not much, I walked past a Jin-Mei food cart. Sure, I could have saved that money for a better place to live, or a vehicle, or a million other things that would have made sense. The basic rations that my family was given were more than adequate. However, the tiny amount of money in my pocket was not going to make a difference, not in the long run. So I walked over to the food cart and gave the woman my money and got a plate of some beef and noodles. The beer was spicy and not the best quality, but for one meal, I was a queen. It was different, and it was my choice. That one tiny bit of agency brightened up my whole week.
I have been a slave, and I have been poor. I am now a capsuleer with wealth that I consider obscene. (I donate as much as I can to help my tribe, because otherwise I feel guilty. ) Were there times when I thought I was better off a slave after I was freed? Of course there was. I can’t say that I went to bed hungry often as a slave. The few times I remember that I did, it was my mother sending me to bed without supper for some misbehavior! I never spent hours in actual boredom as a slave. I doubt few remember their first feeling of listless boredom, hours spent with nothing to do, wondering what to do, to fill the time with. It was a very scary feeling for me, actually. However, even being poor, living in Republic government housing that was not as high quality as the farmhouse, with food rations that were not as good as the food I had on the farm, with hours of endless boredom never came close to what it was like living in bondage. Because I had the choice to go to that Jin-Mei food cart. Or any food cart. Or to go and buy some cheap gaudy jewelry to make me look prettier. I had a choice. My life was not the best, but it was mine.
And from that place, I worked hard and got to where I am today. Sure, quite a bit of it was luck, but hey, it was my luck.
5 Likes
Those things are not mutually exclusive.
No it’s not, nor is it mine if another holder abuses his or her slaves.
You keep lumping into me into others holders just on the dint that I have slaves so they must be miserable.
I’m not responsible for other holders except for the holders I have under me. (Note I don’t have any but I’m pointing it out for political clearity.) There are standards of practice holders are expected to maintain. While I grudgingly admit the system doesn’t loan it self much credit in checks and balances woe falls on the holder caught breaking them.
Eight thousand. Between the farms, factory and a few other facilities. It’s not the largest hold on the planet but I try to keep standards.
The slaves on Kahah have been offered to stand down. If such a revolution took place on my planet I’d like to think my people are smart enough to lock the gate and let it blow over.
The Cyberknights would come, see the house was in order and move on.
“the Khanid military are not discriminating between rebels and other slaves”
Are you so sure they’d move on, with a golden opportunity to slake their bloodlust right there? The current situation says otherwise.
4 Likes
Don’t believe everything you read.
That sounds strangely like the first words of an autocrat, “Don’t believe your lying eyes and ears, believe what I tell you to believe. Now, go away. One plus one equals three, trust me, I know what’s good for you.”
4 Likes
Can you provide independently-verifiable evidence that Lina Ambre’s reporting is incorrect?
2 Likes
It really does say something that there’s such a staggering dearth of honest Amarr around these days. It’s really not all that long ago that something like this would have the more prominent AmarrBloc folk drily raise an eyebrow and go “Yes, there’s a slave revolt and we’re putting it down harshly. Shoo.” as if it was the most ordinary thing.
To them, it was.
Where did those Marys go, I wonder? When did they have to stop being honest and start have to inveigle themselves, desperately trying to make themselves and the occurences dirtside something entirely different? I can’t tell if it’s fear of what the rest of New Eden might do if we get tired of the Imperial barbaric bullshite, or if it’s some new innate need to somehow be viewed favorably in spite of what they support and promote.
Either way, it’s pretty weak and pathetic.
4 Likes
To all gallentean stooges:
Federation gives freedom, indeed. But what that freedom means.
Freedom from decency?
Freedom from supplies?
Freedom from the food and necessary life commodities?
Freedom from the jobs that pay well and freedom from opportunity to climb corporate ladder?
And maybe even freedom from free will, considering how Black Eagles act against those who disagree with Federal politics.
I’ll repeat one more time that I’ve been saying for ages: freedom is a force of destruction, separating bonds, breaking something that was existed. Pursing freedom for the sake of freedom and not from distancing of certain abusive entity (like the Federation itself) is a pursue of breaking things, just like that.
And speaking about “Freedom from the Federation”… would you dare, they go war on you, like they did on us.
These freedom lovers are hypocrites and brainwashed cultists. Open your eyes and see the things as they are.
As for Lord Crases - indeed you have responsibility over these people, and I am glad you understand it. Don’t forget about that. Their lives depend on you, if you decide just to “free” them, abandon them and kick them out, you won’t destroy just their trust to you, but also their way of life.
1 Like
I can only conjecture that many of them are adjusting to the realities of Kahah as they learn the lessons of the dangers inherent in believing your own propaganda.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.