Your response here has generated a spirited and moving discussion of the nature of slavery and abolition, and I applaud that. I don’t applaud your thin-skinned vanity that took offense at my calling you out on your error in addressing Ms. Jenneth as such, and, so offended, decided to justify yourself by applying my singular comment more broadly than it was intended.
Admittedly, I am unfamiliar with whichever anti-slavery elements are active within the Empire, and given the very public nature of this venue, I prefer not to be elaborated to here. (Perhaps elsewhere.) That being said, Ms. Vuld’s assessment is absolutely correct. There is no region in existence that accepts good intentions as valid currency. We need results. Results will free our brethren. Results will end slavery.
Are these people working toward ending slavery by physically freeing slaves, destabilizing the societal infrastructure that feeds slavery, or outright engaging in protest and riot? (Which, I should note, would count against ‘funding slavery,’ as such efforts would cost holders instead.) Or are we talking about armchair observers, who try to debate their coworkers and neighbors and argue with pundits, comforting themselves with the idea that one more holder will break the chain? The former group is effective resistance. The latter is, frankly, wasting their own time and effort as well as ours.
It’s irresponsible and naive to think at this juncture that words and changing perceptions and making them comfortable will ever have an effect on the matter. On other subjects, certainly, I think it is possible to convince someone with words, but not on the subject of Amarrian slavery. We are beyond debate. By now we have vividly illustrated that we, Matari, are equal humans. We have illustrated that we are not ‘barbarians,’ but instead, capable of thought and government and creativity and industry. We have also exposed slavery for the cruelty that it is, revealed for all the cluster to observe. Anyone who still has doubts on this is lost to us.
As a side note, I imagine that it is possible to live in Amarr without supporting slavery. Highly difficult, but possible, not ‘impossible’ as you have said. Maybe someone could consume products only created absent slavery, and avoid paying takes and dues into institutions that do support slavery, and so forth. Perhaps someone more familiar with Amarrian economics and culture could elaborate on how easy or difficult this would be to pull off.
So yes, there is a grey area; but also yes, these anti-slavery groups need to be directly spurring quantifiable change in what they’re doing. And, as the gentleman preceding me pointed out, efforts to destroy slavery independent of freeing slaves is as important, if not more so. But if these groups are nothing but talk and have nothing to show for it, then by their presence in the Empire alone they are feeding what they wish to destroy (again, unless they’re pulling off some sort of elaborate ‘no-slavery’ diet thing), and they would serve the effort much better by leaving Amarr space and joining with organizations who are already achieving results to this end.