This common liberal argument has many flaws, though.
Most slaves are born into the faith, and raised in the faith. But they are still slaves. Because it is not, and has never been, about the faith or spiritual education of the slave. I was a slave, born faithful, to faithful parents, with faithful grandparents. Converting to the faith, being raised in the faith, or even being incredibly devout to it, none of these things dictate whether or not a slave is freed. Because a slave’s first purpose, in Amarrian doctrine, is to be punished, for the crimes of themselves or ancestors, and as part of that punishment serve as labor for those who are believed to be their spiritual superiors. Spiritual development is only a side benefit at best for most. It’s part of life, just as it is for Amarrian freepeople, but not the purpose of Amarrian slavery.
Seeking salvation is an important part of Amarrian slavery, though, especially for the slave. But salvation is not achieved through conversion. It’s achieved through the penance of deeds. Working off the sins of one’s forebearers until their line has been cleansed. It is not enough to just be faithful, or this would have been achieved already and all those liberal Holders talking about ‘oh I’m a nice Holder I only own slaves to educate them in the faith’ are either very bad at their job, or, more likely, lying.
Many Holders and their overseers are not spiritually worthy of being teachers as is. As you said, ‘it is clear those Holders have not help up their responsibilities’. But the Jamyl emancipations were not some effort by Jamyl to correct things, it was her own attempt to use slaves as a tool for her own ambitions. This is where Blessed Servitude – Amarrian slavery as it was meant to be – breaks down. Blessed Servitude is based on the idea of the spiritually bankrupt sinner finding guidance to salvation by the spiritually pure. But the biggest lie in Amarrian doctrine is the belief that Holders are naturally more pure by merit of their birth. True Amarr and Holders have no more capacity for being spiritually wise than the lowest Ealur slave, which does lead to, yes, many Holders not taking their responsibility seriously, which leads to many abuses against slaves.
It’s also important to separate slavery from the Reclaiming. The Reclaiming demands the reclaiming of all that God created so that we can return to holy unity with Him. Included in that goal is the bringing of all of creation into the domain of the Amarr Empire, and the inner reclaiming of the soul against sin and false belief so that we can become better worshipers.
Slavery, meanwhile, is a method. It was an attempt at bringing those who turned away from God back into the faith in such a way that they could not threaten the unity of others in their rebellious beliefs, and to allow them to work off their inherited sins such that they might eventually join Amarr as free citizens. Slavery can be ended, if it is revealed to us that there are better methods of enacting God’s will (which I believe there are), but the Reclaiming cannot, and should not. Bringing others into the glory of God, such that one day His creation will be whole again, is our eternal mission. The Amarr Empire was founded to cultivate the spirit of mankind.
With regards to peace between Amarr and Minmatar, ending slavery would be a major step in that direction. Though as I have said before, we should be ending it because it is the right thing to do, not for the purposes of achieving peace or winning the Republic’s approval. Slavery has proven itself a pathway not to salvation, but corruption and abuse. It reveals the worst of the Holders, rather than the best of the slaves. The Reclaiming can and always will be continued – and yes, this may at times still include war – but we must ensure that how we go about doing it is righteous and just.
If slavery and the Reclaiming were divided and the former of which discontinued, what prevents it’s return under the vices of the same corruption and abuse that have existed throughout man’s history; that persist in the Empire and Kingdom today? You’re an intelligent woman, Samira Kernher, so I think even you have considered this question at some point. There is an imperative that it is not only discontinued, but denounced upon mere mention. Do you feel that the Amarr are capable of that?
The same way we insure any morally wrong act is not committed by citizens of a state: laws, and judicious and equal enforcement of those laws.
Indeed, certain passages in pre-Reclaiming Scripture can already be interpreted to argue against slavery, or at least the kind of slavery that we have allowed to flourish. Amash-Akura’s laws on fair treatment of one’s enemies, for example.
And to avoid corruption, we must recognize the fallibility of Amarrian rulers, hold them to the same rules we hold to the common person, and institute checks against their power so that they are unable to freely abuse them to harm others as they can now. This includes giving a say in government for the common person.
The foundation is there and the methodology possible, I have no doubt. Thank you for specifying. However, the latter of my questions remains unanswered, and it was perhaps the more valuable of the two questions.
Peace in our time… eventually. At the End all will look out over a unified Holy Amarr Empire and rejoice in having completed God’s work, or we, His servants, have failed and perished. It is obvious at this point that the Minmatar shall only ever integrate into the Empire upon the dismantling of the ‘Minmatar Republic’. I hold high hopes that our Caldari allies shall see His Light and go the way of the Khanid of old, or at the very worst, the Ni-Kunni of ancient Mishi. For the hedonistic Gallente I harbor little such hope… As the commencement goes - “War is beautiful. War is Divine.”
On the topic of slavery the only thing I shall say here is that it does at times fail to produce the desired result. Just look to the terrorist heretic Kernher as an example. Her ‘solution’ to those who do not uphold God’s work as paramount is to make the Empire the Federation. Not surprising she would want it so, I am sure she has little problem finding her drugs of choice there.
Certainly. As I have said throughout this thread, in current environment peace is impossible and isn’t really even worth working for.
But the opinions Paladin Commander Newelle holds were becoming less popular for years before the Midular-Heideran peace ended. That day undid a century of work on the Amarr side to bolster a will for peace.
And now, peace in foreseeable future isn’t even desirable, let alone possible.
Oh, I recognize that, Chapter Master. Truth be told, I still have hope that the people of the Republic will come to their senses, realize the cost of war is too high and oust their lying war criminal leaders for getting so many of their people killed in a futile struggle. Then perhaps they may do the right thing and take tangible steps to stop the horrors of the past.
It just will not be soon, I’ve come to realize.
In the meantime, you are completely correct about our own duty. Heresy must be purged.
Here is a crucial place where we disagree. I had a Blooder attack happen to my literal next-door neighbors. I understand the danger. But freeing my kin is still far more important to me than that.
I suspect that that disagreement is only the tip of a considerable difference of priorities between our two sides.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
And you know this how? Have you even had a conversation with a Matari loyalist? Nope, you sat your vapid ass down in the Kingdom, strung your horse to the biggest Khanid dimwit on offer, and proceeded to swat down every single criticism, including the constructive ones, about why your opinions are half-baked.
No, we don’t listen to you because half of what you say is parroted ■■■■■■■■ and the other half is empty assumptions. At least the Amarr in this thread have done the legwork and had the experiences to back up their points of view, however flawed theirs (and ours) may be. You? You just want to be included. Which is fine. But in a (chat)room full of scholars, you’ll get nowhere on cheap abstracts.
Talk to some respectable individuals on both sides of any conflict that you care about. Then come test your theories here. You know, the theories that you’ll come up with by thinking on your own.
This is literALLY WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO DO RIGHT NOW.
ALDRITH ■■■■■■■ NEWELLE. I know you know better than to make that vacant-ass, insipid-ass remark.
Intimidating isn’t exactly the right description, validating is. To be honest if there were less of her and more of you and a few select others among your kin peace would be much more attainable. Since that is the case people like myself have no choice but to fight. You should be glad, after all “war is beautiful, war is divine.” As your beloved just reminded us here.
I think what you missed is that It’s not the attacks that are so concerning to me. It’s that they use their infiltrators to actively derail any efforts Amarr makes towards peace, and they have shown a remarkable ability to seize levers of power to do so.
They outright killed the last truly pro-peace Amarr Emperor and they seem to have purposely manipulated events to push the Matari into attacking.
The removal of their ability to do this again is a basic precondition before state level peace talks have any chance of success.
The other thing that I think needs to be made clear is that on the question of peace, individual pod pilot opinions do not matter. The only choice Amarr capsuleers have is between obedience and rebellion. And the latter is only thinkable if the corruption of everyone in an individual pilot’s chain of authority is absolutely certain.