Saturday 3 August 2013

Virtual Slavery

Virtual Slavery


Slavery used to be rife, common, throughout the world. It was seen as normal, acceptable.  But people began to believe that it wasn't right.  That humans should not be enslaved.  There is a long history of laws that were passed to this end.

1701: In Britain, the Lord Chief Justice rules that a slave became free as soon as he arrived in England.

1780: Pennsylvania passes An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, freeing future children of slaves. Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved for life. The Act becomes a model for other Northern states. Last slaves freed 1847
1807, 25 March: Abolition of the Slave Trade Act abolished slave trading in British Empire. Captains fined £120 per slave transported.

1811: Slave trading made a felony in the British Empire punishable by transportation for British subjects and foreigners.

1863: In the United States, Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation which declared slaves in Confederate-controlled areas to be freed. Most slaves in "border states" are freed by state action; separate law freed the slaves in Washington, D.C.

On the 1st of August in 1834, slavery was officially abolished throughout the British Empire. Since 1807 the Slave Trade had been outlawed by Britain, and the Royal Navy was deployed to prevent ships engaging in it, helping to free 10,000s of slaves.

1865: December: U.S. abolishes slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; about 40,000 remaining slaves are affected.

1948: UN Article 4 of the Declaration of Human Rights bans slavery globally.

Details of the rest of the world's actions can be seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_slavery_timeline

In short, slavery has been abolished.

So can anyone explain to me why, in virtual worlds, slavery is so popular?  Slave games are possibly the most popular of the role play games.  So many people are excited by the thought of owning slaves or being slaves.  Why? Why turn the clock back this way?

We fought long and hard to give people dignity and freedom, yet so many people want degradation in their lives. I find it incomprehensible. Sick. Twisted. But that's what these people appear to want. Are their lives so empty, so meaningless, so lacking in excitement, that they have to resort to this kind of thing to feel anything? If so, that's terribly sad.

Yes, it's not real. It's a game. Maybe they feel some titillation at the thought of it but, for me, it's an insult to the thousands of people who suffered and died at the hands of others through slavery.  And an insult to the many who fought to put an end to slavery.

Frankly I am appalled by the whole thing. Yes, it's fantasy. But what a sick fantasy.  And these people fail to take into account that if you think about a thing long enough it becomes second nature.  Isn't here enough misery in the world already without fantasizing about more?

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