by 99percentspace
RULE NUMBER ONE about modern slavery: there is no modern slavery.

RULE NUMBER TWO: you work, you pay, you go to war and you shut the f*ck up. Or else.

RULE NUMBER THREE you take the test at the end of this post; if you fail, refer to Rule number two.

There is no modern slavery

In school we learned about slavery in his-story class. According to his story, slavery looked like this:

We learned that slavery in the US formally “ended” in 1865. By this was meant that “Negroes” were no longer auctioned in chains right off the boat from Gambia.

Later on we discovered that being of African origin was not a precondition to being a slave. The Romans, for example, liked their slave-meat white…

The Roman Empire was built on military might and slave labor. Rome practiced overt slavery in a rigid caste system: Senators were aristocrats, Romans were Free Men and pretty much everyone else
were slaves. Except for the liberti, or liberated ones:

Freedmen and freedwomen, called liberti, formed a separate class in Roman society at all periods. These people
remained few in numbers, but Rome needed to demonstrate at
times the great frank spirit of this “civitas”, and so trumpeted the
freed slaves as hopeful examples. They might grow rich
and influential, but free-born Romans still looked down on
them as vulgar nouveaux riches.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_antiquity#Slavery_in_Rome

Where does his story end and our story begin? His story ends when the social, political and economic cost of enslaving bodies became too high. Our story begins when the chains and shackles
were reformulated to enslave minds instead of bodies.
These bonds are not cast in iron, but in ideas. Memes. Brain chains.

These brain chains are forged from an early age. Ignorance is carefully administered during the young slave’s lives. Enslave the mind and the body will follow to its own destruction if so commanded.

Brain chains move millions. These are their bodies. Where are the chains?

The American dream is the capitalist meme: EVERYONE CAN BE RICH. Small print: except the guy who picks up the garbage,
the gal who mops the floors and the remaining 99% percent of the slaves population.

We modern slaves owe our soul to the company store. So instead of money, we get debt, which is just like money except that
instead of making us richer, it makes us poorer… and we get to work for
decades to pay back for the privilege!

Mental slavery is the strongest and most pernicious of all slaveries, but it has one vital weakness: when the chains break, there IS NO GOING
BACK. The mind, once freed, can never more be cast in chains.
And a free mind makes a free human, and free humans resist against the
system EVERY F*CKING STEP OF THE WAY.

All that remains now is to take the test and clear your doubts. Are you a modern slave? The test is based on a quote by Mike Rivero at What Really Happened (blogroll left!):

Slaves cannot say NO

Think about that. Is there anything in your life you’d like to say NO to, but are afraid that if you do you will be excluded or even imprisoned?

Refer to Rule number two until you’re ready. For once and for ever. For real.

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Photo credits, with many thanks:
slave money:
http://www.stencilrevolution.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=56678

from Flickr via Creative Commons:
rush hour London: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottnolan/2901456050/

stock drop: http://www.flickr.com/photos/balzen/2899173963/

foreclosure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetruthabout/3227429804/

child tv: http://www.flickr.com/photos/renfield/2446536785/

schoolchildren: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22326055@N06/4054436170/in/set-7215760...

http://99percentspace.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/the-modern-slaves-gu...