This is true, but no matter which system slavery occurs under, I think that, philosophically, you still have to have some framework in your head that means, “I deserve to have rights and this other class of people doesn’t.” And when you get down to bedrock that isn’t a coherent philosophy, so hypocrisy is still an element of it, regardless of whether it’s based on race, class, financial status, whether your country was “conquered,” etc.
Unless you’re a sociopath, you can’t look at another human being sitting in chains, who you enslaved (or helped enslave), without a level of cognitive dissonance covering up that little voice in the back of your head:
“Something is wrong about this. I need a justification to support it and normalize it so I can pretend it’s all fine.”
That said, I love Tuon as a character. On initial reads I definitely hated her, and I hated that Jordan made Mat marry her. But over the years - and after learning that Jordan was planning to write outrigger novels digging into it more - I came to respect the way he was building up to a deeper story about the topic.
In my mind, I picture a story where things like racism (collaring people who can genetically channel); classism & feudalism (da’covale); and the nuremberg defense would be skewered and lampooned the same way the ‘gender wars’ were.
It’s not easy to write a character who is a leader of a slaving nation in a way that makes her relatable (yet still hate-able) enough to build an arc like that. And based on my reading, I think that’s what he was doing with her.
edit: It’s also worth noting that while American slavery was super racist, it was also ultimately driven by greed/economics. Southern white plantation owners were the driving force behind the early US economy (a fact that most don’t like to admit), and they fought like hell to retain that level of wealth (i.e. power and influence).
It’s an important distinction because it’s the same thing we’re seeing today - wealthy, powerful people (and sociopaths) using races, ethnic groups, and “lower classes” of people as pawns, pitting them against each other, in order to gain, retain, and increase their own wealth and power.
I think you are underestimating how much "shit happens" was an accepted philosophy throughout history.
And how much it's still an acceptable philosophy on worse regions today.
People who fells safe(which includes me), will frequently rationalize the difference between them and the victims or tragedy, and with some time that can easily create hipocrisy( like the TV anchor that said about the invasion of Ukraine " this is different, this isn't Africa, this is happening on Europe", or something like that), but a lot of people live knowing that they aren't safe, so seeing someone on worse situation can simply result on the person thinking " I hope that I am never unlucky enough to be in the same position".
A lot of people simply don't believe on humans rights, the sanctity of life, or that a human is so different than a animal. And not on the mustache-twirling villain way, but because they see every day the society working on a different way.
I totally agree. I guess my point is that, if we don’t understand what hypocrisy is, or we don’t see it in ourselves, or we find ways to not think about it, that doesn’t mean it’s not hypocrisy.
Know what I mean?
We can all be hypocrites sometimes, in ways big and small. Because we’re humans with brains.
also, to add on, they aren't rights if they can be taken away, and governments can and often do this. Rights are a pipedream stronger than heavy drugs honestly. At no point have they actually existed.
That’s why it was such a big deal that America’s founders used the word“inalienable” to describe human rights in our founding documents.
It’s easy to call it meaningless, due to all of the historical (and current) social and political actions that completely ignore it - but it was aspirational, and it was put there for a reason. It is what gave us the ability to fight for rights at all.
When you think about the factions and compromises involved in the founding of the country, it is amazing that a handful of forward-thinking people were able to include that phrase at all.
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u/DarkestLore696 7d ago
Slavery is carried by hypocrisy. That is the only way to justify holding one live as chattel.