> I know I'm way overreacting, but all you guys transforming a new
> agey mock-Lunar "we are slaves to our desires, let's all assume the
> Lotus position and chant OM" into "we are all *literal* slaves,
> start rowing" is completely off base, so far off that I can't even
> begin to argue it.
One possible route from Here to There:
- Everyone is a slave to something. The more enlightened you are, the
greater your master (and the purer your service), but like the man said,
y'gotta SERVE somebody.
- High, enlightened, groovy people will be slaves to noble
things/causes, like Sedenya, Yelm, Karrg, etc. That results in joy and
happiness for them and for all around them.
- People who are particularly unenlightened/stupid/karmically
screwed/unlucky will end up serving very bad things, unless they're
stopped. They'll end up being servants of Rape, Treason, Vinga, Sloth,
etc.--unless a good person forces them to serve something else.
- Therefore, if I--enlightened Etyries devotee--force you, karmic
wasteland, to serve *me* (as a slave) I'm doing us both a favor. You get
to serve something better than whatever monstrosity you would've ended
up with. I get cheap labor, and the warm glow of doing a good deed. And
in fact, you end up serving a great good, Etyries, albeit indirectly
(you serve me, I serve her, she serves the Holy Moon, kumbaya).
Seem far-fetched? This was, essentially, Aristotle's defense of
slavery--that some people ("natural slaves") are incapable of governing
themselves, so it's best for everyone if someone else governs them.
(FWIW, C.S. Lewis's rejoinder was that while some people may conceivably
be "natural slaves" (incapable of governing themselves), nobody is a
"natural master" (capable of being trusted with absolute power over
someone else).)