Viswanathan K's Thoughts

On slavery, historian Katie Kelaidis points out: “Millennia of great moral teachers sought to come to terms with slavery and to mitigate its inhumanity, but no one—not Jesus, not Buddha, not Muhammad, not Socrates—considered the complete liberation of all slaves.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it reminded me that bringing about any change on aspects deeply ingrained into society’s fabric requires political will. Moral preaching alone will never suffice. When Daenerys tries to abolish slavery and faces the inevitable backlash in Game of Thrones , Ser Barriston Selmy’s statement strikes her with full force: “No ruler can make a people good.” And yet, to bring about change, a ruler needs support on the ground, as Daenerys reminds herself: “To rule Meereen I must win the Meereenese however much I may despise them.” The continuous hit-and-run attacks by those who were the beneficiaries of slavery means the price is being paid by Daenerys and innocents alike. ...

Think of slavery and the image you get is of people taken in chains kicking and screaming to some far off land to toil like animals for the rest of their days, right? So did I…until I heard of this case of people voluntarily becoming slaves. But wait, it gets even more weird: these guys even paid monthly fees to remain slaves ! So what was going on, you ask? The guys we are talking about lived in ancient Egypt between 190 BC and 130 BC. They chose to become temple slaves, a “privilege” for which they paid a monthly fee. So was this a tale of religious insanity? Not at all: this was a very level headed choice these guys were making! The slave contracts that Egyptologist Kim Ryholt unearthed and deciphered showed that 90% of the people entering these contracts could not name their father. Which would suggest they were children of prostitutes. And that in turn meant they belonged to the lower classes. Therefore, the Pharaoh could use them for forced labour, you know for diggin...