Slave or free?

Since the first murder of Abel by his brother Cain, the course of humanity has been downhill in sin. After appropriating a sense of property, the use of animals and the practice of agriculture, humans naturally gravitated to a sense of war. Slavery followed. First, enslavement of conquered enemies; next enslavement of inferiors based upon race. Down through time, from 2000 B.C., records in Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Roman, Medieval Europe and the East, show that slavery was justified as the natural order of things. Aristotle put the capstone onto this philosophical basis for the superiority of one human being. The commander represented mind over matter, matter being the body of the slave. So from the 4th century B.C. that boasted both the Great philosopher Aristotle and Alexander the Great, slavery was the order of the day and nightmare of the human spoils of war and victims of racism. Even if the conquerors and the conquered repeatedly reversed their roles in wars, the concept and culture of master and slave remained intact. Over time the abolition of slavery became inevitable as man and civilization moved onto higher and higher ethical, moral and cultural grounds. Sometimes the facts of manumission are interesting. Henry VIII freed some of his serfs. Elizabeth I of England issued an Emancipation about 300 years before Abraham Lincoln. George Washington did but Thomas Jefferson did not, release his slaves. By the turn of the 20th century slavery was abolished on paper but not behind the scenes. What about today? When will it end? To paraphrase a popular counselor and psychologist, it will end when each individual person says "It’s over." Mind over matter; thought as a precedent to action. For the Romans the choice between death and slavery was real. Patrick Henry posited a similar question, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" No, it need not be; it’s all about choice. Slavery will end when we choose to say "It’s over." If as Socrates said, "Man is the measure of all things," it’s about time we measured up.