Chapter Six touches on the making of a slave society. Reading about Athens and how democracy co-existed with slavery reminded me of the continued mass-scale amount of slavery that happens today in 21st Century democracies.  

We know at the height of the transatlantic slave trade, 80,000 to 100,000 slaves were transported from Africa to the new world, but just as chilling of a fact, this same amount of women and girls are being forced into brothels or other forms of slavery right here and now in modern day democratic countries such as the United States.  

Ideas and practices of yesterday are utilized to keep young girls and women in the slave trade. For example, in the past, if one slave killed his master, all slaves under that master were killed. Today, young girls are brutally raped on a daily basis. For example, if a girl asks for rest, her eyes could be blinded to to control her and encourage submission to her master. It is also a weapon of submission and control for all girls in the trade. In addition, the brutality is lasting, as this girl will eventually be of little value, and she'll be tossed into the streets, blinded and alone.

As we read of slavery in our history books and see it repeated on the news I sometimes wonder, is slavery an absolutely hopeless problem? But then I remember wide-scale slavery was abolished in the United States thanks to the efforts of everyday people starting grassroots movements and it's time to start another. People will help and get on-board against modern-day slavery if they think they can make a difference. Getting more involved could be incredibly fulfilling and enriching for ourselves and coarse-correct the behavior history will look back on and ask, why?

In Chapter Seven, I found the reflection on deciding what was important when balancing world history interesting. Strayer was talking about what to cover in history, but I started to think about how recently our environment has dramatically changed in our recent history as humans. For example, during the vast majority of world history, human life- whether cultural or biological, was centered around desiring more. Food, clothing, shelter, tools, and pretty much everything else had to be farmed or made from hand. This was at a cost of time, energy, and human labor. Knowledge was power, and it was hard to come by as the internet didn't exist and universities were only for the extreme privileged. People as labor were always at great desire. Keep in mind, friends and relatives died young. Until recently, most humans didn't make it beyond 40 and those that did were not always capable of working until their death. This kind of desire for human labor still rules the world's poorest regions. But in the developed world, hundreds of millions of us now face the bizarre problem of having all of these basic needs in abundance. Yet our brains, instincts, and socialized behavior are still geared toward desire. The result? Desire for buying anything or anyone. Maybe this is something to look at when searching for answers to my thoughts on Chapter Six around slavery... something for us all to think about...             

Keep it Simple

I was really struck by the simplicity of the Jo/’hansi society. Yes, they squabbled over meat but they didn't have this obsession with consumerism as we do in American society. I talked about this chapter the other night at the dinner table while my father was staying at the house. My father is in the construction business and was speaking about how he sees an ever-growing trend of hoarding in homes he is remodeling. He talks of closets overflowing with unworn clothes to boxes brimming with crafts and knickknacks in every room of his client’s over-sized houses.  

Looking at the Jo/’hansi society they had a “happy combination of an adequate diet and a short workweek.” As a result, they were able to establish relationships and bring value to the relationships. Unlike America, where every moment of the day is scheduled and documented to ensure you maximize your day with stuff, often to impress your boss, the stock holders of a company, or your neighbor next store. In this country, we don’t share a meal with anyone. We practice creative driving skills while navigating an SUV and consuming a value meal. Value as seen as being cheap but the value of time and real love and compassion are often lost in a sea of emails, appointments and to-do lists in America.

As a read about the Jo/’hansi I wondered what type of “curing dance” do we have? What brings our society together? When we have a crisis in our society, we’re usually watching the activity unfold via the television or the internet. We do not participate in the “dance.” It’s someone else’s problem. Yes, if you feel really guilty you may donate a few dollars but are you participating in real reform? Often no, we save this for a select few and often overwork these “dancers” to exhaustion. Our first responder's are at a constant rave dancing and dancing to save society. With that being said, the society doesn't notice or often doesn't care about our first responder's as it’s not a celebrity with immense prestige, wealth or power.

As a society, we continue to divorce ourselves of dealing with our issues and fill the voids with stuff we really don’t need. If we could all just learn to “dance” together, artificial limits would be lifted and our need for consumerism would diminish.