byron ed
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I hope I misunderstand, because this seems a huge misread of American culture and history focused entirely on the villaIns. It seems bathed in predecessor-loathing; a sort of self-righteous mea-culpa; an unforgivingly inaccurate record of the whole; and quite painfully naive besides. Isn't this a somewhat sappy attempt to earn "diversity points" and to appear "so remarkably with-it" in this current spate of historical questioning?Slavery and our Capitalist system go hand and hand so maybe Slavery was a necessary evil for America... In America we developed what many call "Brutal Capitalism" which was born as Slavery grow in the colonies...was our nation’s unflinching willingness to use violence on nonwhite people and to exert its will on seemingly endless supplies of land and labor. ...If today America promotes a particular kind of low-road capitalism — a union-busting capitalism of poverty wages, gig jobs and normalized insecurity; a winner-take-all capitalism of stunning disparities not only permitting but awarding financial rule-bending; a racist capitalism... one reason is that American capitalism was founded on the lowest road there is...Our capitalism values are based off our old slavery capitalism... Exploitation...
...But as I said I hope I misunderstand.
Otherwise I'd have to say Back-Off. There was never any intention or expectation that slavery was a necessary evil for America. That's all hindsight, the opinion of some particular historical analysts (emphasis on anal) who did not in fact experience those past times themselves, so never at risk of any consequence in what they claim from their stuffed chair by the fireplace, warm tea in hand. They misrepresent the legitimate players -- those who actually put themselves at risk: The Founders -- as to what they thought, felt or did at the time.
In any case "we" today have never in the main "developed brutal capitalism" or had "unflinching willingness to use violence on nonwhite people." Back in the day it was the villains among our predecessors that did that. The rest of us, mostly Euro-Americans at the time, were of decidedly Christian aspiration. That was the aspired culture of the times, as dismissive of it as you may be today it was a powerful thing at the time. We know this from first-person accounts.
And America's (meaning the U.S.A.'s) capitalism was not founded on the old slavery capitalism of the colonies, but rather on the Ideal That All Men Are Created Equal. The original intention was to reach that ideal. In the main it was the villains among our predecessors that exploited the system, not the "we" then or the "we" now. So please let's avoid wearing the guilt of the villains of American history just to earn some kind of "badge of social enlightenment" for ourselves. It's smacks of claiming that "one of my best friends is black."
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