The Terracotta Ghost Army

[TKennedy]

For those of you able to watch NOVA this is an absolutely fascinating program. Also a study in the unbelievable cruelty of which human beings, crazed by power, are capable.

www.tpt.org/nova/video/nova-emperors-ghost-army/


John what if the ruler of your country commissioned a piece of pottery, or in my case a guitar with the caveat that if it did not meet the expected standards you would be brutally tortured and killed or be worked to death at forced labor. Good incentive!!

[t-bob]

I love NOVA and my favorite channel PBS - and my monthly donation.

Another channel YES - Yankees Entertainment & Sport Network

[millring]

Of course my abrupt change of life has me thinking about this all the time.

Nobody -- especially Americans -- can discuss the concept of slavery without the discussion devolving into the issue of slavery. And I think modern man is right about this. Slavery is not good.

Americans can't discuss slavery because we necessarily see it as an issue of race. But throughout human history race had nothing to do with slavery, and slavery had nothing to do with race. Usually it was the loss of freedom via war, or simply the means by which the have-nots survived by committing to the haves. Employment.

But I think the major distinction between slavery and the servitude most of mankind lives under by mere dint of survival is that slavery says that one man can own another. That's what makes institutional slavery morally wrong.

But slavery is a practical reality. Survival enslaves us and it's inescapable for most of us.

I think I sense a generational shift -- not hard-and-fast (exceptions abound), but generally. Our parents -- the first 20th century generation -- accepted a view of their employment much closer in nature to quiet servitude. They committed their lives to employment and felt lucky to be "given" jobs. That wasn't the reality, but it was the perception. Security was, no doubt, a big motivator.

Raised in the bosom of the security that our parent's perception of servitude afforded us, we bucked that notion of servitude. We wanted meaning and significance from our employment. We felt a greater entitlement to the freedom of doing what we wanted rather than accepting mere security. Our parent's attitudes of security afforded us the illusion that we could escape it.

I sense that the generation(s) after us have an even greater sense that they don't even need employment, much less servitude.

[jdd2]

It kind of sounds like you've been reading karl marx...

[millring]

I did. In Jr high.

[millring]

Sometimes life is a six foot wide bed and we share a five foot wide blanket.