by Doug Bandow March 15, 2019
Slavery is evil. Virtually every American believes that. Even most foreigners, other than a few ISIS fighters who now are enduring the great beyond, almost certainly bereft of the 72 virgins they were expecting. However, there was a time when most of humankind accepted the practice. Even those ever so civilized Greeks and Romans, upon whose thought much of modern civilization rests, enjoyed lives made more comfortable by the labor of those in bondage.
Which means much of humanity is descended either from those who were slaves or who owned slaves. Few nations evolved untouched by the practice. Go back to the beginning of time and virtually everyone alive today probably should receive or pay — and perhaps both simultaneously — reparations. There is a lot of ancient injustice to redistribute.
But that’s hard to do at either the global or the national level. All those responsible for enslaving people far and wide are dead. All those who bought and sold people are but dust. All those who established legal codes allowing human chattel are long gone. Not a single perpetrator stands among us, ready to atone for his or her sins. (Other than those responsible for the occasional case of illegal captivity and coercion today.)............Americans should have learned long ago that they cannot save the world. Fixing their own nation is hard enough,................To Read More.....
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