Enslavement of another human being is a cultural phenomenon that has been with the human race since before history was even kept. The institution is rooted in the assertion of power and dominance of one person, or one tribe, over another.
Since the person was already under domination, why not make use of that arrangement, and have the subjugated one produce some useful service for the master? A strange psychology sets in here, in which the service may be performed, but it will be sullen and slow-walked, not particularly productive for either the master or the slave. But it was tolerated, because it also fit another less-illuminated but very powerful urge, the need of some to be dominated, and the need by others to dominate.
This frequently resulted in severe physical punishment, in addition to verbal abuse and deliberate withholding of access to relief of physiological needs, like eating or sleeping, or other body functions. Needless to say, whole tomes have been written regarding the study of this aspect of psychology, none of which is beneficial to good mental hygiene.
A bold experiment, in which maybe persons are NOT kept in bondage for a specified term, or for life, except as a just punishment for really severe transgressions against the civil order of society, was undertaken within the past few hundred years, spread wider and wider as the world became more enlightened. This new experimental reorganization of societal norms did not spread evenly and everywhere, by any means, but where it was tried and the lessons learned were applied, productivity burst forth beyond the wildest dreams of even those who were philosophically opposed to the very institution of slavery.
This new-found wellspring of prosperity did manage to frighten some number of the old classes that had most benefited from the institution of human bondage, and most of the warfare over the recent couple of hundred years was an attempt, however futile, to put that genie back in the bottle. And sometimes, the stopper was put back in, if only for a time, by mass genocides and assertion of what was at first overwhelming show of force in governmental decisions and on the battlefield.
There is slavery afoot in the world today, and we know where most of it comes from and is fueled by. One of the great curses of mankind is the imagined belief that an absolute, tyrannical form of “equality” must be enforced upon everybody, or at least for most people, with only a lone chosen few at the top (often self-selected) provides all the guidance and leadership needed to make things function “efficiently”. This command-and-control type of organization of society is known by many names, but almost every one of them boils down to some definition of socialism. I leave it to you to name them, but any thinking person knows of those of which I speak.
The failure to rid the world of this wrong-headedness comes down to failure to implement means by which successive generations keep and expand the process of critical thinking as it relates to how they themselves and their neighbors interact.
1. Do not offend purposely.
2. Do not be too easily offended.
3. Where there is conflict, resolve it through negotiation and compromise, coming up with a solution satisfactory to both sides.
4. Do not keep fighting the same battles over and over.
All seems very simple, but it is like applying the Golden Rule, and living by the Ten Commandments. Much harder to do than it first appears, as exceptions keep cropping up all the time, and people DO become truculent and intransigent.
Verrrry interesting.