(no subject)

[pecunium]

dKos has some scary stuff.

Cary Christian

Leaders at Cary Christian School say they are not condoning slavery by using "Southern Slavery, As It Was," a booklet that attempts to provide a biblical justification for slavery and asserts that slaves weren't treated as badly as people think.
Principal Larry Stephenson said the school is only exposing students to different ideas, such as how the South justified slavery. He said the booklet is used because it is hard to find writings that are both sympathetic to the South and explore what the Bible says about slavery.

"You can have two different sides, a Northern perspective and a Southern perspective," he said.

Which makes one wonder what the, "Southern" side is? (pace to those readers from the South who take offense, this is the way they paint you, not the way I do).

Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence...
...Slave life was to them a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care.

Makes me wonder what all those damned abolitionists were against?

Oh that's right, they were moralising do-gooders, and Puritans, who wanted to force a narrow interpretation of the Bible on the poor South. Heck, it's worse than that, they were liberals.

Comments

[antiquated-tory.livejournal.com]

I recall being taught that, in as much as you can compare various forms of slavery that have existed, American slavery was among the very worst. In most other societies, slavery was not heritable, for instance, and in most societies it was not necessarily lifelong, either.

Mmmm, dried sour cherries. I have a friend with a sour cherry tree in their garden that produces far more than they know what to do with. Maybe I'll look into getting them a fruit dryer for Christmas (I wouldn't suggest trying to sundry fruit in the rather unpredictable Bohemian summer).

Btw, funny you should mention the 'SS is DOOMED' meme. There's quite an argument (actually, quite a resurrected argument) about this on the Brunchma board (where myself and mcduff are oft to be found, esp the latter). The fellow who is arguing the DOOMED side is dead smart, an actuary and one of the saner libertarians we know so I don't want to dismiss what he's saying out of hand, though indeed I think he's wrong on this one.

Incidentally, the Czech Republic has a pay-as-you-go system that really is in a lot of trouble. Net population decline, for starters, so there just aren't enough people paying into it. Wish I knew more details about it. The more right-wing party has been talking for ages about bringing in a mandatory private pension insurance scheme but my first thought is, hmm, the insurance company goes broke and then the government has to cover all the policies, anyway...