I’m not sure the feeling against slavery is so uniform.
“If X would benefit from being a non-slave more than being a slave, and there were no costs to society, would it be better for X not to be a slave?”
All would agree that for X it is better, but there is always a cost: no-one then gets the use of X as a slave. History, as Thucydides observes, has consisted of the strong doing what they will, and the weak bearing what they must. The strong see this as the proper nature of things, and would scoff at the question. The weak can but impotently daydream of paradise.
As late as 1848, these lines were penned in a Christian hymn: “The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them high and lowly, and ordered their estate.” The verse has since fallen into disuse, which would shock people of a few centuries ago, who saw the social order as divinely ordained.
Only insofar as even man’s sinning is part of the divine plan; but though part of the divine plan, it is still sin. The social order is the divine order, each is born into the position that God has ordained, and the King rules by the grace of God. So it has been believed in some former times and places.
There is still a trace of that in our (British) coins, which have a Latin inscription meaning “[name of monarch] by the grace of God King/Queen, defender of the faith.”
I’m not sure the feeling against slavery is so uniform.
All would agree that for X it is better, but there is always a cost: no-one then gets the use of X as a slave. History, as Thucydides observes, has consisted of the strong doing what they will, and the weak bearing what they must. The strong see this as the proper nature of things, and would scoff at the question. The weak can but impotently daydream of paradise.
As late as 1848, these lines were penned in a Christian hymn: “The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them high and lowly, and ordered their estate.” The verse has since fallen into disuse, which would shock people of a few centuries ago, who saw the social order as divinely ordained.
What about when the poor men come barging through the rich man’s gate? I take it that too is factored into the divine plan?
Only insofar as even man’s sinning is part of the divine plan; but though part of the divine plan, it is still sin. The social order is the divine order, each is born into the position that God has ordained, and the King rules by the grace of God. So it has been believed in some former times and places.
There is still a trace of that in our (British) coins, which have a Latin inscription meaning “[name of monarch] by the grace of God King/Queen, defender of the faith.”