Re: Did you know you can buy land on the moon?

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Scott Lowther  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Name three countries where it's *legal*. 
>
>Sudan, China, North Korea.

Sudan I'm unsure of, but I think you'll find that neither China nor North
Korea permit slavery in the traditional sense of the term.  Indefinite
conscription, yes.

>> You're going to have to explain why 1945 was so magic. 
>
>Ask ther Israelies. They have good memories of such things.

I'd prefer to ask the Japanese-Americans (or Japanese-Canadians),
actually.  They've got good memories too, and they are less inclined to
think that the conditions which caused their oppression somehow magically
disappeared in 1945. 

>> If you're
>> including servitude to governments as "slavery", bear in mind that most of
>> the Allied troops who liberated Europe were conscripts. 
>
>Wow, talk about a non-sequitur. Since when have rational people
>considered temporary drafts in time of war to be the moral or technical
>equivalent to slavery?

Ask any conscientious objector.  Some of my own ancestors fled the US for
Canada, somewhat earlier, because the choices if they stayed looked to
them like slavery or death. 

You can't have it both ways.  If involuntary servitude to the government
is slavery when it happens in North Korea, it's the same when it happens
in the US. 

The fact that it's theoretically temporary doesn't change its nature.  For
one thing, slavery sometimes was too (the way thing were done in the US
South was not the only way they were ever done).  For another, wartime
conscription is all too often a death sentence -- the chances of survival
for a WW2 infantryman in a Western army were about 1 in 3, and the less
said about WW1 the better. 

Bad food in inadequate quantities, back-breaking labor, and horrible
living conditions?  Look at what the front-line troops in the Italian
Campaign went through, to pick only one example.  Death as punishment for
disobedience?  Well, yes, actually...
-- 
MOST launched 30 June; first light, 29 July; 5arcsec    | Henry Spencer
pointing, 10 Sept; first science, early Oct; all well.  | [EMAIL PROTECTED]