The "memes" or ideas of the early European progressive movement were some of the most intellectually important concepts ever produced in the (WESTERN) human quest for the "progressive" advancement of the human species . In a noble act, oftentimes at great personal risk, they raised the level of humanity for the benefit of all mankind as a whole. Many, but not all, of the early progressives viewed it as a natural progression of the reformation, and the enlightenment. It was not a personal advancement they were seeking, it was to raise their fellow members of society, from the dark moral abyss, that was the prevailing reality that they faced in their daily lives.
Slavery was widely practiced, and viewed by progressives as morally unconscionable. Since all men were created equal, they reasoned, slavery was inconsistent with the reality they know to be true. (the inherent equality of their fellow man regardless of skin color) They fought against the reality of the world they inhabited, and they vowed to change the inequities of of the prevailing moral"wisdom" of those who they disagreed with.
The Quakers were of the opinion that civil disobedience was sufficient as they were "fundamentalist Christian" extremists really, and therefore "extremely" non-violent in nature, and limited themselves to moral augments in favor of their abolitionist memes. They used such methods as the underground railroad. They also would help freed, or escaped slaves, reach Canada or in some cases return to Africa. John Brown was another progressive abolitionist who could have discredited the movement with his ideas of violent civil unrest. The same, "all men are created equal "meme" just a different interpretation of how to arrive at the same goal. There is in fact, no moral equivalence between their actions, even if they both broke the law, in pursuit of their shared goal.
But the meme of the progressive abolitionists grew quickly among the rich, poor, the religious, and the non-religious as well. It was a powerful meme, it had great and lasting resonance. Once fully understood, it was passed on, and shared by family and friend alike. Moral outrage grew exponentially as the powerful meme spread. Soon entire nations embraced this enlightened meme. When nations embrace such powerful pre-existing , fully developed memes, things can change. Only then, can change really come about in any sustainable manner.
I say sustainable manner because slavery had always been a human failing. Man, had been enslaving his fellow man, from the beginnings of recorded history.Most likely before recorded history as well.
Cyrus the Great, was the first ruler of antiquity to outlaw the practice of human bondage, truly an "enlightened individual". The "freedom for all men" meme, died not long after Cyrus's passing from the earthly realm. It was Cyrus's meme, not the meme of the people of the empire, so it died with him. It's simple to explain why, the enslavement meme is powerful on it's own. It's easy to make others do things, that you yourself, do not want to do. What is the reason to obtain power, if not to use it. So the human bondage meme,soon returned.
It's not until France, acting with the authority that only a world power has, made a definitive statement on the matter outlawing it in 1794, revolutionary France mandated the abolition of slavery, in France and all French colonies, and it was made common law. The decree issued stated
"the Convention declares the slavery of the Blacks abolished in all the colonies; consequently, all men, irrespective of colour, living in the colonies are French citizens and will enjoy all the rights provided by the Constitution."
But the human bondage "meme" reared it's ugly head once more. (remember it's a powerful meme as well) in 1802, the reinstatement of slavery as common law occurred in France. Who was responsible for this, you may ask?, with righteous indignation. Who was the only man with the unquestionable power to do so. Napoleon Bonaparte.
Slaves were needed in the colonial territories controlled by his empire. So that was the end of the question. "Raw Power" won out over the memes of French progressives, like Thomas Raynal, who had in 1770 published a book ( but not in France) arguing that slavery was contrary to nature and thus wrong. Using this meme in support of the "Société des Amis des Noirs and it's "equality of man" progressive abolitionist message.
The French Revolution brought anti slavery progressive abolitionists to power, but it brought men like Maximilien Robespierre with them, he was the " far left" of the progressive abolitionist movement, who had world transformative beliefs. Big plans he had, not limited to the emancipation of his fellow man. He tried to instantly transform France, to conform it, to his personal set of progressive memes. Because he had over reached in his quest to overturn tyranny as he saw it. He became a tyrant himself. Internationally discrediting his memes, destroying the revolution he was a part of, and leading to one of the a bloodiest time period in human history,( the Napoleonic wars) as the next French progressive, attempted to makeover the world according to his memes. But Robespierre, had the very best of intentions, that's all that matters right? Who would not have be-headed all of those people (20,000 or so) just with the progressive and humane execution method known as the "guillotine".
Can we lay the blame at his feet for the reintroduction of slavery in eight short years?
For the bloody history that followed this little miss-adventure of his? Who can say, but we can question.
This, at the time, still highly controversial (in some circles) freedom meme, incredibly survived and migrated to England, where men such as the English abolitionists,men like Thomas Clarkson who had encouraged the French progressive abolitionists to put their words into action and on paper. They listened to him, and did so in The Declaration of the Rights of Man in August 1789, they stated their "universal freedom" memes clearly, in the very first sentence of the document.
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights
Not white men, nor limited to European men, but the more inclusive general term of men.(it would take some more progressive struggle to include women in the definition) women got the vote in 1945 in France.
(footnote)
{The author Olympe De Gouges, of "the Declaration of the rights of women" was beheaded as an enemy of the people, during Robespierre's rein of terror. she just did not know her place, I guess}
The English abolitionists, ran with this meme, reinforced it in public debate, and eventually forced by moral argument alone, the government to become compelled to act upon the catchy meme, that refused to die an ennoble death with it's promise yet unfulfilled.
The parliamentary act which abolished the slave trade in Britain was introduced into law in 1807 and by Royal decree mandated that the British involvement in slave trading must end by 1 January 1808.
In order to enforce the legislation, the Admiralty established a West Africa anti-slavery squadron. With instruction to employ force of arms if necessary to bring this abomination to an end. At this time the Royal Navy was the most powerful force in the world, meaning slavery was at it's end. No such luck, the anti- slavery meme took a back seat to a little war with a former colony of the Brits. As Britain became involved in a war with America (1812-15) and all available ships were required to fight there.
The history of the slave trade for the British was a touchy subject, since it was that trade, that made the English Navy a world power to begin with.
It was the Royal Navy that eventually ended the slave trade. The slave trade had been a lynch pin in the triangular trade that has been a key element of the British economy and helped bring great wealth to Britain. It had in part helped to finance the growth of the Royal Navy. The expansion of the British merchant fleet under the protection of the Royal Navy resulted in Britain dominating the slave trade by the 18th century. British ships beginning about 1650 are believed to have transported as many as 4 million Africans to the New World and slavery. The British Parliament during the Napoleonic Wars banned the slave trade (1807).
This was a decession madeon moral grounds after a long campaign in Britain against slavery at considerable cost at a time of War.
After Trafalgur (1805) the powerful British Royal Navy could intercept suspected slave ships under belligerent rights. After the cesation of hostilities this became more complicated. The only internationally recognized reason for boarding foreign ships was suspected piracy. Thus Britain had to persue a major diplomatic effort to convince other countries to sign anti-slavery treaties which permitted the Royal Navy to boardt heir vessels if suspected of transporting slaves. Nearly 30 countries eventually signed these treaties. The anti-slavery effort required a substantial effort on the part of the Royal Navy. The major effort was carried out by the West Coast of Africa Station which the Admiralty referred to as the ‘preventive squadron’. The Royal Navy from this station for 50 years conducted operations to intercept slavers. At the peak of these operartions abour 25 ships and 2,000 officers and men were deployed. There were about 1,000 Kroomen, African sailors, operating West African Station. The Royal Navy deployed smaller, shallow draft vessels so that slavers could be persuedin shallow waters. Britain also targeted African leaders who engaged in the slave trade. A British forced in one operation deposed the King of Lagos (1851). The climate and exposure to filthy diseased laden slave ships made the West African station dangerous. The officers and men were rewarded with Prize money for both freeing slaves and capturing the ships. The Royal Navy's task in East Africa and the Indian Ocean was even more difficult. This was in part because of the support for slavery among Islamic powers (both Arabian and Persian). The slave trade persisted into the 1860s, in part because of the continued existence of slavery in the United states. http://histclo.com/act/work/slave/ast/ast-atle.html
We can all agree this was the proper thing to do, after thousands of years of human history a group of humans were employing the augments of reason, and were attempting to "force" the unreasonable to submit to reason, at the point of a gun, if necessary. It was a clear moral imperative. The crime they were fighting against justified violent actions. But unfortunately, the Brits, sort of mashed up some unconnected progressive memes. Incompatible with the "freedom of man" meme, was the theory of the inferiority of the races that was arrived at by nineteenth century "progressive" Anthropologists, and mashed together with the "freedom of man" meme, leading to the theory of the historically fully discredited, "the white man burden" meme.
That ultimately led to the discrediting of the noble English effort. Because no one took the time to critically examine, if the two memes were compatible. They never were.
With the use of logic, it's readily apparent that they are not. The "equality of man" meme, conflicts with the other newer meme, that claims an ethnic group is inherently superior, and capable of enlightening another group of humans. A more advanced civilisation may force a less developed civilisation to submit to a set of demands, under threat of violence. Commonly known as gunboat diplomacy. But to enlighten them, is a more complex question, implying that force alone, is too insufficient for total application and voluntary compliance in accordance with any newly intraduced meme.
The force of logic was not applied in this case because while the equality of man meme, was around for quite some time, and was subject to vigorous public debate, the racial classification meme was new, and known only to the elite,and it's inpolite to question your bettors. The very people pushing the equality of man meme,(ironically) viewed themselves as bettor than their own country men, they were more enlightened than their compatriots. So the thinking of the day went. Progressive, elitism, is by no means perfect.As history has aptly demonstrated time and time again.
For better or worse, this phase of western history is the forced introduction of modern concepts and ideas on a largely unprepared world, that had not experienced the intellectual discourse need to quickly absorb new concepts. Good intentions led to very uneven results.
But the industrial revolution, the printing press, the telegraph,and steam power, were forces that once unleashed, could not have been held back, even if there had been a concerted effort to do so. This is the age we still live in.The age of Modernity. There is no going back. The equality of man meme, has not itself, ever been discredited. It is now, just as much a fully valid theory as it was long ago, when first propagated. Robespierre with the addition of his egalitarian Utopian concepts (leftist) nor the British Industrialists (the right) did more than temporarily tarnish the "freedom of man" meme. But it has taught historians that the mashing together of memes, should not be undertaken lightly.
The word Modernity, as defined in the Dictionary, poses a dilemma, for those knowing the toll of human suffering in the struggle to modernize an unwilling minority sharing this world. But some memes are worth fighting for. The "equality of man" or "the freedom of man" meme, is one such meme.
mo·der·ni·ty(m-dûrn-t, m-) n. pl. mo·der·ni·ties The state or quality of being modern: "Warriors of the . . . tribe, imposing symbols of a nomadic culture . . . are caught between tradition and modernity" (Sheila Rule).
The memes,(or traditions) of a primitive Arabian tribe, called "Quraysh " are in point of fact, clashing with modernity.Violent clashes are reported in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and to a lesser extant America. They ( proponents of the memes of a desert tribe, calling themselves Muslim, or submitters) are attempting to assert the "earthly" authority of an imaginary friend of theirs, with some highly questionable, misogynist, and murderous memes. One of the truly troubling memes, is the human bondage meme, it has strong support scripturally within the text of Islamic tradition.
The Memes of this primitive tribal construct,(Islam) are recorded and codified in the trinity (Qur'an, hadith and Sunnah Biography of Mohammad) the books held "holy" to submitters, are crystal clear "all men created by allah, are explicitly not equal" some are favored above others. Some are in fact, meant for bondage on this earth. As recorded in Qur'an 16:71
And Allah hath favoured some of you above others in provision. Now those who are more favoured will by no means hand over their provision to those (slaves) whom their right hands possess, so that they may be equal with them in respect thereof. Is it then the grace of Allah that they deny?
If you still find this unclear, let me expand the scope of this examination, plumbing the depths of slavery, in an Islamic theocratic construct.
Loans, Payment of Loans, Freezing of Property, Bankruptcy
Bukhari :: Book 3 :: Volume 41 :: Hadith 598
Narrated Jabir: A man manumitted a slave and he had no other property than that, so the Prophet cancelled the
manumission
{emancipation}
(and sold the slave for him). No'aim bin Al-Nahham bought the slave from him
A second source for the theological justification of slavery in Islam
Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihaad)
Bukhari :: Book 4 :: Volume 52 :: Hadith 255
Narrated Abu Burda's father:
The Prophet said, "Three persons will get their reward twice. (One is) a person who has a slave girl and he educates her properly and teaches her good manners properly (without violence) and then manumits and marries her. Such a person will get a double reward. (Another is) a believer from the people of the scriptures who has been a true believer and then he believes in the Prophet (Muhammad). Such a person will get a double reward. (The third is) a slave who observes Allah's Rights and Obligations and is sincere to his master."
Even if you become a slave to 'allah' you may still be in bondage (the property) of another man.
This is from Ebony magazine in 2001
African-American leaders mobilize to help
talk is cheep
SOME say it's genocide, others say it's religious persecution, still others say it's all about money and oil.
Whatever it's about, the reported existence of the buying and selling of human beings in Sudan--Africa's largest and poorest country--in the 21st century has triggered an international furor and is fueling a mushrooming movement of protest by African-American leaders and celebrities.
According to reports, thousands of Sudanese Blacks are being sold for from $10 to $100, and villages and communities in southern Sudan are being plundered.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_10_56/ai_76770615/
At some point in Islamic theocratic concepts it's possible for a non-Muslim woman to become the "property" or "Booty" of the group who took her, if justified by claims of Jihad (2:190), in a theocratic sense, as explained in (Quran 4;24) as well as (23;5-6) (24;33) and a few others. In the reliance of the traveler (a guide to sharia law) it says on page 276.
@O9.13 When a child or a woman is taken captive, they become slaves by the fact of capture, and the woman's previous marriage is immediately annulled.
Mohammad (the prophet of Islam) did not mind the rape of captive (slave) women
Muslim :: Book 8 : Hadith 3432
Abu Sa'id al-Khudri(Allah her pleased with him) reported that at the Battle of Hanain Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) sent an army to Autas and encountered the enemy and fought with them. Having overcome them and taken them captives, the Companions of Allah's Messenger (may peace teuponhim) seemed to refrain from having intercourse with captive women because of their husbands being polytheists. Then Allah, Most High, sent down regarding that:" And women already married, except those whom your right hands possess (iv. 24)" (i. e. they were lawful for them when their 'Idda period came to an end).
Malik :: Book 38 : Hadith 38.5.6
Malik related to me from Nafi from Abdullah ibn Umar that Umar ibn al-Khattab said, "If a slave-girl gives birth to a child by her master, he must not sell her, give her away, or bequeath her. He enjoys her and when he dies she is free ."
Women suffer a more profound and "internal" effect (psychically and spiritually) dealing with the codified dogma, of this desert tribe called Quraysh . Please take some time, from your, oh so busy life, and read about those far less fortunate than you, or anybody you are likely to know. They are living a life of quiet desperation, that only death can release them from. There are in fact many forms of slavery. I would like to introduce you, to this morally unconscionable one.(gender apartheid)
In "Distant View of a Minaret," the late and much-neglected Egyptian writer Alifa Rifaat begins her short story with a woman so unmoved by sex with her husband that as he focuses solely on his pleasure, she notices a spider web she must sweep off the ceiling and has time to ruminate on her husband's repeated refusal to prolong intercourse until she too climaxes, "as though purposely to deprive her." Just as her husband denies her an orgasm, the call to prayer interrupts his, and the man leaves. After washing up, she loses herself in prayer -- so much more satisfying that she can't wait until the next prayer -- and looks out onto the street from her balcony. She interrupts her reverie to make coffee dutifully for her husband to drink after his nap. Taking it to their bedroom to pour it in front of him as he prefers, she notices he is dead. She instructs their son to go and get a doctor. "She returned to the living room and poured out the coffee for herself. She was surprised at how calm she was," Rifaat writes.
The eternal longing for a taste of freedom, or release of pent up reprehension. Or a realisation of hope of better days,has a strangely calming effect in some situations.
In a crisp three-and-a-half pages, Rifaat lays out a trifectaof sex, death, and religion, a bulldozer that crushes denial and defensiveness to get at the pulsating heart of misogyny in the Middle East.
There is no sugarcoating it. They don't hate us because of our freedoms, as the tired, post-9/11 American cliché had it. We have no freedoms because they hate us, as this Arab woman so powerfully says.
Yes: They hate us. It must be said.
Some may ask why I'm bringing this up now, at a time when the region has risen up, fueled not by the usual hatred of America and Israel but by a common demand for freedom.
Afterall, shouldn't everyone get basic rights first, before women demand specialtreatment? And what does gender, or for that matter, sex, have to do with the Arab Spring? But I'm not talking about sex hidden away in dark corners and closed bedrooms.
An entire political and economic system -- one that treats half of humanity like animals -- must be destroyed along with the other more obvious tyrannies choking off the region from its future.
Until the rage shifts from the oppressors in our presidential palaces to the oppressors on our streets and in our homes, our revolution has not even begun.
..
Horrific news reports about 12-year-old girls dying in childbirth do little to stem the tide of child marriage there. Instead, demonstrations in support of child marriage outstrip those against it, fueled by clerical declarations that opponents of state-sanctioned pedophilia are apostates because the Prophet Mohammed, according to them, married his second wife, Aisha, when she was a child
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/23/why_do_they_hate_us
From page four
A quarter of those parliamentary seats are now held by Salafis, who believe that mimicking the original ways of the Prophet Mohammed is an appropriate prescription for modern life
The Qur'an clearly and accurately says that mimicking the original ways of the Prophet Mohammed is what 'allah' demands of it's slaves. All Muslims are slaves of 'allah', the black stone of the Kabba. And Mohammad is the perfect man. "Al-Insan al-Kamil"
This was written by a "black Irish" religious fanatic. Using the "pagan" holy trinity of "reality, logic and reason" as a philosophical guide.
Utterly shattering unsupported memes since 423 BC. Diogenes ( the Cynic) to Alexander the Great, started this fine pagan tradition. But I find they (reality, logic, and reason) still work well in the Internet age
