RE: `capitalist' character values

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Jul 28 2001 - 11:20:40 MDT


Pat Inniss writes

> Are you saying that whites DIDN'T profit from slave labor?

My God, for the record, in caps,

    IT IS ENTIRELY TRUE, WITH NO QUALIFICATIONS WHATSOEVER,
    THAT SLAVERY WAS A HIDEOUS EVIL, AND WHITES WERE THE
    ONES IN NORTH AMERICA WHO PROFITTED FROM IT AND
    ORCHESTRATED IT.

Would you kindly *carefully* read people's posts? I was debating
her assertion that this is not widely known in the U.S. I'm sorry,
but my statement

>> You are quite wrong. I don't think I've ever [met] anyone so
>> so ignorant of history as to be unaware of slavery.

is about as clear as I can make it. If you aren't going to
understand that---i.e., try to make it sound as if I didn't
know that whites profitted from slave labor, then we're doomed.
Why even try to write coherently about anything if blatant
misrepresentations like this are going to occur.

And, poor me, I tried to be as inoffensive to all parties on
this list as I could be, without provoking a general rehash
of "the causes of the civil war" when I wrote

>> It's usually put forth as the reason that the Civil War
>> was fought, "to free the slaves". Abraham Lincoln is
>> probably best known "for freeing the slaves." Okay :-)
>> maybe you didn't hear this growing up because you weren't here.

But I don't blame you so much (only a little) for finding that
confusing. You weren't aware that I was talking about the
state of "everyone's" beliefs, not about what was true. As
it happens, I agree with you that slavery was the root cause
of the civil war, the fundamental cause, and the main cause.
(There were also other causes.) Happy?

Lee Corbin

P.S. I can see why most of the time you only lurk.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Pat Inniss
> Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 8:49 AM
> To: extropians@extropy.org
> Subject: Re: `capitalist' character values
>
>
> Lee Corbin wrote:
> >
> > Olga writes
> >
> > > Remember - whites profited from UNPAID slave labor for hundreds of years.
> > > When a tourist goes to visit the White House, it is rarely mentioned - if at
> > > all - that it was built with unpaid slave labor. How shameful - both this
> > > historic fact, and the fact that not many people are aware of this.
> >
> > You are quite wrong. I don't think I've ever meant anyone so
> > ignorant of history as to be unaware of slavery. It's usually
> > put forth as the reason that the Civil War was fought, "to free
> > the slaves". Abraham Lincoln is probably best known "for freeing
> > the slaves." Okay :-) maybe you didn't hear this growing up
> > because you weren't here.
> > <snip>
>
> Lee -
>
> Congratulations on getting me to de-lurk. That takes a lot.
>
> When you say that someone is "quite wrong," a little specificity would
> help. I can find nothing in Olga's statement that is untrue. Are you
> saying that whites DIDN'T profit from slave labor? Or that slaves didn't
> provide much of the labor to build the White House? When you say that
> the Civil War wasn't fought to free the slaves, you're just dancing
> around the issue, which in any case is merely tangential, at best. If
> you next intend to suggest, as is popular in some circles, that the
> issue of slavery wasn't the root cause of the Civil War, then it would
> become painfully obvious that you are the one who is "ignorant of
> history," or at least have exposed yourself only to the most biased and
> atavistic sources. Rather than clutter up the list with a lengthy post
> on that tired subject I'll direct you to something I threw together on
> this subject:
> http://www.eskimo.com/~pierres/opinions/opinion050800.html. I was kind
> of hoping this would be cleared up by the close of the previous century
> - now I'm shooting for 2100. The persistence of this type of BS is in
> itself enough to disprove the myth of inevitable progress.
>
> Regards,
>
> Pat Inniss
> inniss@sprynet.com
> http://home.sprynet.com/~inniss
>



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