Ignorance is Strength; Socialism is Slavery

It has recently been put to me that socialism is slavery, because under socialism, the person belongs to the state and not themselves. The speaker's inspiration was likely the not-yet-implemented health reform, because he wrongly fears he will be compelled to get regular checkups from a physician.

By his logic (and I use that term losely) the entire first world and part of the third world, are currently enslaved. France? Enslaved. Germany? Enslaved.

Of course, America is no stranger to slavery. There are people alive today who grew up hearing their own grandparents accounts of what it was like to be born into bondage. To have no rights and be considered less than human, to fear random violence.

Slaves were compelled to work at jobs that were often dangerous or life-span shortening. The method of compulsion was systemic and grusome violence. People were often brutally whipped. The owner had a "right" to sexual abuse. In the normal course of trade, families could be broken up and torn apart- spouses sold to separate locations, children taken from their parents. And it took just an accusation of sex to cause a lynching - something which did not just include hanging, but also torture.

Slavery in America has never been equaled in it's brutality, it's violence and it's injustice. One race of people systeamtically beat, exploited and opressed another race of people, taking the output of their labour for themselves and providing violence in return. And this system of violence and terror is exactly like . . . Universal access to healthcare?

Stay sane, America.