13masquerade reminds me of a friend of mine who thought, at least for some period of time, that having stable preferences was a sort of enslavement for humans....
My preferences are by definition, preferred. In that narrow sense, i have to own them. I may think they are mine, but perhaps i'm their's. The slave owner depends more on the slave than the slave on the owner. Except for superficial differences like who gets punished more, and who dresses better, and who works harder, you could not tell who is the slave and who the owner. One might argue that the slave is more real as a human being, because it is in our nature, from time to time, to submit, while domination is a perversion we acquire.
I took significant license with the significance of the term "superficial" which i saw in terms of the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor, the mourners, the hungry-- and the parable of the grain owner and his soul. But of course you are right,certainly voluntary fasting, poverty, and submission is one thing; involuntary is quite another.
You know, in wider and less facetious contexts, I'm really troubled by tropes in which the rich/enslaving contemplate their probable no greater/lesser happiness than the impoverished/enslaved. Real fellow-feeling is valuable-- but I don't think this is real fellow-feeling. It often goes with "well, despite my relative freedom/power/wealth I'm really no better off than you and so your condition, oweing in part to my power and actions/inactions, is perfectly all right.
This comparison of dependence is doubly peculiar to me: apparently dependence is a Very Bad Thing, rather than part of the fabric of the universe, which it's foolish to imagine one can escape.
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In that narrow sense, i have to own them.
I may think they are mine, but perhaps i'm their's.
The slave owner depends more on the slave than the slave on the owner.
Except for superficial differences like who gets punished more, and who dresses better, and who works harder, you could not tell who is the slave and who the owner. One might argue that the slave is more real as a human being, because it is in our nature, from time to time, to submit, while domination is a perversion we acquire.
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This comparison of dependence is doubly peculiar to me: apparently dependence is a Very Bad Thing, rather than part of the fabric of the universe, which it's foolish to imagine one can escape.
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