Thus, having learned about slavery among Ythrians, Philippe Rochefort reflects that the practice is being revived in the Empire, albeit limited by law, as a punishment and to get some social utility from criminals. Really? Current British law has a provision for "community service orders" which compel an offender to perform specified socially useful tasks or be returned to prison. But simply "selling" criminals to private individuals would, first, be unjust as a punishment because their treatment by their owners would be arbitrary and unpredictable and, secondly, it would in no way ensure that their owners made them do anything socially useful!
Rochefort asks himself how more moral Terrans are than Ythrians but then answers, "Man is my race." (Rise Of The Terran Empire, New York, 2011, p. 487)
Rochefort is a Jerusalem Catholic. Should his Church not condemn a revival of slavery? As I understand it, in the Roman Empire, St Paul, the founder of Gentile Christianity, did not condemn slavery but urged slaves to obey masters and taught that both master and slave were one in Christ but Paul was responding to an already existing institution, not to a practice revived after millennia of being morally condemned, and he thought that Christ would return soon so that everyone would be freed then.
Rochefort, preparing for war, is on Esperance, a planet that had been colonized by pacificists as we, the readers, were informed in a van Rijn story in the previous volume.
7 comments:
Hi, Paul!
I actually discussed the issue of slavery (along with crime and punishment in the Technic History) with Poul Anderson in one of my letters too him. To too briefly summarize his reply, Anderson said slavery in the Terran Empire had deeper roots than what you've said. That is, Anderson speculated that, implausible as it seems, the libertarian philosophy which underlay the Polesotechnic League may have led to the revival of slavery.
Again, too briefly, PA speculated that persons convicted of crimes like rape might be sentenced to work for their victims. Needless to say, rape victims are not likely to want such characters near them; so, they might sell the work contract to brokers who would in turn find persons who did have uses for these convicts. And, after the Empire arose, this kind of penal servitude would be placed on a systematized basis.
Anderson ended by saying he would not agree with something like this--but pointed out real world history and societies has seen analogous things. And might see similar things again in the future.
Sean
See the "Organ Bank Problem" in Larry Niven's Known Space Series.
Each step toward it seems plausible.
Kaor, Jim!
It's been too long, really, since I've last read Larry Niven's Known Space stories, but I do remember things like the Organ Banks! And of criminals being condemned to death even for minor offenses (to ensure a steady supply of body parts), and of phenomena like organ legging, black market trafficking in organs/body parts. That would not be a good time or society, if the most trivial offenses got you sentenced to death!
Ad astra! Sean
But surely Niven gets the sociology all wrong? Such an extension of the death penalty would be very strongly opposed by very many people. In his account, the death penalty for parking offenses is publicly endorsed with no controversy.
Kaor, Paul!
Actually, given my jaundiced view of human beings in general, I would not be surprised if something as bad as this happened. I could cite real history examples like the period from about 1700 to, say, about 1830 in the UK, during the era of the Bloody Code. I would need to check, but I think the ferocious laws of that time allowed the death penalty for as many as 100 different kinds of offenses, many of them truly TRIVIAL. A man or woman's life often depended on the capricious moods of the juries.
So, if a steady supply of organs and limbs was needed to deepen one's chances of longer life, I can see it becoming POPULAR the death penalty to even petty offenses.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
There would certainly be support but, again, the nature of human beings means that there would also be opposition and a lot of conflict. Some opponents of capital punishment would assassinate its supporters!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That too would be at least as likely as support for a wide extension of the death penalty.
Ad astra! Sean
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