@inhuman Not at all. When defining terms, one of the winning ways to do that is to look at original concepts from which all future concepts are born. You would be correctly if I was simply obfuscating by expanding the definition without evidence but I can prove my definition historically.
One of the very first definitions of slavery and one which had a high degree of influence on most of the western world can actually be found in Genesis. Egypt conquers all of Canaan through trading of grain during 7 years of famine. The Canaanites sold their stuff, then their land and finally they sold themselves into slavery. As a result, they were required to serve as serfs and pay a 20% tax to Egypt. Thus, one of the most prominant original defitions by which the western world has come to understand slavery through the eons was inspired by this basic concept. Even the Hebrew for which the entire Old Testament was written doesn't truly differentiate between "slave" and "servant". These are more modern translation conventions that are used for English readers but they don't exist in the original language.
There is of course a large spectrum of slavery from simply being a servant of a greater person to being in chains without the ability to eat or sleep without your master's permission but even within those you have to carefully choose what is evil and what isn't. For example, chains on a criminal are good if they prevent him from doing evil but chains on a child who did nothing wrong is evil and must be called out.
This is why you need to be specific on what kind of slavery you are really talking about. Just branding all slavery as bad is as ignorant as branding all slavery as good. And to that end, let's finally define slavery for what it is... it is the ownership (partial or otherwise) of your agency, money, property, or body by someone else.
One of the very first definitions of slavery and one which had a high degree of influence on most of the western world can actually be found in Genesis. Egypt conquers all of Canaan through trading of grain during 7 years of famine. The Canaanites sold their stuff, then their land and finally they sold themselves into slavery. As a result, they were required to serve as serfs and pay a 20% tax to Egypt. Thus, one of the most prominant original defitions by which the western world has come to understand slavery through the eons was inspired by this basic concept. Even the Hebrew for which the entire Old Testament was written doesn't truly differentiate between "slave" and "servant". These are more modern translation conventions that are used for English readers but they don't exist in the original language.
There is of course a large spectrum of slavery from simply being a servant of a greater person to being in chains without the ability to eat or sleep without your master's permission but even within those you have to carefully choose what is evil and what isn't. For example, chains on a criminal are good if they prevent him from doing evil but chains on a child who did nothing wrong is evil and must be called out.
This is why you need to be specific on what kind of slavery you are really talking about. Just branding all slavery as bad is as ignorant as branding all slavery as good. And to that end, let's finally define slavery for what it is... it is the ownership (partial or otherwise) of your agency, money, property, or body by someone else.
