Was slavery a ‘necessary evil’? Here’s what John Stuart Mill would say.

[jacksonsprat22]

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has implied that the Times project exaggerates and overemphasizes what he called “the necessary evil upon which the union was built,” as he said the United States’ Founding Fathers viewed it.

Here’s what John Stuart Mill had to say about necessary and unnecessary evils:

Mill recognized that the wealthy class desperately wanted the working class to assume that their fate, which their children would surely inherit, was absolutely necessary, almost a natural law — and, in fact, told them it was so. He added, “But it was also said that slavery, that despotism, that all the privileges of oligarchy were necessary.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ill-would-say/

[blackascoal]

It was only necessary for evil fucking people.

[jacksonsprat22]

It was only necessary for evil fucking people.

As he wrote:

[A] few are born to great riches, and many to a penury, made only more grating by contrast. No longer enslaved or made dependent by force of law, the great majority are so by force of poverty; they are still chained to a place, to an occupation, and to conformity with the will of an employer, and debarred by the accident of birth both from the enjoyments, and from the mental and moral advantages, which others inherit without exertion and independently of desert.
John Stuart Mill, Chapters on Socialism


https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ill-would-say/


Sounds like Trump. Born into wealth and he thinks he earned it.

[Mott the Hoople]

It was only necessary for evil fucking people.

BAC! Where you been cuz? Good to see you back.

[Mott the Hoople]

It was only necessary for evil fucking people.

It is not being anachronistic in making such a statement either. One only has to look back at history to see that. For example slavery played a major role in destabilizing and causing the collapse of both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.

[Mott the Hoople]

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has implied that the Times project exaggerates and overemphasizes what he called “the necessary evil upon which the union was built,” as he said the United States’ Founding Fathers viewed it.

Here’s what John Stuart Mill had to say about necessary and unnecessary evils:

Mill recognized that the wealthy class desperately wanted the working class to assume that their fate, which their children would surely inherit, was absolutely necessary, almost a natural law — and, in fact, told them it was so. He added, “But it was also said that slavery, that despotism, that all the privileges of oligarchy were necessary.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ill-would-say/

Cotton certainly deserved the heaps of criticism he got for his asinine comments. When anyone speaks about our founding fathers having these monolithic ideas and values they just don’t know what they are talking about. One only has to read the primary sources of that time. The letters and personal memos and the minutes of public and private meetings of the many founding fathers that this universal beliefs they supposedly had simply did not exist. The framework for government they created was built upon compromise because of the large and varied interests our founding fathers had. These compromises made no one completely happy but were accepted to achieve larger goals.

Such was the case of slavery. Most of the founders viewed slavery as an unacceptable evil to be eradicated. Some viewed slavery as a necessary evil and some viewed it as a God given right and an economic necessity.

About the only thing that can be said was that very few of the founding fathers cared little for what was in the interest of blacks. Slave or free.

[jacksonsprat22]

Cotton certainly deserved the heaps of criticism he got for his asinine comments. When anyone speaks about our founding fathers having these monolithic ideas and values they just don’t know what they are talking about. One only has to read the primary sources of that time. The letters and personal memos and the minutes of public and private meetings of the many founding fathers that this universal beliefs they supposedly had simply did not exist. The framework for government they created was built upon compromise because of the large and varied interests our founding fathers had. These compromises made no one completely happy but were accepted to achieve larger goals.

Such was the case of slavery. Most of the founders viewed slavery as an unacceptable evil to be eradicated. Some viewed slavery as a necessary evil and some viewed it as a God given right and an economic necessity.

About the only thing that can be said was that very few of the founding fathers cared little for what was in the interest of blacks. Slave or free.

The Constitution was a way of institutionalizing the status quo.

[Mott the Hoople]

The Constitution was a way of institutionalizing the status quo.

Like hell it did. There’s a reason it was called a revolution.

[jacksonsprat22]

Like hell it did. There’s a reason it was called a revolution.

You're thinking of the Declaration of Independence.

[Mott the Hoople]

You're thinking of the Declaration of Independence.

Nope afraid not. Both were.

[Doc Dutch]

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has implied that the Times project exaggerates and overemphasizes what he called “the necessary evil upon which the union was built,” as he said the United States’ Founding Fathers viewed it.

Here’s what John Stuart Mill had to say about necessary and unnecessary evils:

Mill recognized that the wealthy class desperately wanted the working class to assume that their fate, which their children would surely inherit, was absolutely necessary, almost a natural law — and, in fact, told them it was so. He added, “But it was also said that slavery, that despotism, that all the privileges of oligarchy were necessary.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ill-would-say/

More like a convenient evil. Notice how slaves brought to the Americas were bought from African slavers, a continent where slavery continues to exist.

[blackascoal]

BAC! Where you been cuz? Good to see you back.

I’ve been healing .. much better now ... thanks

[Callinectes]

Damn it. This puts a serious kink in the GOP's plan to bring slavery back.

[jacksonsprat22]

Damn it. This puts a serious kink in the GOP's plan to bring slavery back.

Yes it does, oh weepy one.

[Jarod]

Necessary? Very little is necessary.

What an idiotic statement.