Thursday, November 29, 2018

Lincoln Didn't Give a Shit about Slavery

I've never been a big fan of Lincoln. From what I know of him he was an opportunistic monster. (Like most politicians.) One thing is hardly controversial. Lincoln didn't care, one way or the other, about slavery.

He said so.

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery."

And to save the Union, he was willing to engage in a struggle that would cause the deaths of 600,000 Americans.

And ever since I came across the notion that U.S. intervention in WWI set the stage for Hitler and WWII, I have often wondered if the outcome might have been different had the South won their independence and the corresponding diminution of U.S. power had prevented Versailles.

Think about it. What would the world look like today if there were both the United States of America and the Confederate States of America?

And no. I don't believe the Confederacy would still have race-based slavery. But it would probably have income tax slavery, a peculiar institution that has yet to be purged.

Read this,

How Europeans Viewed the War

In Other News

I don't buy into Greg's biblical references, but then again, I have to confess that I have read very little of the Bible. I don't know much about Islam either, but from what I can see, I'm kind of leaning toward the Bible. I felt a lot more comfortable living in Canada when the Bible, notwithstanding my skepticism, was the dominant religious and cultural influence. My casual observations of life in the Islamic world, driven by a religious philosophy that we in the West are no longer permitted to criticize, is far less sanguine.

One final comment as it pertains to Greg's observation regarding the propaganda nudging us all into the abandonment of cash. It reminds me of the aggravation I felt last night at the grocery checkout line, as some trendy asshole delayed the progresss of the line because his fucking smartphone now had a role to play in the transaction, as he and the cashier looked at each other confusedly, so that he could pay for his cucumbers. What fucking horse-shit.

This is how it was done in the old days. "That will be $18.77. You give me a $20 bill, and I will give you $1.23 in change. Do we really need a fucking computer to make this any easier? What's next? Will you need to consult your smartphone before you wipe your ass?"