[MD] Biological Quality & Social Conservatism

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Heather Perella <spiritualadirondack at yahoo.com>:

>      [SA previously]
> > 'Why was slavery allowed even during the founding
> years of the U.S. > in other words when the
> constitution was set-up?'
> 
>      [Platt] 
> > Since the beginning of time, slavery has been an
> > accepted social pattern.
> 
>      Yeah, sometime long, long ago...

It was accepted up to a couple of hundred years ago, not many years ago in
human history. 

>      [Platt]
> > In some places, notably Africa, I understand it is
> > still practiced. It was
> > with the enlightenment and it's emphasis on
> > individual worth and direct
> > access to God (the Reformation) that attitudes
> > towards slavery in thw West
> > began to change. 
> 
>      I don't know about how it changed, in this light.
>  By the way, when was the enlightenment? 

>From Wikipedia:

"The Age of Enlightenment (French: Siècle des Lumières; German: Aufklärung) was an
eighteenth century movement in European and American philosophy, or the longer period
including the Age of Reason. The term can more narrowly refer to the intellectual
movement of The Enlightenment, which advocated Reason as the primary basis of
authority. Developing in France, Britain and Germany, its sphere of influence also
included Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and, in
fact, the whole of Europe. Many of the United States' Founding Fathers were also
heavily influenced by Enlightenment-era ideas, particularly in the religious sphere
(Deism) and, in parallel with classical liberalism, in the political sphere (which
had a major influence on its Bill of Rights, in parallel with the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and the Citizen)."

[SA]
> I asked,
> more directly, "Why did slavery persist in the
> founding years of the U.S.?"

Takes time to change minds about a social pattern that had a long history. 

[SA]
> And War didn't change
> the minds of many, before the Civil War, for many
> changed without war.  That's what I brought up here
> below previously.
> 
> 
>      [SA previously]
> > How did the U.S. get to 'Ok, we'll allow slavery' to
> 'Slavery must end
> > even if it means war'?  I am not historically adept
> for
> > these time periods, but I do know that voices,
> > abolitionist voices, out of New England, etc... got
> louder and
> > > louder.  This hit the national scene.  Washington,
> > > D.C. soon became stronger and stronger in
> > opposition against it.
> 
>     [Platt] 
> > I would attribute much of the change to religious
> > leaders just as they
> > played a key role in the later civil rights changes
> > of the 60's. Those
> > who now find it fashionable to trash religion would
> > do well to recall
> > not only its negative, but also its positive role in
> > societal change. 
> 

[SA]      I'm not too sure about this explanation.  But
> your conclusion does match my conclusion that war does
> not need to be the trigger for change.  The Civil War
> began with voices.  World War One began with voices. 
> Voices that differed so much that War and thus,
> confusion reined.  Is war unavoidable?  I don't know.





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