One of the evolutions of slave culture … where owners realized that they have to keep slaves oppressed but not so oppressed to give them the incentive to want to rebel.
Our owner class understand this dynamic today … keep us all oppressed but not to the point where we will rebel. Keep us all fed with cheap food to keep us from starving and becoming hopeless.
As long as we can eat, even if it is shitty, unhealthy, cheap food that we can barely afford, we’ll never rebel. They can take away our things, our house, our apartment, our shelter but they’ll never take away our cheap food. We can live under a highway overpass with nothing but as long as we can afford a cheap can of beans, we’ll never rebel.
Funny enough, feeding slaves well was usually not an issue. Roman slave rations, even by cheap-ass misers like Cato the Elder, are generally pretty sufficient, providing a good quantity of wheat, olive oil, salt, and wine. Fish sauce was also considered a basic necessity even for slaves. Romans believed diet was core to health, and keeping slaves healthy was thus an investment. On top of that, the Roman understanding of human psychology - that people, including slaves, are better motivated by ‘carrots’ than ‘sticks’ - often rears its head here as well to enable slaves access to better food (or the threat of better food being withheld) in exchange for ‘good behavior’ of one sort or another.
The change that made the Third Servile War the last was that they dismantled the ability of slaves to gather together and organize in large numbers. Once that was gone, the stomach of slaves for mass uprisings dried up. There is power, and bravery, in numbers and solidarity.
G-good thing there are no efforts to disrupt our ability to gather or organize these days… w-we live in a golden age of unions, right…?
They’re keeping us fed (albeit as minimally as possible) … and now they’re going after our means of communicating and organizing on social media … there’s no precedent for that right?
One of the evolutions of slave culture … where owners realized that they have to keep slaves oppressed but not so oppressed to give them the incentive to want to rebel.
Our owner class understand this dynamic today … keep us all oppressed but not to the point where we will rebel. Keep us all fed with cheap food to keep us from starving and becoming hopeless.
As long as we can eat, even if it is shitty, unhealthy, cheap food that we can barely afford, we’ll never rebel. They can take away our things, our house, our apartment, our shelter but they’ll never take away our cheap food. We can live under a highway overpass with nothing but as long as we can afford a cheap can of beans, we’ll never rebel.
Funny enough, feeding slaves well was usually not an issue. Roman slave rations, even by cheap-ass misers like Cato the Elder, are generally pretty sufficient, providing a good quantity of wheat, olive oil, salt, and wine. Fish sauce was also considered a basic necessity even for slaves. Romans believed diet was core to health, and keeping slaves healthy was thus an investment. On top of that, the Roman understanding of human psychology - that people, including slaves, are better motivated by ‘carrots’ than ‘sticks’ - often rears its head here as well to enable slaves access to better food (or the threat of better food being withheld) in exchange for ‘good behavior’ of one sort or another.
The change that made the Third Servile War the last was that they dismantled the ability of slaves to gather together and organize in large numbers. Once that was gone, the stomach of slaves for mass uprisings dried up. There is power, and bravery, in numbers and solidarity.
G-good thing there are no efforts to disrupt our ability to gather or organize these days… w-we live in a golden age of unions, right…?
They’re keeping us fed (albeit as minimally as possible) … and now they’re going after our means of communicating and organizing on social media … there’s no precedent for that right?
Minimally?
Didn’t They just increase the options at McDonalds? Aren’t you using the app to purchase your FREE McNuggets you ungrateful slave?
Haven’t you heard Homophonic Chicken is woke now?
WHY ARENT YOU CONSUMING