Finally Today

In what ways does slavery still exist today?

Also, how has slavery affected you personally? Would you consider yourself free today? Many of you have mentioned the tangible forms of slavery. What about the intangible forms?

Public Comments

1. um.. by existing. there are many countries where actual slavery exists.
2. Visit the nearest 'ho' house, and then you also know how it affects you. Peace.
3. Anyone living via month to month paycheck is relatively a slave which is probably most - some even live week to week. I think slavery is a relative term in many ways.
4. still exists in africa, middle east and china.
5. It affects us all take main land china,the sweat shops workers in their factories ,they are owned by the factories and we buy there goods .My daughter visited one of these factories and goods sell for nothing and sell over here for 100 dollars for a t shirt who gets the money us, western middle man we are all guilty
6. Sometimes I feel like a modern-day slave to the corporations of this world, bound by the almighty dollar and forced to work at least 40 hours per week during the best parts of my life. I made the choices to take on the debt, I did. But, it seems to be the way of things in our society. For the basic style of life, a home is required. Rather you rent or have a mortgage, it must be paid every month. And to earn the proper education for a job to pay these bills, I had to get a college degree, with loans that also bind me for years to come. Then there is a credit agency who monitors all of my financial habits, and provides them at the drop of a hat to any corporation, which will not only affect my credit obtaining abilities but also my job prospects, etc, as some companies do credit checks for employment. Some of the lucky few who were born into money or somehow worked their way up to making amounts that pay off the basic needs such as shelter, food, and transportation, etc. may not feel this way. But for the vast majority of us, to play and survive in this game we need to receive a steady stream of income, giving the best portions of our days up to a corporation in order to earn $$$ to make it work.
7. Unfortunately, slavery still exists in many forms to this day. Many of the new forms of slavery involve forms of indentured servitude. Many Chinese seeking a new life in the west will barter their work for being smuggled into a western country. On arrival, they're forced to work off their debt -- sometimes forever -- they never pay it off. Many of the women end up in forced prostitution or other occupations. The men end up being sold out to other people looking for menial, back breaking labourers. In many places in the Middle East, immigrants from the sub-continent are brought over to serve as housekeepers and are virtually imprisoned by their "employers." They have no money, no rights; and their fates are entirely in the hands of people who often abuse them. Make no mistake, slavery is alive and well. And of course, this doesn't even address the larger issue of "Wage Slave" who migrate from the countryside in search of jobs, are employed by large companies and forced to live in sub-standard company housing and subsist on pennies a day. It will be with us for a long time I fear.
8. G Humankind is still pretty much enslaved by the twin delusions of separateness and dichotomy. Intellectually, we know that we are mutually dependent, and that night is not the opposite of day, anymore than one man's evil is everyone's evil. Yet, the love for simple answers and the input from the eyes override knowledge. Cruelty and war are the results of this enslavement. The best technique to overcome these powerful delusions is to consistently use the LDK. Life Decryption Key Short Version By Generalist 02-09 Life often looks like a secret puzzle or an encrypted message, especially when we are facing problems. We need to decrypt the message and make some decisions. The first is to decide if we want to control our lives, or want to rely on an outside force. The second is whether we believe that causes produce effects. The question naturally occurs, “What are the right causes to optimize life for oneself and others?” Please write down all the words of intangibles that attach to life such as love, imagination, dreams, life, hope, fear, hate etc. Then write down all the words that relate to the tangible aspects of life. The list of tangibles and intangibles is endless in English. However, the inseparability of tangible and intangible aspects is summed up in the Japanese words Myoho. Why use Japanese words? The concept originated in Japan and can’t be expressed so succinctly in another language. Write down all the words for causes you can think of and effects those causes can have. They are all summed up in the words Renge-Causes simultaneously produce effects like the flower and the seed of the lotus. Everything is always changing. Write down all the words that come to mind about things changing-Clouds, faces, butterflies, concepts, memories and on and on. They are all summed up in the Japanese word Kyo. Because everything is always changing, no one is stuck where shehe is. The three words Myoho Renge Kyo include every aspect of life and exclude nothing. This formulation, used with focused intention, serves as a life decryption key to enable anyone to see the relationships that exist between good concepts and harmful ones The way to use it is to add the shortened Sanskrit verb for focusing intention and create Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. This is spoken repeatedly with the palms pressed together to close the energy circle and focuses the mind-brain-body on the essential realities. It releases delusions and limitations as reliably as vitamin C cures scurvy. Since we each have our unique paths and desires, there is no prescription for what people should focus on when they use the tool. It is all available. The human mind has vast possibilities to explore once we resolve the confusion. There is no intent to move anyone to think in a certain way. There is definite intention to help human beings to think more effectively in ways that improve their individual and collective lives. Source: http://www.sgi-usa.org. Or http://www.SGI.org Caveat; SGI does not use the term life decryption key. That term is my attempt to summarize the essence of the philosophy taught by SGI.
9. The working man is a slave to the time clock. In some societies, the woman is a slave to the man. The welfare family are slaves to the dole queue. The slave to the time clock pays his taxes to support those who enslaved to the welfare dole. Today, all are slaves, either to a time clock or to governmental hand-outs.
10. Capitalism makes slaves of people, in that we are coerced to participate, indeed it is illegal not to participate (try not paying taxes!). You can never actually own land or rights to it in the capitalist system, you still have to pay compulsory council rates. In Australia, voting is even compulsory by law. Virtually every facet of human life under capitalism is governed by laws or regulated, from the choices of food I eat, to what time I have to work, to even how large a family I can have, what I can do on my own property, what material posessions I can own etc etc. Absolutely everything appears to be under some form of legislation that robs the individual or community of choice. The FREEDOM of choice is regulated by government and law. So I am free, as far as I am not incarcerated in a prison, yet my freedom is so limited in my own country. It's like having Freedom of speech, so long as no-one disaggrees with what you say. Its illusionary. lack of freedom for me is a form of slavery.