There is a new slavery in America, or maybe it is an old slavery that’s gained renewed vigor. It’s a slavery perpetuated and supported by our government. It’s a slavery buoyed by a growing ideology that’s consumed nearly 50% of our population. We are enslaved with eyes wide open, in public, and without regard. It’s not a slavery based on race, class, or religion, but it’s slavery none the less.

“Slavery, 1) the state of one bound in servitude as the property of a slaveholder or household.”

It’s hard to read that definition. It’s equally hard to discuss the topic especially when the victims of this evil are so disregarded. The subjects are not only expected to live with their slavery, but also to embrace it as morally right; and many of them do just that. They turn a blind eye to their subjugation. It’s what they have been trained to do. It’s what they have been told is proper. Their servitude and self-sacrifice are the will of a higher power.

There’s not one master; there are many, and as most of their slaves succumb willingly they are none-the-less demonized. They are demonized for their production. They are demonized for their innovation. They are demonized for the capital they provide. They are demonized even as they make possible the very existence of their masters. And as those masters take more and more from their slaves, their slaves are still held as selfish and self-serving.

In a country once fueled by the individual’s dreams of prosperity those same qualities are now seen as unjust. It’s not that innovation, productive genius, and intellectual creativity are unequivocally evil; they are just seen as evil if pursued for personal prosperity. In the eyes of our masters these pursuits should be approached from the side of the common good. They should be free.

In the eyes of our masters, if you are a producer, you are lucky, and you should take high honor in your enslavement. It is not enough that your labor produces the trees in their forest of prosperity, but you should also teach them to climb those trees and give away your fruit.

As an individual you are the smallest minority on earth, and in a country where you were once a valued commodity, and where you were free to pursue the edges of your dreams, you are now a slave. And as your numbers continue to decline, so will the society that depends on your existence. They will continue to take until there is nothing left to take, or until you refuse to give. Even though many of you may also feel self-sacrifice for the common good is the highest moral virtue one can practice, there is no justifiable moral high ground from which they can preach their beliefs of forced self-enslavement.

There’s a huge difference between giving and sacrifice. Giving makes you feel good, while sacrifice does not. Giving is a personal choice based on abundance, while sacrifice forces you to give when you do not have enough. Giving is saying, “I have an abundance of shirts, please take one and be warm”, while sacrifice is saying, “Please take my shirt and be warm while I am cold”, or in the case of America, “I must give you my shirt because it is the law. I must give you my shirt because I have earned it and you have not. I must give you my shirt because my prosperity is the result of happenstance.”

A society ceases to achieve when it successfully establishes prosperity as mere luck, hard work as menial, productive genius as inherited, and a life of wealth and ease as entitled birthright. As we enslave and slaughter our individuals more masters are born squeezing each drop of the individuals’ blood from their whips as they follow the other lemmings blindly over the cliff.

- Lance Martin