Judging Yesterday
by the moral perspectives of Today.

Homophobia and Transphobia

Today, homophobia and transphobia are universally condemned, and anyone displaying symptoms of them is roughly treated.

Yesterday, going back to my childhood in the 1950’s, homosexuality was a criminal offence, and homophobia and transphobia were not only acceptable, they were mandatory.

If you can judge Yesterday by the moral perspectives of Today, then everyone of my generation should be openly ostracised and roundly condemned for having had homophobic and transphobic prejudices in our past, and pehaps even sued to satiate compensation greed.

Slavery

Today, slavery is universally condemned, and anyone having inherited any wealth from anyone engaged in it many generations ago is soundly criticised.

Yesterday, slavery was almost universally accepted everywhere.

Parliament. In the 1790's the British parliamentary majority voted to support the slave trade. How can any parliamentary candidate morally justify joining an organisation with that track record?

Our Royal Navy. Throughout the Napoleonic wars, our Royal Navy pressganged anyone considered suitable to work on our naval ships. Pressganging is a form of slavery. How can anyone justify joining a navy with that track record?

If, instead of a slave owner donating £100K to fund a UK College centuries ago, the UK Government had fined that slave owner £100K for carrying out slavery, and had subsequently put that £100K to good use, such as by funding a UK College, everyone would be completely happy with such an excellent outcome. Hm!

The Undoubted Reason. Without much doubt, the whole of the current debate has been caused by compensation greed. Without any possibility of compensation, the fuss would immediately evaporate.

Furthermore: We need to consider the following:

1. Had South Africa never been entered by Europeans, and had the border never been crossed, today’s South Africans would still be uneducated and living in what today we refer to as abject poverty.
2. As a direct result of historic slavery, today’s descendants of the slaves enjoy good education and very much greater wealth than they would possibly have had otherwise.

Very much tongue-in-cheek, perhaps the descendants of the slaves should be paying the descendants of the slavers for all the benefits that historic slavery has given to them personally.

Conclusions

I lack the courage to draw any conclusions.

How much of the angst is feigned to support our widespread compensation greed?

Long live our self-righteous indignation, long may it continue to prosper.

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