For People to Own Other People

How many people know all the individual events that happened which contributed to the end of chattel slavery in the U.S.? The “abolitionists” said things, wrote things, some helped slaves escape (e.g., the “Underground Railroad”), juries refused to convict people for violating fugitive slave laws, etc. No doubt there were countless arguments and bickering about the best tactics to use, when (or if) forcible resistance was justified, etc. But in the end, none of the details really mattered. What mattered is that we now have a population which, for the most part, thinks that it’s very not okay for people to own other people.

Likewise, all the individual skirmishes going on today, physical or philosophical–all the individual incidents of fascist injustice, all the bickering and in-fighting in the “freedom movement,” all the different beliefs and tactics–in the end they don’t really matter. What matters is achieving a society in which most people don’t think that “government” has an exemption from the thing about, “it’s very not okay for people to own other people.”

So don’t put too much stake in all the “movement” drama, or in any particular individual, organization, or event. Whatever else happens along the way, changing minds is what matters.