Prepare your question. Think it through. Hasty-sounding questions get hasty answers, or none at all. The more you do to demonstrate that having put thought and effort into solving your problem* before seeking help, the more likely you are to actually get help.
An excerpt from How To Ask Questions The Smart Way (note: http only) by Eric Steven Raymond & Rick Moen
The above page was written to assist in asking technical questions to solve computing problems, but much of it is generally applicable for provoking quality responses. ________
*The problem here being one of understanding
I agree : the question, if it is one seeking an actual answer, is a bad one. But I guess we can be more charitable and view this question purely as a conversation starter around an issue. Maybe OP wants to have the view of a wide number of people around this subject one general, and purposefully makes questions as imprecise as possible. If I am not mistaken, I saw other questions of the same type by OP before.
I mean to call attention to the fact that that this type of question is difficult to engage with precisely due to the fact that it is unfocused and lacks context.
The onus is on those answering to interpret when and where both ancient and modern fall, what constitutes slavery, compare the generalized forms of slavery in two times and places chosen, figure out how the differences stack up, and finally type the conclusion up in the form of an answer. That’s quite a burden placed upon the would-be answer-er to provide any sort of meaningful reply.
It is of course possible to provide unfocused, un-contextual, hasty replies, but if the question does not seek a meaningful answer, why should anyone bother to engage with it? Though as a conversation starter it performs poorly too, because people have to puzzle out what the question even means to ask before anything else.
I once again I mostly agree with your critics here. Those are valid critics if such a question. But I would not go as far as you do. You talk about “burden”, but nobody is forced to engage in a discussion they don’t see as useful. And all the details needed to be able to even start a discussions about the subject launch can be the focus of the discussion if anyone would like it to be.
Even this discussion we are having about what is a valid way to ask about something is something interesting, and I’m sure OP is OK with people getting so far off.
This situation is different from someone “hijacking” a specific conversation, if this conversation was started by people that wanted to tackle a specific issue.
Anyway, this question is, I agree, impossible to answer here in a few word. I would need a whole book or even a career to study it. I am both unable and unwilling to give an6 relevant answer on it, that is OK. But if someone want to shower OP with pertinent sources, or interesting critisicm, I am perfectly OK with it !
Fair enough.
Correct assumption. I just like how people differently approach these questions. They are really general, I agree, but that’s what I like in them and answers some are trying to add.
Read “The Principles of Communism”, it has a simple but detailed description of what encompasses being a social class (slave, serf, handicraftsmen, wage worker, etc) and its differences.
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