>"consensual slavery" is a tautology more ridiculous than anything the Soviet Union ever wrote in their propaganda. Nobody would sell themselves into slavery if they had a choice.
It might seem contradictory but the world is not always nice and tidy.
Consensual here just means "the other person agreed/signed to it".
But what forces pressured them to do so are seldom examined -- and lots of people assume as long as it's not a "gun to the head" it's OK.
Of course from:
a) "total freedom to evaluate and pick among many options -- or even ignore them completely" to
b) "tons of factors pressuring enormously for a quick decision, and very limited options"
there's a huge scale of "consent" before we get to "gun to the head" non-consent -- but it's seldom acknowledged. In other words, consent is seldom black and white.
If we want to make the term less ridiculous, consent should only be used when there's actual and considerable choice on the matter. Not when it's "that or immediate hunger/homelessness/etc."
Of course long term everybody could be homeless/hungry without a job, but there's a difference between a person choosing to work for company X after evaluating what they do, the salary, etc, and a person in some Asian town that has to go work to the nearby factory or else, or a non-college educated single mom in Alabama a week away from eviction, that latch-on to whatever they can get to survive.
It might seem contradictory but the world is not always nice and tidy.
Consensual here just means "the other person agreed/signed to it".
But what forces pressured them to do so are seldom examined -- and lots of people assume as long as it's not a "gun to the head" it's OK.
Of course from:
a) "total freedom to evaluate and pick among many options -- or even ignore them completely" to
b) "tons of factors pressuring enormously for a quick decision, and very limited options"
there's a huge scale of "consent" before we get to "gun to the head" non-consent -- but it's seldom acknowledged. In other words, consent is seldom black and white.
If we want to make the term less ridiculous, consent should only be used when there's actual and considerable choice on the matter. Not when it's "that or immediate hunger/homelessness/etc."
Of course long term everybody could be homeless/hungry without a job, but there's a difference between a person choosing to work for company X after evaluating what they do, the salary, etc, and a person in some Asian town that has to go work to the nearby factory or else, or a non-college educated single mom in Alabama a week away from eviction, that latch-on to whatever they can get to survive.