American slavery, not abolished but also exported

December 2 is observed annually as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. On this day, efforts are made to focus on modern forms of slavery, such as human trafficking, sexual abuse, forced child labor and marriage, and the use of children in wars, in order to spark a global fight against these practices. There is no doubt that the crimes mentioned above rank among the most heinous crimes that can be committed against humans. But is forcing individuals to do certain things the only form of slavery? Don’t intellectual, economic, and cultural chains have the potential to enslave humans?

A look at the United States—one of the biggest destinations of slave traders in the 17th and 18th centuries and one of the largest media-economic empires of the 20th and 21st centuries—reveals that slavery is less a legal framework and more a thought and a mentality. It is an aggressive mentality that has victimized people worldwide for centuries.

Abolition of legal slavery and rise of cultural-economic slavery

In American popular culture and even among some historians, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, is often celebrated for his humanitarian and justice-seeking ideals and is regarded as the main factor in the abolition of slavery by passing the Emancipation Proclamation. However, a closer examination of US history and Lincoln’s writings reveals that his move to abolish slavery was primarily a political-security tactic aimed at consolidating the northern states’ dominance over the southern ones. By abolishing slavery and imposing this law on the southern states, Lincoln sought to undermine the southern states’ relative advantage, which relied on slave labor for agriculture, and reinforce the economic superiority of the increasingly industrialized northern states.

The abrupt abolition of slavery, without providing the black people with basic living necessities and creation of conflicts between slave owners and the central government meant that even after the Confederacy’s defeat, the living conditions of blacks did not improve much. Lacking basic living necessities or the means to migrate northward, many blacks were unable to break free from the chains of economic slavery. Even today, nearly 150 years later, blacks in America suffer from the lowest rates of ownership of property, agricultural land, and small and large businesses.

Despite numbering around 40 million—14% of the US population—they own only a bit more than 5.5% of homes and less than 0.5% of the country’s agricultural land. Predominantly living in impoverished, marginalized neighborhoods on the outskirts of major cities—often referred to as ghettos—they face widespread drug abuse, crime, and inadequate public education. For years, this persistent poverty has made black Americans prime targets for the US judicial system, where criminals of color, after receiving long prison sentences, become unpaid slaves of large private companies in America.

US slavery chains whoever it can

After the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of print, audio, and visual media, American capitalists found new ways to enslave their own people, regardless of skin color. Neil Postman, a media theorist, highlights in his renowned book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, how the introduction of advertising into media—from newspapers to television—shifted the American public’s preferences toward ever-increasing consumerism. Consumerism within society fosters intense economic competition, longer working hours, increased mental and physical strain from economic pressures, and ultimately, the superficialization of human concerns. When acquiring goods becomes the priority, deep intellectual and human issues are sidelined, the family is weakened, and individualism takes control of people’s minds. In such a society, all human interactions gravitate toward reinforcing this self-centered mentality. Examples of consumerism in American culture, and its efforts to export this lifestyle, are before everyone’s eyes today: 

The United States is the most obese nation in the world. In a country where 30% of adults live alone and nearly 60% of young couples both work, fast food becomes the most convenient option to eat before, during, and after work. This high-calorie, fatty diet ensures a steady stream of customers toward fast food chains and obesity-related medications. Regulatory institutions in the US food and health industries have also worked hand in hand with capitalists to support this lifestyle in America. For years, McDonald’s has symbolized the cultural assault of the US on the world. Fast food and the economic culture behind it have been replicated across much of the globe, drawing people into its fold. In many cultures, family meals are a symbol of togetherness, strengthening familial bonds. These shared meals are now under threat from American capitalists, who aim to eliminate them from homes.

Plato’s tripartite in America: Indignation, desire, but no reason

The United States has the world’s largest pornography economy, is the biggest consumer of pornographic content, and has one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, one of the highest rates of infidelity, and one of the highest rates of young people with gender identity issues. It is evident that the “Land of the Free” is simply an abbreviation for the “Land of the Free from Responsibility”, trapped in the sexual exploitation of capitalists. This has resulted in the creation of one of the largest pharmaceutical and healthcare markets dedicated to treating sexually transmitted diseases.

This market, generating $30 billion annually, feeds directly from the sale of sexually transmitted infections drugs and pornographic content in the United States. The US is now the leading exporter of this sexual lifestyle worldwide. Each year, thousands of American films, TV series, novels, and songs openly ridicule modesty and chastity, enticing teens and young adults toward this way of life. Countries that attempt to seriously counter sexual promiscuity are accused by the US of violating human rights. They are often sanctioned for protecting their family values and societal decency.

In the United States, an average of 50,000 people lose their lives from gunshots each year. While lawmakers and presidents frequently speak in the media about the need to review gun control laws, subsequent television programs often glorify murder and violence with artistic tools, delivering it as entertainment to audiences. Even social figures like the Joker have been created by this same cinema in recent years to export a spirit of violence and lawlessness, and were displayed in street riots in Iraq and Iran and even in the US itself. The United States is also the world’s largest arms exporter, earning $100 to $200 billion annually from arms sales. Violence serves the interests of the massive American arms production and export industry, which has one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country.

America has even exported its culture of excessive consumerism to the world. Each year, major American companies, seeking to reduce year-end inventory costs, offer discounts on one of the final Fridays of the year.  Watching American citizens rush to buy goods they probably don’t need much became a pastime for people around the world at this time of year, until the influence of American culture spread this phenomenon to countries that even have a different calendar than the Gregorian calendar. In many countries, and at the same time as Black Friday in America, the term “Black Friday” is prominently featured, without context or connection, to trigger a frenzy for discounted goods.

This emphasis on bodily desires and material instincts ultimately results in a decline of human values. The US government has long exploited this neglect and inattention of its people to major global political issues to fund devastating wars worldwide, relying on taxpayer money. Even the genocide in Gaza failed to spur the American public into significant action, and the killing of nearly 45,000 people by American-made bombs elicited little more than a few scattered protests on university campuses and streets, leaving the status quo largely unchanged.

Remembering victims of slavery

In a speech delivered in 1992, Imam Khamenei remarked, “The Americans claim, ‘We are advocates of human rights!’ We respond: you do not believe in human rights at all. You are committed to the rights of American corporations and major capitalists. You are dedicated to the illegitimate interests of the US regime around the world!” (May 6, 1992).

It is indeed fitting, on the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, to remember the victims of modern slavery in the United States. These are individuals who, influenced by the discourse of the “American Dream,” have for centuries been told that the stark class divides, aimless consumerism, immorality, and violence in the US are the “natural” byproducts of freedom. Without a doubt, the American people themselves have suffered the most from this mindset and narrative. They have become a cautionary tale for nations that have looked to America, its dream, and its interpretation of human rights as a model for their own paths forward.