Sometimes people look down on past generations for being slave-owners or defenders of slave ownership. My own view is that there isn’t really much difference between people today and the people of yesterday in regard to slave ownership. The key quality that made the people of the past believe in slavery, and the people of the present not believe in slavery is the same and it’s not a virtue. It’s conformity.
People rarely divert from what their circles have deemed moral. So when broader society is in an equilibrium that says slavery is okay, they’re going to believe it’s okay. And when broader society is in an equilibrium that slavery is immoral, they’re going to believe it’s immoral. And in doing so they become part of and ferment this equilibrium.
Over time and with social disturbances that each individual doesn’t have much control of and social scientists don’t understand very well, things get shaken up and settle in on a new equilibrium. We settled in on non-slavery. This is a good thing, but it tells us very little about the virtue of the holders of this belief. In the words of Bryan Caplan,
So if you're a conformist who simply supports whatever is popular in your society, the key fact about your character is that you're a conformist, not what you conform to.
So if we transport someone from today and rebirth them 200 years ago, they will accept slavery. And if you transport someone from 200 years ago to today, they will likely reject slavery. Conformity, conformity, conformity.
The important question going forward is this: What wickedness is going on that our society has deemed just, and what morally praiseworthy things are going on that our society has deemed unjust?
I very regularly settle in on controversial opinions that broader society calls evil. I also call evil much of popular opinion. Call me a saint or a sinner, what I am not is a conformist.
