RE: What is the single darkest moment in human history?

for example:

Estimates for the prevalence of slavery in the Roman Empire vary. Estimates of the percentage of the population of Italy who were slaves range from 30 to 40 percent in the 1st century BC, upwards of two to three million slaves in Italy by the end of the 1st century BC, about 35% to 40% of Italy's population.[27] For the Empire as a whole, the slave population has been estimated at just under five million, representing 10 - 15% of the total population. An estimated 49% of all slaves were owned by the elite, who made up less than 1.5% of the Empire's population. About half of all slaves worked in the countryside, the remainder in towns and cities.[28]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_ancient_Rome#Demography

Um, ever hear of the Toba event?

agip wrote:

the american slavery issue is a non-starter - there have been slaves since the beginning of time. US slavery was nothing special.

And to a former poster - clearly many did not see american slavery as evil - they thought it was justified in the bible and their duty to help africans. It was a very different time.

I'll grant your first point - there have indeed been slaves since (not really the beginning of time but) quite a while back.

As to your second point, I am not really sure that I am following you. Slavery is monumentally evil. It is now and has always been. Does the fact that some looked to the bible as justification make it less evil? Does the fact that many did not see it as evil make it less so? Seriously, I am having a hard time seeing what point you are trying to make.

_

simply that many americans thought slavery was an absolute good, not an evil.

A prior poster wrote: "it was irrefutably evil, everyone knew it was evil"

I meant to dispute his statement that everyone knew it was evil.

Bubonic plague

Spanish flu

And from a Christian perspective:

Fall of man

Death of Jesus

agip wrote:

Hats to be axed wrote:

I'll grant your first point - there have indeed been slaves since (not really the beginning of time but) quite a while back.

As to your second point, I am not really sure that I am following you. Slavery is monumentally evil. It is now and has always been. Does the fact that some looked to the bible as justification make it less evil? Does the fact that many did not see it as evil make it less so? Seriously, I am having a hard time seeing what point you are trying to make.

_

simply that many americans thought slavery was an absolute good, not an evil.

A prior poster wrote: "it was irrefutably evil, everyone knew it was evil"

I meant to dispute his statement that everyone knew it was evil.

OK. Got it. That makes sense.

SkyArt wrote:

Bubonic plague

Spanish flu

And from a Christian perspective:

Fall of man

Death of Jesus

Gonna have to disagree with 'Death of Jesus'. In Christian theology isn't this part of the redemption of mankind and the only way that humankind can ever get back to God's grace? How can this possibly be considered a dark moment?

the Neanderthal massacre of 35000 BC

The day that stupid "oh mickey you're so fine" song was written.

The 4th time in 27 years that a woman has been touched by a man in a competitive race.

remember that race that webb, ritz and someone else were supposed to 'run' but all that meant was that they stood by and watched in jeans?

that was really bad.

some other random ideas wrote:

Hiroshima

Nagasaki

Dresden

Pol Pot's murderous regime

Hutus and Tutsis working to exterminate each other

Hitler's Holocaust

extermination of the Beothuk

Breivik in Norway

Spanish Inquisition

Seriously? I grant you Dresden was pretty terrible, but I wouldn't consider it in a different league than the air raids of the Nazis. Hiroshima and Nagasaki aren't fun to think about either, but compared to the alternative they certainly aren't the darkest days in history. Certainly none of the above are worse than the Holocaust.

Hiroshima wasn't a dark moment.

Maybe the day that Japan decided to befriend Hitler was.

Dennis Reynolds wrote:

Whoever the first person to come to Africa and throw people on boats to be slaves has to rank at the very top. To view your fellow man as inferior enough to believe you have the right to force them to work for no pay and take them from their homes ranks up there as the darkest moment in human history.

They were already being enslaved in Africa, by other Africans and for an existing huge slave trade in the Arab/Muslim world. Which was all just a continuation of enslaving other people that had been occurring as long as there is recorded history. Look at the whole span of human history and for most of that time and in most places, the presence of slavery was more common than its absence.

What you are privileging is one piece of a much larger and longer story, which was bad in itself, but calling it "single darkest" ignores all of the rest of history. And for most of that time and in most places people thought slavery was just a natural part of the human social order, not something they acknowledged was an evil.

Oliver Cromwell's victory in the English Civil War

300 years later Massachusetts conquered the world

agip wrote:

the fall of the roman empire was bad, very bad. Brought in a thousand years or more of crappiness to Europe.

Brought freedom and stout barbarian values back to Europe. Except they couldn't get rid of the roman religion.

Civilization is bad. It is built on the backs of slaves and causes millions of evil things just so a few privileged, powdered snots can live in luxury. The romans fell because after hundreds of years of that, the barbarians were stronger. Especially Nordic barbarians. The wandering, impoverished Goths and Vandals had no trouble crushing the sissy romans. Centuries later the Lombards did the same.

With all their science and industry, the romans never even learned to sail across the ocean. But it was easy for a few rustic Nordic people scrabbling on barren, snow-swept fjords, with nothing more than sun-stones for navigation. Easy because they were strong and brave.

The darkest moment in history was when king harald fair-haired became a christian and ruined the old Nordic ways. harald the traitor roman sissy.

Yeah - Why is anyone mentioning Hiroshima / Nagasaki?

I mean, really?

oh brother wrote:

The Corporatized African Slave trade. No question.

It was irrefutably evil, everyone knew it was evil, and it was allowed to persisted for hundreds of years.

Just thinking about it makes me uncomfortable.

Read all the posts...For me this is the correct answer......took their freedom, names, religion, broke up families, took their identity....I had rather died.

Triathlete punches woman en route to win