Cannibalism is as alive and well today as it ever was in George Fitzhugh’s “Cannibals All!” In his book Fitzhugh writes at length about the benefits of being a slave vs being a free laborer. It was his view that as a slave there was incentive for the master to keep you alive and healthy, but to those who are free laborers could be easily disposed. “When the day's labor is ended, he is free, but is overburdened with the cares of family and household, which make his freedom an empty and delusive mockery (Cummings, 2015, p. 277).” In today’s free market society, it is still the “cannibals all” who live free at the expense of those who toil.
“The free laborer must work or starve (Cummings, 2015, p. 279)” is Fitzhugh’s call to the cause of the free laborers. The free laborer must work and then spend those earnings to provide for the food and nourishment of his household. If he does not produce the family is left wanting. The story has not changed much in modern times. Amy Glasmeier, a professor of Economic Geography and Regional Planning at Massachusetts Institute of …show more content…
(Cummings, 2015, p. 285)” By January of 2012 there were already 14 specific allegations of police brutality, with many of the acts captured on video, and made available online (Friedersdorf, 2012). Acts such as these do little to promote the welfare of the laborer, and instead seek to keep them within their roles. Yet still it is the challenge of the protester to the voice of change. Fitzhugh’s unintended call to arms reads: “We do not know whether free laborers ever sleep. They are fools to do so; for, whilst they sleep, the wily and watchful capitalist is devising means to ensnare and exploitate them (Cummings, 2015, p. 179).” The case is made that there is no time to catch up to those who already have, because as you build capital those whom already have it are spending time trying to take it