If slavery was so cruel and unforgiving then why didn't slaves just kill themselves...

If slavery was so cruel and unforgiving then why didn't slaves just kill themselves? Shouldn't nihilism have been cultivated in the absense of hope?

No, the spirit seeks freedom and beisichselbstsein [self-sufficiency]

But freedom was almost impossible for slaves for 5000 years unless they were lucky to have good masters. Why did Nihilistic thought take until the 19th century to be realized as an alternative option to the lies of religion?

Because Nihilism is not a solution. It's the ideological equivalent of sticking your head in the ground by making a problem have no meaning rather than solving it. If a random slave became a Nihilist, literally nothing would change for it. It would still have to do work, it still would be activly prevented from suicide, but it wouldn't have any meaning for it's life. It would be even worse. The only "good" outcome could be the Slave's successful suicide, but if the best outcome is Suicide I dispute the success of the ideology.

Nihilism doesn't correlate with suicide, knowing that life is without cosmic meaning does not mean you suddenly don't value your life anymore. Also, many slaves did in fact kill themselves.

But how hard would it have been for a slave to successfully seppaku though?
>attempt to escape
>get shot in the back/head

If they somehow got caught
>insult the master and the entire family
>get executed immediately

Many slaves did tho

[citation needed]

If that was really the case then masters would have atleast improved slave working conditions to prevent their workforce from constantly dying off

>get executed immediately

More likely whipped within an inch of your life and, depending on what period, probably sold off to the mines/some other hard labour.

Executing a slave is just destroying your own property.

because only teenagers use nihilism as an excuse for suicide

Certainly not on a mass scale. But there are many stories of slaves killing themselves or their children.

Killing yourself is hard

Not that many, in most parts of the world for the better part of history well behaved slaves generally fared well, some even joined into politics and shit. Slavery was rarely cruel and unforgiving unless the slave was misbehaving. If a master overworks/tortures/starves his slaves he's effectively fucking himself over, which isn't his goal, his goal is to make money, and healthy strong content slaves help the most in that purpose, so it's in the master's direct interest to take care of them.

>nearly whipping their slave to death
>expecting them to be productive

slavery wasnt so cruel. also after hardships people enjoy good thing more than they normally would.

work really hard, get hungry and have dinner. you will enjoy it much more.

What utter horseshit. House slaves may have had comfortable (if utterly demeaning) lives, but most slaves throughout history died in miserable conditions in mines and rowing galleys.

>Slavery wasn't that bad
t.somebody who has never been a slave

I'd say nihilism is cultivated more when you are protected, since you have time to actually worry about these frittering matters.

>masters would have atleast improved slave working conditions

They did. Most slaves throughout the world lived normal lives. Slave just means they were forced into service of an individual or family, not that they were locked in rape dungeons and beaten everyday. Diogenes was a slave numerous times and all he did was dick around with his barrel and masterbate.

>thinks every religion teaches Christian principals
>doesn't realize suicide was honorable in the pagan Roman Empire

>>thinks every religion teaches Christian principals

Christianity condones slavery tho.

>Slave just means they were forced into service of an individual or family

Well, no. Your definition of slavery is intent on confusing the difference between slavery and indentured servitude and a catalogue of other states that poor people found themselves in historically. It is possible to be forced into the service of an individual or family — through circumstances or economic forces — but not to be slave.

Many Irish and Englanders were forced into indentured servitude, and were treated badly, but they weren't slaves because they weren't someone's property.