Stephen Pinker is not a historian, so I’d be wary of his conclusions with regards to historical phenomenon. Maybe consult some historian’s accounts of the slave trade instead. AS the civil war was happening, southern slave owners were looking for ways to preserve it. Nor should we underestimate the role of the Tsar’s ending of serfdom at a stroke in eventually leading to the end of the monarchy in the early 20th century. It was likely easier to get some nobles on board who were seeing themselves as a class in decline because of the massive loss of wealth due to the end of serfdom (because as Gogol noted, serfs were a form of wealth in Tsarist Russia).
And let’s not forget that there are more slaves TODAY then in any other time in history, sometimes in all but name. So, no slavery has not ended every where. You’ve likely seen or met someone who is either currently enslaved or was at one point in some form of slavery going about your everyday life, and not even realized it.
Speaking out helps and should be part of the process, but sometimes, you need more than that to end a practice of brutality and violence that benefits a group who dominate the monopoly on violence. Even a cursory review of history will tell us that. History is not progress, though it can be, it’s far more messy and complicated, and we have to do more than just assume things will get better IF we do want them to get better.
[ETA] To bring it back to the issue at hand, one of the ways that the GPL has been enforced is through the courts… Ebon Moglen has gone to court in the past to sue people violating the GPL and won. So, it’s NOT just the declaration, rather it’s the structures of our society which help to enforce it. Nothing happens in a vacuum.
