Considering world history and archeological records we live in a unique time and place. Generally, we are safe from surprise attack simply because we exist.
We aren't really safe but the kind of thing we lived with throughout world history where an invading army would attack our city, capture it, kill or enslave most of its population and force it to pay heavy tribute is not something we expect to happen.
It does still happen in some parts of the world where warlords have control but I can go to sleep pretty sure I'm not going to wake up as Viking, Huns, Goths, Mongols or any number of other raiders devastate my city.
It's not as far away as all that if you consider tactics used in recent wars.
We talk about slavery as a horrible crime and in this country we associate with our treatment of African captives, but throughout history it was more widespread. Romans enslaved an unknown but sizable number of men and women from the areas they captured and used them for various purposes.
They were still slaves whether they were assigned to salt quarries or someone's household.
The idea that you could be a respected citizen of you city or village only to be stripped of everything and walked off in chains the next day is not a real possibility..
We get to squabble over pronouns.
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