Oppression
Who is actually oppressed?
Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold, I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.
Why define oppression?
Terms like Cultural Marxism from the Right and White Privilege from the Left are meaningless terms that misrepresent the real nature of oppression. They are dog whistles—red meat thrown to the political base. The Right claims that demeaning Christianity in public is a form of persecution. The Left claims that ignoring a person's pronouns is a form of hate speech. Both positions are equally ludicrous.
This is a hot take and a running dialogue in my own mind about true oppression.
Who are the oppressed?
The OED defines oppressed as, "treated in a cruel and unfair way and not given the same freedom, rights, etc. as other people." Issues of exclusion, hierarchy, and tribalism manifest themselves almost everywhere, so I use the following five part test whether or not someone is considered oppressed:
- Futility of work: The oppressed have no chance to benefit from the fruit of their labor or struggle. Any virtuous work or profit is washed away by injustice and corruption leaving nothing behind for their finances or dignity.
- Self-perpetuating: Unless a god-inspired leader realizes his or her vision, the present dictates the future for the oppressed. The oppressor has achieved critical mass and can no longer be defeated by conventional means. To quote George Orwell, “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
- Karmic propaganda: The oppressed hear the message that they deserve misery because of who they are. Furthermore, the oppressor deserves power, status, and wealth because of their innate quality. Oppressors deftly weaponize institutions like schools and social media to perpetuate this belief until it becomes ubiquitous and generally accepted.
- Culture of despair: The environment for the oppressed either has false options left by the oppressor or no options at all. The dearth of options and visions for a brighter future results in a landscape bereft of hope and full of nihilism.
- Capricious insecurity: A lack of physical and financial safety means death, destruction, or destitution can strike anyone, anytime, for any reason. Planning, saving, or dreaming of the future becomes impossible as anything of any value, human or financial capital, can be seemingly destroyed instantly and without meaning.
Where do the oppressed live?
The oppressed live in physical hell. It meets the following criteria:
- Chronic poverty: Starvation, lack of sanitation, currency debasement, unbanked, black market for critical goods and services, extremely high unemployment, and job insecurity
- Sectarian violence: Tribes and militias, failed or nonexistent central government, and violence between a fragmented citizenry
- Compromised rule of law: government or law enforcement as enemy, universal corruption, an unfair or nonexistent criminal justice system, two sets of laws (one for the powerful, another for the Other), and geographically large zones of lawlessness
- Human rights abuse: torture, forced migration, rape, slavery, and human trafficking
- Spiritual oppression: psychological trauma shared culture-wide, propaganda deifying the oppressor, information manipulation, and censorship of the truth