A Lesson In Oppression Dynamics - 2/2/12

"When an oppressor can play the victim, the oppressed are made to look pretentious, whiny, and focused on trivialities. Pretentious for assuming the worse and feeling as though they're special enough to be targeted; whiny for constantly bringing up what's made to seem to be a non-issue; focused on trivialities for nitpicking at what is a 'minute' part of whatever the greater discussion is. The oppression hides behind itself, touting its minor improvements with major rhetoric, using the simple fact of improvement itself as a crutch, implying that the possibility of improvement makes any issue impervious to criticism. The oppressor gains an upper hand on the one issue that the oppressed always had to themselves: victimization. With the script flipped, the oppressed no longer have any ground to stand on beside the historical, which automatically is seen as 'living in the past' when coupled with the improvement rhetoric. The oppressed are left with their primary soapbox eviscerated, and the oppressor gains a new, powerful, myopic, and dismissive platform to reach people on the fence about the oppression itself. Furthermore, any former victim that is a prime example of the aforementioned improvements will become a shield for the oppressor, used to deflect criticisms as 'proof' of the improvement rhetoric with the idea that if one could succeed, all can. Despite the sheer foolishness of that logic, and the inherent dismissal of the varying degrees of difficulty facing the oppressed, the 'success story' becomes a stalwart talking point of the oppressor, providing a final line of defense: the notion that the oppression is over, that each success story is indicative of the collective and what it can accomplish, rather than a bravura in its own right and a sign of what could be accomplished if there weren't so many obstacles facing the oppressed. In making the oppressed seem as though they're just being lazy and acting helpless, the oppressor has obtained an institutionalization of his oppression, and can now watch it take place on all levels with little to no resistance at all, since his peers will either agree with him or be oblivious to it, and the oppressed will be confused as to whether they're really being oppressed or not. The subsequent division among them will completely obfuscate the matter, ironically leaving them as helpless as the oppressor made them out to be beforehand."

-A. Lewis