III – The Oppressors
Oppression in all its forms, including torture, imprisonment, execution, assassination, confiscation of property, destruction of possessions, expulsion, humiliation, economic deprivation, to name a few; is aimed at subjugating and controlling the public. But control is not the oppressor’s aim. It is but a means to an end, namely, to decide who gets what. In other words, they oppress because they decided, with justification, that they should be the ones who get more (approaching all) material gains, which can only mean that the oppressed will get less (approaching none).
That being said, all oppressors, even Nazis, truly prefer to achieve this aim peacefully. This notion that they enjoy inflicting pain and oppression, an image fortified in cartoons and fairy tales with exaggerated sinister laughs and devilish looks, should not escape the confines of metaphor. The main obstacle, from an oppressor’s point of view, is that people have brains (too) and an equally insatiable desire to get more. The prudent oppressor knows that he cannot rely on violence for long intervals, because its effectiveness, regardless of its methods or severity, has a threshold. Thus, it should only be used when all other means have been exhausted. And when violence is finally used, it should be at shocking and awful levels.
Inflicting pain on a people who are out of control, the prudent oppressor understands, is not meant to punish or to vent some personal vendetta, and it is not random. It must be scientifically designed to disorient the protesters and break their spirits; to make them lose the ability and (more importantly) the willingness to fight, in order to regain control. When taken prisoners, they are blindfolded or hooded because psychological research has proven that the levels of horror and devastation on the human mind are much greater when he cannot see what is about to happen to him.
Nevertheless, waiting till the situation explodes into a mass demonstration is already a major failure of control. Shock and awe, and all lesser forms of subjugation to pain, should not be on the oppressor’s mind like a madman who carries a fire extinguisher wherever he goes expecting a fire to break out. Violent suppression is the least favorable means because the prudent oppressor understands that brutality (or the threat of brutality) used over a long time span, loses its psychological (informative) effect on the populace. One can understand why the Egyptian and Syrian regimes (who have imposed martial law for over thirty years) have fallen apart so quickly, while other brutal dictators, who resorted to violence less frequently, were able to extend their rule. Long-term control, whether in a democracy or a dictatorship, can only be achieved with information.
IV – The Brainwash
Brutality is to an oppressor what a cloth is to a bleeding cut. It is meant to be a temporary fix until the injured makes it to a hospital. Inexperienced, dumb oppressors would indulge themselves in those temporary fixes. But eventually, the cloth will get soaked, and the oppressed will explode.
The prudent oppressor’s hospital is nothing short of a mental rehabilitation facility, staffed with the top brainwash doctors, aided with the most advanced tools and vaccines in brainwash therapy and surgery. For prolonged, stable control, most citizens must be periodically (approaching permanently) admitted to this hospital where collective brainwash is engineered.
The first and most crucial double-dose of indoctrination is: (1) that the concept of truth is always subjective; and (2) that although all people are equal, some are more equal than others — that societal hierarchy is natural, that some people deserve to have more than others for all different kinds of reasons.
Some oppressors still cling onto obsolete theories of nobility, royalty, purity, and even scientific racism to justify hierarchy; why they of all people should be in power. Others created mythologies or abused religions to say that the gods favor hierarchy. Today we have the greatest of all modern hierarchy theories: Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” economics, intertwined with John Locke’s “modified theory of value” which builds on a remarkably simple and seemingly flawless logic: when one mixes their labor with nature, they become the rightful owners of that part of nature. It’s a scientific way of saying “you reap what you sow.”
Those five simple words, at first glance, seem to be the pinnacle of fairness and justice, and that is because they are. The more you sow, the more you reap! This axiom has been so powerful that it led civilizations to believe in karma, reincarnation, and afterlife; for they needed to explain why some have sown but never reaped, while others did not sow but reaped anyway. A universe so magnificently designed with infinite precision, bound by physical laws, would not allow such imbalance (injustice) to go unchecked.
From that tradition we get norms like: the more you study, the higher grades you get; the harder you work, the higher pay you receive; and the more good you do for others, the more good will be done for you. And this seems to be the most logical theory of hierarchy we have to date. It makes no sense to reward everyone equally, when they have not studied and worked equally. To impose equal rewards on everyone regardless of their contribution is clearly unjust.
Related posts:
- CABLE NEWS: ENOUGH!
- Who Said the Quran Preaches Aggression?
- Shut the F@#king Economy Down!
- Why Democratic Socialism is the Answer (1)
- Why Democratic Socialism is the Answer (2)
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