The oppressed: Who are they?
"The ultimate tragedy
is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over
that by the good people." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Generally, the most widely held belief is that in most nations, the
minorities are an oppressed people; or so the minorities in many parts
of the globe claim. This, in spite of the fact that no one can hold a
people in oppression, unless such people consent and are convinced that
they are supposed to be, oppressed.
Of course, when a people are denied the right to live in the manner
they believe in; in keeping with their culture, custom, and social
traditions; they have every right to the claim of being oppressed -
whether they constitute a minority or the majority; be it with assent or
dissent.
Further, when justice is, denied; poverty is, enforced; ignorance
pervade; and the people are made to feel that they are burdened, robed,
and degraded; that is an oppressed society - be it of the minorities or
the majority. But what the world forgets is that, almost always, the
people oppressed for long, eventually become mightier than the oppressor
would like; because, to be oppressed is not the natural state of
civilised humanity, and the desire to resist oppression is implanted in
the nature of man.
Yet, one of the saddest lessons of history is that if a people are,
bamboozled long enough; they tend to reject any evidence of the fact
they have been, hoodwinked. They are no longer interested in finding out
the truth. The deception has captured them because it is simply too
painful to acknowledge, even to themselves, that they have been taken
for a ride. The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the
mind of the oppressed. In fact, among those who dislike oppression are
many who like to oppress.
Victims
People often create their worst enemy, just as oppressors everywhere
do. The oppressors fear the people they oppress because they realise
that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who
rises against them and strikes back. That is the reason why, once a
charlatan gains power, there is never a desire to relinquish. In an
oppressed society, the oppressed are not aware of the multiple layers of
privilege and oppression in a society.
This is mainly due to the fact that, the oppressed are unable to
understand that they are being oppressed because they do not have the
mental capacity of reasoning which an educated enlightened people
possess. That is also the reason why they are, oppressed.
Further, when the leaders who oppress do not act dialogically, but
insist on imposing their decisions, they manipulate and oppress the
people in order to survive. As a result, the people are not liberated,
nor are the leaders liberated - they only oppress; and all oppression
creates a state of war.
Everybody or at least every intelligent being knows there is no
fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing, the
tendency is to hold down everything. We live in a contaminated moral
environment.
We have fallen morally ill because we became used to saying one thing
and thinking another. We have learned not to believe in anything, to
ignore each other, to care only about ourselves. Notions such as love,
friendship, compassion, humility, or forgiveness have lost their depth
and dimensions; and that is the reason why leaders are not cognizant of
the political boundaries within which they work.
Tyranny often destroys, but at times may strengthen the individual;
whereas, freedom unfettered, enervates him, until he becomes no more
than a puppet.
I always say that man has more chances of saving himself by hell than
by paradise; because paradises are usually places where, the human
spirit get killed.
The true paradises are the paradises that we have lost due to human
stupidity. In fact, the very cause for a fool's paradise is a wise man's
hell. No wonder that, the return path to paradise must begin in hell;
because, often, hell is where intelligence and wisdom are gained for the
realisation that an intelligent hell is always better than, a stupid
paradise.
After all, the exquisite gardens of paradise is only a place where,
men and women, oppressors and the oppressed, come and go like moths to
flame amongst the whisperings and the champagne that is served in the
backdrop of the stars. The true duty of humans is not to seek paradise;
but to be wakeful and thoughtful - the fundamental condition of life
itself. For, wakefulness is what weaves us together; and thoughtfulness
brings to us, the unseen, the unheard, the untouchable, fabric of our
universe close to us.
Responsibility
Since the dawn of Mankind, a handful of oppressors have accepted the
responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for
ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave
it away. We have seen where their way leads, through camps and wars,
towards the slaughterhouse.
The history of an oppressed people is, hidden in the lies and the
agreed myth of its conquerors. Oppression that is clearly inexorable and
invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission. The fact is,
oppression does not stand on the doorstep with toothbrush moustache and
swastika armband - it creeps up insidiously - step by step, one step at
a time and all of a sudden the unfortunate citizen realises that he is
oppressed.
It is bad to be, oppressed by a minority; but it is worse to be,
oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the
masses, and if called into play, the minority can seldom resist; but if
the absolute will of an entire people is oppressed, there is no appeal,
no redemption, no refuge but treason.
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class
struggles between the ruling classes and the oppressed masses.
In this struggle, the oppressor first kills all the subversives;
then, their collaborators; later, those who sympathise with them;
afterward, those who remain indifferent; and finally, the undecided.
True enough, the result is a calm country; but it is the calm of a
morgue or a grave.
I like to end with two quotes. The fist by, Robert F. Kennedy: Few
will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work
to change a small portion of events.
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human
history is shaped.
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of
others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple
of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of
energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down
the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Sri Lankans
experienced this recently.
Reconstitution
The next quote is by Karl Marx, from The Communist Manifesto.
"Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild master
and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant
opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now
open fight, that each time ended, either in the revolutionary
reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the
contending classes."
Let us hope we will never experience this, ever again.
In the final analysis, the object of terrorism is terrorism. The
object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture.
The object of murder is murder.
The object of power is power. Thus, the object of anything is that
thing. This is a lesson never learnt by mindless men.
For views, reviews, encomiums, and brickbats:
[email protected] |