Dear Friends,
It seems to me, we have become so accustomed to oppression, that we don’t even notice when it spits in our face. Take for example, the trope that it is the job of the elite to incentivize us, to do the “right” things. They openly say it all the time. Using the tax code, regulations and enforcing law depending on political favor, the elite first nudge us, then push us and finally shove us, into doing what they want us to do. Our own wants, humanity and self interest is irrelevant to the identified societal need the elite seek to address. How utterly arrogant of the elite to think they know what is best for us. Does anyone honestly think some arrogant, pathological power monger is going to make better decisions for you and your family, than you? If you do… how many timeshares do you own?
Think about it honestly, last time you heard on the radio, TV or Facebook, that the government is passing a regulation, tax change or executive order, to “encourage” us to do this or that… did you think, “this is open tyranny?” I bet, for most, never. Which means that most of us accept oppression without a thought. Requiring us to ask, “Is it oppression if we don’t know we are being oppressed?” Is the slave oppressed if he knows nothing but slavery then? Is the person harvested for organs oppressed, since they are dead, and therefore cannot know they are oppressed? Are those who are under the spell of a cult… oppressed? Moreover, is someone fine, who has undiagnosed Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever? It depends on what your definition of human being is.
The philosophy that the human animal has no free will, soul or agency, and thus should rightfully be subjected to the personal will of a tyrant or oligarchy, rationalizes oppression, and is the acme of hypocrisy. It is attributing to others a quality that one withholds from oneself. In other words, it is a violation of the Golden Rule. Moreover, attributing others as less than human, releases them to attribute that same quality to the originator… due to reciprocal attribution. Therefore, to believe we have no free will, soul or agency, as a way to rationalize taking free will and agency from us, lowers everyone, especially the presumer. If we accept this argument, then it follows that logically, no self attributed subhuman can have the authority to oppress a human being with a soul, free will and agency.
It can be said that oppression of a human being is an objective as well as subjective evil. To put it another way, if someone is being oppressed (by some objective measure) and they subjectively don’t know it, if you attribute to them free will, a soul and agency, then they are objectively being oppressed. Then we can answer the question, “Should we intervene?” Which I would answer is yes and no. Because if we consider the oppressed to be human beings, it is not up to us to decide, for them, what is a good life… but it is moral to show them. Explain to the swindled, how they were swindled, so it won’t happen again. Doling out punishment is for those who have the legitimate authority however. If those who claim that authority are the oppressors, in calling it out, we regain our agency and freedom.
When the elite use the tax code, not to generate revenue but to change behavior, that is oppression and needs to be recognized as such. It is the epitome of an arrogant elite dehydrating themselves by spitting in our faces. When, more often than not, that tax, regulation or political favor leads to a pernicious incentive. Proving the elite are not adept, but inept. Assuming they know best, and so exploit the levers of power to play mad scientist, making us lab rats. Since we are accustomed to the role, we don’t complain, paying the toll, and they continue their malevolent game. I have to wonder, are we subhumans, the therefore subhuman elite think we are, to be oppressed at their whim… or are we human beings, men and women, with inalienable free wills, souls and agency? Then act accordingly.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
