Dear Friends,
It seems to me, when you teach there are only two categories of people, the oppressed and the oppressors, every self interested person would try to get into the oppressor category. What fool would want to become the oppressed? Leading to everyone oppressing everyone. As that attitude becomes more widespread, every endeavor will become tainted by it. Instead of reciprocity every situation would become a win lose con game. Removing a valuable philosophy from our toolkit. This would eliminate the teamwork, collaboration and compromise, that economies, governments and societies need. Which makes the philosophy that ignores the individual, instead treating individuals as groups, that are oppressed and oppressors, a throwback. A reversion to an ancient less civilized tribal era.
We see the results of the oppressed oppressor mindset in government today. In the last year we have experienced things that a decade ago people would never believe could happen in the US. Open election fraud, the George Floyd riots, and the unconstitutional actions of our elite to “fight” the Wuhan flu, all done in the name of “justice.” Our politicians, media and corporations have adopted the oppressor oppressed mindset, and clearly, they seek to be in the oppressor category. Who could blame them? Instead of trying to cooperate, and solve the problems that led to George Floyd’s death, the elite went all in on street violence. Then they stood on the ruins of the icons their minions had ripped down, and with righteous fury they declared, finally, the oppressor got a taste of his own medicine!
The oppressors they were talking about are the small business people they burned out, churches they shut down and minority neighborhoods they decimated. Yes, the oppressors payed a heavy price for their oppression. As the little guy took it on the chin… the billionaire class got much richer. Further promoting justice, the justice of the oppressed oppressing the oppressor, by proxy. Obviously, when the oppressors are being oppressed, the government doing the oppression must be protected from the rabble they are oppressing… which is why they rung Washington DC with two National Guard divisions. A natural consequence of the oppressor oppressed mindset taking hold. Why cooperate, to get what you want, when oppressing oppressors from behind a wall of troops, is easier?
The market system is based on the philosophical innovation of economic advancement by helping others. Like Adam Smith said in his seminal work, The Wealth of Nations, when you want a cut of meat, you don’t apply to the butcher’s sense of charity, you appeal to his sense of self interest. Every aspect of a market system requires trust, earnest effort and agreement. None of which can exist under a paradigm of an oppressed oppressor mindset. A diminished economic outcome is the price those selling the throwback philosophy are willing, for others, to pay. Because of course, they shouldn’t pay, they are doing yeoman’s work, in oppressing the traditional oppressors, to create a more just world. A world where people may live in hunger, fear and despotism… but where the oppressors are oppressed.
A more nuanced view of the throwback philosophy, that rejects cooperation, man-to-manness and grand narratives, would be to recognize that is how a psychopath sees the world. Why would any sane person adopt the worldview of a psychopath? Even stone age people understood cooperation. Isn’t it ironic then, that information age people are rejecting it, culturally, politically and economically? Which brings me to my last point, science can only advance, and maintain that advance, in a cooperative system. A confrontational system, like the one created by oppressor oppressed theory, cannot even keep the knowledge it has, let alone advance. You might want to point these things out to your kids… and to the next zealot pushing oppressed oppressor philosophy on you.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
