Subtle Oppression717

[georgia rigg]

Wow!  Adam, this is a lovely set of thoughts about systems and oppression.  My computer is behaving dreadfully right now--when it improves, thinking positively about that!, I intend to print it out so I can think about it in more depth.  Thank you for sending it out.  Hugs, Georgia


--- On Thu, 7/17/08, Adam Blatner <ablatner at verizon.net> wrote:

> From: Adam Blatner <ablatner at verizon.net>
> Subject: Subtle Oppression717
> To: list at grouptalkweb.org
> Date: Thursday, July 17, 2008, 11:00 AM
> Dear All,  the following is a somewhat lengthy contemplation
> of the nature of oppression. You may well prefer not to
> bother reading it. Those who do, I welcome specific
> corrections and number the items to make it easier. 
> 
>        Contemplating what is and is not
> "oppression" is interesting--- it's a word
> with fluid meanings.
> 
>       This morning, also contemplating role dynamics (my
> name for applied role theory), several different groups of
> ideas converged:
> 
>   1. Our culture has become more sharply aware of the
> difference between merely complex systems and highly
> complex systems---the latter being of a type in which it is
> impossible for anyone to know all relevant variables.
>          a. the mathematics and theories of chaos,
> fractals, and the like become most relevant in highly
> complex systems.
>   
>     2. The systems theory principle in which feedback is a
> necessary component becomes ever more relevant in
> proportion to the increase in complexity of the system. 
> 
>      3. A paradigm shift has occurred from an era in which
> mature expertise was a role that assumed mastery; to an
> era---the postmodern era-- in which it is becoming
> increasingly apparent that mature expertise, authority, and
> leadership recognizes that mastery is only a limited
> component; equally important is the ability to evoke and
> utilize corrective feedback from a supportive team or
> larger system. Businesses and other complex organizations
> are increasingly recognizing the need to create and
> "upward" flow of information in a system and a
> corresponding openness, receptivity, and sensitivity to
> being corrected based on new input. 
>             a. In current situations, this includes a sense
> of time and change, the recognition that circumstances at
> the periphery indicate a need for changes in not only
> tactics (more small-unit adjustments) but even strategy
> (larger system-level shifts in goals and plans). How to get
> the optimal level of feedback from the periphery in order to
> make such adjustments?
> 
>      4. The nature of communication is similarly changing:
> It becomes important to generate social and personal norms
> so that:
>                a. Receivers of messages---even those with
> higher status, rank, or sociometric position---become
> genuinely open to being corrected, to changing their minds.
> 
>                b. Senders of messages---even and especially
> those with less status, etc., feel empowered to offer
> suggestions for corrections, feedback information about
> feelings, satisfactions, frictions. 
>                c. Receivers communicate effectively that
> they will not be either offended, angry, indignant, and
> inclined to retaliate, nor will they be hurt, overly
> crushed, inhibited, inclined to withdraw. 
>                d. Senders of messages be adequately
> reassured by (c) and also empowered, role trained,
> reinforced in daring to send those messages.
>                e. Senders of messages need to learn the
> skills of identifying their feelings, experiences, in a
> sharper way so as to report on them in ways that are not
> overly reproachful or catastrophic. (Because sending overly
> strong negative feedback tends to make it difficult for a
> & c to happen).
>                f. Oppression might be operationally defined
> as a system in which many people at different levels are
> unwilling to risk giving feedback, and often unable to even
> get clear about (1) whether they are uncomfortable; (2)
> whether the system can change; (3) what the discomfort is
> or is about.
>                g. Another function within human systems is
> that of helping those who tend to be de-voiced to become
> more clear and to clarify their voice.
> 
>      5. A problem with the idea of oprression is that the
> word tends to imply a simpler system: Often it is assumed
> that the oppressors know what they are doing and can choose
> to stop it. In fact, in many systems, neither those who seem
> more privileged nor those who experience less privilege
> often realize that there is anythng amiss.
>            a. Speaking also to 4 f and g above, people need
> to come to some capacity of distinguishing between that
> which can be changed and that which is truly built in to
> the basic difficulties of being alive.
>            b. This distinction is not easy. Many
> difficulties in life arise out of the continuation of
> childish desires and motivations. A few of these are noted
> on : http://www.blatner.com/adam/psyntbk/innerbrat.html
>            c. Some difficulties that we take for granted as
> part of life, though, could be ameliorated, though, and the
> exploration of this frontier of what can and can not or
> should not be changed is a dynamic field. 
>            d. However, it is the responsibility of those
> who perceive themselves as having no power or less power to
> challenge their own powerlessness, to develop assertion
> skills, and to practice or take risks in the activity of
> self-assertion. 
>            e. Similarly, those who perceive themselves as
> having more power should endeavor to work with others to
> re-distribute the power; yet those with more power, rank,
> status cannot do this by themselves---they need to
> collaborate with those with less power to make these
> arrangements. 
>            f. In other words, the oppressors and privileged
> in many cases cannot on their own or by themselves give away
> their privilege and power---both oppressors and oppressed
> must collaborate, work together, assume equal power. 
>            g. To complicate matters, those who may be more
> powerful or have higher status in some roles may yet feel
> lower power or feel oppressed in other roles. Even in
> situations in which it may seem as if the same role is
> being addressed, it turns out that a given role often has
> both more and less powerful role components. This is
> reflected in family therapy-based systems in which the
> seeming power of the parents is frequently trumped by the
> actual power arising from the dysfunction of the identified
> patient or other seemingly less-powerful or invisible
> roles---e.g., the passive sibling.  Another example:
> Conflict resolution programs now include not only the bully
> and victim, but also note the power of the passive
> onlookers! 
> 
>       6. All of the above leads to an increased need for
> greater skillfulness in three realms, self-awareness,
> communications, and interpersonal problem-solving. These
> skill sets, addressed in my papers on drama in education,
> chapter in Gershoni's book, and 1985monograph now being
> revised, are part of what I call "psychological
> literacy." Teenagers need to learn these skills and
> experiential learning (e.g., sociodrama, role training) is
> the best way to appreciate the subtleties and practice the
> skills involved.
>           a. As above, people need to practice
> interpersonally the activity of intellectual humility. This
> hasn't been done before, as we've lived in a
> shame-based culture in which any vulnerability is an
> occasion for teasing. This must be radically reversed, as
> only through being interested in getting corrective
> feedback can one effectively adapt in highly complex
> systems. The skills of opening to, inviting, giving, and
> clarifying together such feedback need to be recognized as
> fundamental to new-paradigm thinking and operating.
>          b. These skill shifts also need to be woven into
> shifts in social-group functioning, so they are celebrated.
> At present, most groups are infested with habits of
> low-grade teasing, putting-down, dealing with the edge of
> pridefulness. As a repetition compulsion externalized, the
> game is to explore how much humiliation one can experience
> and give back at the same level of toughness without
> precipitating overwhelming counter-action such as being
> shot and killed for "dissing" (i.e.
> dis-respecting) too strongly. It's a common and
> unconscious search for mastery played out in greater
> intensity in some inner-city cultures, and in lesser
> intensity in the teasing prevalent in many middle-school
> cultures. It can be found in many college-level and work
> contexts, also. All these habits increase the
> "psychological allergy" to shame and make it
> difficult to shift into a less ego-sensitive attitude of
> collaborative exploration in the service of creativity. 
> 
>      7. Back to oppression, then. What does it mean to say
> that "I feel oppressed"?  How does the word
> "oppressed" serve any constructive function. If
> you feel oppressed by me, does that give me any hint as to
> what I could do to lessen that feeling. How is
> "oppressed" different from "bothered,"
> "annoyed," "hurt," ---other than it
> takes on the edge of participating in a wider cultural
> social value---i.e., it is bad to oppress, it is good to
> not be oppressed, and if I feel oppressed, then that
> validates my ... it gets vague here-. trying to un-oppress
> myself...    The point is that the word, taking on some
> cultural currency as fashionable psychobabble, gets to be
> thrown around... 
> 
>          a. But I suspect that if anyone says, I'm
> hurt,  I'm offended, or I'm oppressed,  -- I wonder
> if it is not a cop-out, insofar as the one who is so
> afflicted is not then expected to articulate exactly how
> she or he is hurt, offended, or oppressed, and participate
> as an equal in working that through with those who are
> accused therefore of doing the hurting, offending, or
> oppressing.  I'm concerned that the word may bias the
> conversation, drawing to it a sense of vague sympathy with
> the underdog.
>  
>       b. Meanwhile, the one who is specifically or vaguely
> accused of having done the offense often doesn't know
> exactly what to make of the situation, what exactly has
> been done wrong, whether it was a great or slight mistake,
> whether the degree injury was great or slight, what the
> mistake was, exactly, and then what needs to be done to
> work out that mistake. As I discuss in my paper on
> forgiveness also on my website, this negotiation requires
> the collaboration of both parties. If either feels
> excessively blamed, that kicks in the limbic system and
> they can't think straight, so, returning to the need to
> evolve more effective communications systems, we need to
> work out ways of neutralizing blame, reproach,
> you-should-have-known types of thinking. 
> 
>      c. How about this? Might it be possible that 31% of
> the time that someone feels hurt that this feeling is a
> product of personal over-sensitivity?  Not that the pain
> isn't worthy of some sympathy, but neither is it to be
> automatically assumed that the "other" is guilty
> of wrongdoing. We recognize that young children will often
> cry about problems that have to do with the imposition of
> the reality principle by the parent---e.g., immunizations,
> having to share, not being able to get away with violence
> to others, having to take a nap when cranky and sleepy,
> etc.--- but what if a fair amount of interpersonal stress
> has to do with people not having learned sufficiently to
> recognize their own shadow complexes. That is, we nead to
> learn to challenge ourselves and consider how we may have
> contributed to the problem at hand. Might our unconscious
> goals or expectations have been too egocentric,
> short-range, or unrealistic? 
> 
>     8.  Dare we ask such questions and who will support us
> if we discover that we have been guilty of indulging a
> neurosis? This is why we need a whole culture that begins
> to praise and support this kind of self-challenging in the
> service of self-development, and also that we recognize
> that everyone---bar none---is in ongoing need of continual
> personal development. All are neurotic and all deserve
> support for fighting against their neurosis. (This is a
> paraphrase from the line from Lewis Carroll's Alice in
> Wonderland in which the Dodo says "All have one and
> all shall get prizes.")
> 
>        Well, that's enough for now.  Warmly,
> AdamGrouptalk mailing list
> List at grouptalkweb.org
> http://grouptalkweb.org/mailman/listinfo/list_grouptalkweb.org