subtle oppression

[Adam Blatner]

Dear Regina,
      Lest I give in to the subtle oppression of the majority who advocate not just freedom from overly critical superego complexes or doubts or anyone who might "rain on my parade," --- the sentimentality of support for the underdog or anyone who claims that status--- let me dare to suggest that 53.4% of those who come up with an original idea, an outrageous suggestion, an affirmation of individuality, are nevertheless foolish, often self-destructive, not infrequently hurtful to others, and perhaps just be advocating a crank, cookie, weirdo, and what will be generally judged by history as, well, foolish ideas. 
       This statement is an expression of the "senex" archetype when faced with the "puer" archetype: This is the voice of conservativism when faced with what seems radical. Whoa, I'm not so sure that's a good idea. The opposite of what one comedian said was the Redneck's Last Words:  "Hey! Looky here at this...."  ;-)

       So in that sense I'm playing a conservative voice against calling any call for caution, security, good judgment, weighing the options, considering alternatives, weighing the moral implications, or even just plain ol' criticism  "oppression." How is that different from a kid responding to any parental demand, restriction, or reproach by saying "You're so mean!"? (only it uses the most currently fashionable bit of psychobabble jargon.

       This has nothing to do with Cinthia's choice about her life, but rather only the tendency to assume that anyone standing aginst the crowd is mistaken.

      I'm also very wary indeed about any allusion to Foucault, whose work was later retracted by him, whose assertions were painfully over-generalized and polarized, and so forth. (Yet I concede that he dramatically said what others have also said in more subtle and sometimes turgid ways---that oppression is often built into structures of power, including basic language biases.)
   And I agree with the idea that the focus should be not on the agents of power so much as on the social norms that view the exercise of this power as appropriate. 
            Yet neither should we assume that any exercise of collective power is always and in every case oppressive. I'm reminded of the classic Lenny Bruce comedy shtick where he cautions his audience against picking on the police (in 1968 slang, the "pigs") because in fact they are simply the enforcers of collective decisions. Lenny began with an imagined memory of how we as humans began as a tribe, working out rules---I won't go into the whole bit--- but ultimately, that big fellow Oog was chosen to be the police who enforced the rules. 

        What is good about this whole discussion to me is the idea of trying to identify the broader and narrower, more flagrant and more subtle social norms that we are tempted to agree with, but may be misleading, overgeneralized, a bit narrow, in need of revision, and sometimes just obsolete or flat wrong. 


    Cleaning up emails. Bless you for playing with us. Warmly, adam
          
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: REGINA SEWELL 
  To: list at grouptalkweb.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 8:48 PM
  Subject: subtle oppression


  Cinthia,

  This reminds me of a Japanese expression:  The nail that stands up gets hammered down.  And in some ways it supports  Foucault's notion that the strongest agent of social control is not the state (with their police and CIA and FBI and DEA and......  ) but the norm... the social reaction to acts that keep people in line.
   
  peace,
  regina sewell, ph.d. 
   
  > Dear Anath,
  >  
  > I found very interesting your question about how many in this 
  > list serve ever experienced this phenomenon that you are calling 
  > "subtle oppresion". I, particularly, have a very recent example 
  > of what I thinking you are referring to.
  > I have been living a dilemma in my life which is related to a 
  > very important decision i have to take. I tend to make a certain 
  > choice but this would imply to quit my job, which is considered 
  > in Brazil everyone?s dream, that is, a well-paid and stable work 
  > for brazil?s government, which i can keep for the rest of my 
  > life. This job would be the guarantee of a very good upper 
  > middle-class life for the rest of my days, ?till i grow up very 
  > old. And this is especially relevant in the city where i live, 
  > which is the capitol of the country and where everybody wants to 
  > find a job position at the goverment.
  >  
  > But for everybody?s schock, i?m seriously considering to quit 
  > the job and risk a season studying overseas, to maybe come back 
  > unemployed. So, coming back to your point, right now I feel 
  > completly oppressed everytime i try to speak up my will, that is 
  > following this dream overseas, which is considered completly 
  > unaccepted by most of the public opinion here. I leave here my 
  > testimony hoping it will serve as an example for your future 
  > researches on this topic (and I also hope that i understood 
  > right and that this was the kind of statement you were looking 
  > for. If it was not and i got it all wrong, my sincere apologies).
  >  
  > Greetings from brazil,
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