Oppressed?

I constantly hear people hootin' and hollaring, saying our rights are taken away, we're being oppressed, etc.
now don't get me wrong, yeah, some laws aren't fair, yeah, no country is perfect, not even the U.S.
but are we crying wolf a little bit? I hear people talk as if we're in Nazi Germany, but i mean really, look at all the good in this country, the U.S. How far we've come in terms of technology, culture, rights, education, etc.

is it really so bad?

 

i'm sure if you were black , your views would be a bit different.

 

what about a woman? or a cripple?
Like I said, life's not fair, but for example, jeez we just got a black president! look at Black History Month, MLK jr., there's colleges and scholarships for african americans, etc.

 

i think 'handicapped person' might be more appropriate.

 

i'm not big on political correctness- trying to be politically correct is like trying to grap a piece of shit from the clean end.

 

I think IC is talking about people outside of those particular categories.
Take a look around these forums and you will hear people talking of, say, The Patriot Act is akin to something The Third Reich would be pushing for.

OCW, how are handicapped/black people oppresed?

 

"oppression - the state of being kept down by unjust use of force or authority"

i wouldnt know about handicapped persons, but as far as african americans go,
do i really need to answer that question?

idk maybe things are different over there across the pond.

 

It was your e.g...how come you don't know?

Yes. Remembering we are in 2010...not 1810.

I would imagine as far as laws are concerned we are on a par.
How the general public act towards minority groups is another matter.
Here, it is good...with exceptions, obviously.

 

We are oppressed by culture and tradition, not by individual governments. Governments are the effect of cultural oppression, not the cause.

 

You can be oppressed by culture and tradition.

How do you work that out?

 

Yes. The moment we are born our indoctrination begins. We are taught to conform in behavior and belief. The word tradition comes from a root meaning to betray, or give away. We give away our natural inheritance, which is curiosity and creativity, in return for compliance and labor.

Governments arise as a necessity to administer the demands of tradition and cultural imperatives.

 

I should have emphasised the "can".

What are the UK/US cultural imperatives administered by each government?

 

Damn thedope, that is very informative.

 

Yes, if the point can be sustained.

 

I continue to discover in myself previously unobserved attitudes of indoctrination, at times being faced with irrational taboo oriented fears.

The most immediately obvious is national defense, or defenses of any kind regarding each other.

 

I grew up with two brothers and we all have various attitudes and opinions about everything.
On some issues we are diametrically apposed to each other.
I don't know many people who share my exact same attitude about everything.

We have attitudes that we can take onboard or ignore/dismiss.
You say that you faced "irrational taboo oriented fears"...
...did you succumb to them, or move on from them?

Yes, I could go with the idea of the majority of people being "indoctrinated" into a fairly narrow social paradigm...dependant on where you were born and other forms of "indoctrination"...
It can't be said we are all "indoctrinated" with the same programme.


Basically, that's called: Life.

?

Do you mean that most people aren't pacifists? (for 1 e.g)

 

I am not referring to fashion but fundamental assumptions, such as the construction of family, what are acceptable arrangements between peoples, what is "moral".

I actively confront and dismiss those things that come to my attention. For instance, eating insects.

The fundamental glue of all these socially narrow paradigms is the narrative of fear, mistrust, and scarcity.

You could say that most find reason to bear arms. Illusions must be cultivated in order to appear real.

 

I didn't mention fashion.

"the construction of family, what are acceptable arrangements between peoples" isn't an "indoctrination" per se.
That is how humans have learnt is best suited to bring up a family, on the whole.
"If it ain't broke don't fix it."
However, there are significant proportions of people that don't find that the best for themselves...nobody stops them from pursuing that lifestyle in most liberal democracies.

I agree that there are vast swathes of people that share the same sense of morality.
That is impart due to a very real "indoctrination": Religions.
They have set moral codes.
That, imho, isn't applicable to everybody.

The only way things are really "indoctrinated" is what is and isn't legal.

As I said, it's life.

I'm not quite sure how you would like life to be, tbh.

Lol, oh, so you don't like eating insects.
Neither do I, tbh.
Nobody tells you not to eat them, it's a personal choice, that's obvious, I would have thought.

Not necessarily.
It depends which "narrow paradigm" a person has chosen to adopt.
When I mention a "narrow paradigm" I don't mean that in a necessarily negative way.
It just means we don't all adopt one all encompassing paradigm.

That'll be mostly Americans.
I agree that e.g is "indoctrination".
Most countries don't feel the need to include this in their constitutions, or have constitutions in the first place.

 

Lifestyle is a kind of fashion, style being of a fashion.

I didn't say anything was broken. The fact is, there are many extant models of family in the world now. The dominant models are dominant not because they are the best system yet worked out. They are dominant by virtue of serendipitous convergence. Guns, germs, and steel.

There are many governments and many religions, nobody escapes history but freedom can be found in the moment.

Attitudes of right and wrong. Attitudes about what is needed or not. The concept of property.

We discover new aspects of the nature of life all the time.

We will get along better without our superstitions.

My aversion to eating insects was not gained by experience, it was a cultural taboo. We may overcome our conditioning as long as we recognize it exists.

We have. It is called money.

 

Tenuous, bro, very very tenuous.

It's nature.
Most animals have a concept of "family".
We are mere animals after all.

It's slightly "happy clappy" but I essentially agree.

Yes...amongst other things.

True...and some become universal doctrines, I suppose.

You don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Perhaps to a degree. But some people just eat anything.
Your next door neighbour for e.g.
Nobody really tells us not to. We just do or don't.
It's irrational.

Can you stop with the flippant sound-bites now and again, thanks.