Monday, May 16, 2016

Freedom versus Oppression: The definition of oppression





We have defined freedom as the freedom to pursue our own desires coupled with the absence of limitations placed by others. How should we then define oppression? What do you think of when asked the question: what is oppression?



Basic Elements


The basic ideas about freedom were divided between freedom to and freedom from. A desire and a limitation. Any ideas about oppression could then be classified under freedom from, or better said oppression by. Oppression would be a limit placed upon your desires by others. Thus the basic elements of oppression would again be desire and limitation.

If we follow the analysis from the previous article we can define oppression as follows:

Any kind of limitation placed by others upon the pursuit of our own desires.

However, let's not be hasty and take a closer look. It is too easy to simply follow the definition of freedom, even though freedom seems the logical mirror opposite of oppression and they should have a all elements in common. What state of being is to be oppressed? The absence of free choice? Or the lack of freedom to choose? Perhaps the presence of desire or the presence of limitation? Maybe it's simply being forced to carry out someone else's desire. We need to explore these questions before we can determine a more solid definition.


Concepts derived from oppression


Lets take a look at a few concepts derived from oppression and see if we get any wiser. There are several kinds that spring to mind immediately. There is the oppression we choose, oppression by fate, and oppression by force.

The oppression we choose
I choose to go to work each day. I do not want to. For me, it is oppression. I would rather be sipping margarita's in the Bahama's. If only that could be my job. My jobs limits me in what i want to do. Then there are the social niceties. I choose to say good day to everyone, and hear out colleagues i am barely interested in. I could choose not to, as some do. However that would mean people would shun me. Life would be more difficult. Still, i find it oppressive. And how about going to the dentist? Do you like sitting in the waiting room for 30 minutes of dread? Followed by another 30 of sheer horror once they call you in.
It seems the oppression we choose needs to be in our definition of oppression. Let's put it to the test by asking some relevant questions. Whom can we blame? Is it possible overcome this oppression? Well we can blame ourselves. I choose to go to work. I can overcome it myself, by not going to work. That is easy. Harder would be to convince my boss to give me money without me showing up. However, why do i go to work anyway? Why do people choose their own daily oppressions? Now we come to the issue of what is practical and what is not. The reason i go to work is obvious. I need to eat and would like a roof over my head. I accept the oppression in order to fullfill my desire to feed. There is no one to blame for the human need to feed, and it can't be altered. Chosen oppression has at its source an intrinsic desire that can not be altered. It is pointless to include in any definition of oppression. Only oppression with an external source we can blame and resist effectively seems relevant. This would be other humans.
Of course you could argue the following: if your parents let you and your brother choose between cleaning the floors or doing the groceries, it's still chosen oppression and from an external source. However the choice for doing the groceries is motivated by the desire to be free from filth. The doing of chores itself can be separated from the choice. It falls under external oppression by force.

Oppression by fate
The next concept is oppression by fate. Here are a few examples. I feel oppressed by my age. I am no longer a spring chicken. I can't do what i like without consequence anymore. I live in a poor African nation. I can't get a good job and escape disease. I feel oppressed by my situation. I have math class every day which i suck at. I feel oppressed by my own lack of capability.
With this concept we can apply the same logic as before. Only oppression from an external human source seems relevant. What we can not alter is useless to blame and therefore impractical to include into a definition of oppression. Any fate based oppression simply falls under either human based oppression or non relevant oppression when it comes to the definition.

Oppression by force
Oppression by force seems to be the most relevant to our definition at first glance. It is the most well known form of oppression. It has the most famous example: slavery in the United States. Another example is one of the many the Nazi rules for Jews: Jews can not walk on the sidewalk. Oppression by force consists of two variants. People telling you what to do, or else - and - people telling you what not to do, or else. Oppression by force can thus be divided into limitations upon our own desires and the forced pursuit of the desires of others.
This last element provides difficulties for our earlier definition. If i am forced to work in the cotton fields i pursue the desire of my master. I am limited in my own desire to.. well.. not work in the cotton fields?? What if there is no desire that is being limited? What if we are soley forced to pursue the desire of the oppressor? Technically the definition still holds true. Oppression by force limits you in the pursuit of your own desires, even if you can't think of one right now, and even if you have to pursue someone else's desire. There is always something you would rather like to do, then slave for another. In order for the definition to be recognizable however, we would need to include external force and the desire of others.

We can now apply the same logic for any variant of oppression. Oppression from a source we can not alter seems irrelevant. Only oppression from an external human source seems relevant, and only oppression by force (or threat of force). Oppression still consists of the basic elements of desire and limitation, though external force and the desires of others seem to be the more recognizable.

Note: oppression by force can happen directly in the moment, or via the mere threat of action. A most famous example of the latter: oppression via laws. There can be made no effective distinction between force and the threat of force when it comes to oppression, since they have the same effect on the oppressed. They make people do things they do not want to do. The only substantial difference is that the threat could actually be hollow, a bluff. So in these texts i will make no distinction.


Choice versus oppression


In our previous text we determine that free choice is an illusion and only freedom of choice mattered. We also saw that without desire, we can not be, even though technically desire limits freedom and is thus a form of oppression. Our own desires can therefore be excluded as a form of oppression and free choice can be excluded as it's opposite.
The state of being oppressed is the presence of limitations upon our freedom of choice. We can be denied the pursuit of our own desires, or forced to pursue someone else's.


Oppression as a potential


Potential is relevant to oppression as we discovered in the text about the definition of freedom. Oppression lies not merely in the actual force used to suppress an attempt to fulfill a desire. It is the overall limit we experience on our potential to pursue our own desires.


The definition of oppression


At first glance the definition was as follows:

Any kind of limitation placed by others upon the pursuit of our own desires.

With the basic element of oppression being the same as for freedom: a desire and a limitation.

We discovered by examining concepts derived from oppression that force and the desire of others are very important sub elements to desire and limitation. Oppression can either be the forced denial of our own desires, or the forced pursuit of the desire of others. Without addressing this the the definition seems vague. We can now have two definitions:

Any kind of force used against us limiting the pursuit of our own desires.

Any kind of force used against us to make us pursue the desire of others.

However two seems a bit much. Can we make it simpler? After all, the limits placed upon our own desires would be motivated by the desire of others, and the forced pursuit of the desires of others would limit our own. If we want to boil it down to one definition we can use the following:

Oppression is the application of force in order to limit our own desires in favor of those of others.

In the next text we will take a look at what kinds of oppression and freedom there are.
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