When I was in elementary school, I happily participated in what we called “wars” against other kids in our class. I don’t even remember what would provoke our group to instigate an attack on the “enemy” group, usually something like “they looked at us funny at recess--let’s get ‘um!”
Our battles hinged on strategies like catching a member of the other group by himself, shoving him off the sidewalk, and yelling “You Big Dummy!” or “Hey! You’re a big fat sissy!” to which he might reply, “I know you are, but what am I?”
And that would set us all off again making up terrible kid-things to say to each other.
The wars provided drama for our dull little lives, and most of us emerged from them unscathed. I don’t remember any of us having to go to counseling over the conflicts or having to have a kitten to pet to calm us. Every kid did it and had it done to him or her. It was against the rules to snitch to a teacher about it, and it wasn’t really bullying, since the kid you harassed today got his group together and harassed you tomorrow.
Thankfully, I’ve grown past that kind of drama. But I still remember the sting of being called “Dummy” by one kid and the sheer exhilaration of yelling the same insult to some other kid, then running away.
In other words, we didn’t like being oppressed, but we loved being the oppressor.
All over the world people say they oppose oppression. Down with oppression! Freedom for the masses! We believe in human rights!
Oppression means taking away someone’s rights, not allowing him to conduct his life as he sees fit. We were oppressing Little Johnny by refusing him passage on the sidewalk and calling him names.
Freedom from oppression, which we all say we advocate, means allowing people to follow their own beliefs, even when their beliefs conflict with ours.
The events of the last few years have shown us that most people are fine with oppression--they secretly believe in it. They just want to be the ones doing the oppressing, not the ones receiving it.
The communists, who were socialists on steroids, resented the upper classes’ oppression of the lower classes. They had agitated for a take-over in many nations, including the US, before coming to national power in a big way in Russia in 1917. Oppression would end!
When they took control of the country through a bloody revolution, they first murdered the Czar and most of the royal family and confiscated all land and property from all people in the country. That turned the former rich people into paupers running for their lives. In other words, the oppressed finally got to be the oppressors.
Oppression became okay because they were dishing it out, not taking it. As it turned out, the communists weren’t against oppression at all, they were just against being on the receiving end of it.
The communists soon learned that oppression can get you what you want. In fact, they enjoyed being on the oppressing side so much that they began to oppress their own supporters. If those supporters weren’t communist enough, off with their heads! A little midnight visit from the KGB was enough to convince the average Russian to settle down and enjoy being oppressed again by those who had supposedly overcome all oppression.
Freedom for the masses made the masses a bit too unruly, so a good dose of oppression was called for.
Liberals rioted after the election of President Donald Trump four years ago. Now they are asking conservatives to “live in harmony and unity” with them and their new president-elect. In other words, you conservatives swallow the “progressive” agenda that’s coming to end oppression of the masses. Or we’ll set fire to your business.
And we conservatives must not do as so many liberals did four years. We are not to question any shady election procedures. We must not turn over cars, burn the American flag or parade in the streets with any disgusting signs that proclaim “Biden is the Great Oppressor” as they paraded with their anti-Trump signs four years ago.
Liberals claimed their right to free assembly, free speech and flag burning, by the way, under the Constitution that they now want to change.
But as the pro-Trump MAGA marchers found out in Washington, D. C., last week, freedom of assembly only works one way now. The peaceful marchers were set upon by howling mobs of Antifa members, who, now that their party seems to be in power, are enjoying all the oppressing and suppressing they say that they hate.
Little Johnny and I can tell you that it’s going to be a rough ride for the next four years. Get ready to be pushed off the sidewalk by the people who will “end oppression.”
