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13th November 2016

The consequences of oppression

The election of Donald Trump, the brexit vote, the situation throughout the Middle East, wars, famine, refugees, I could go on, all of these are consequences of oppression. They result from people making decisions that are not in their genuine self interests.

We are subjected to relentless oppression. Through the media, through advertising by governments, particularly through education, we are being coerced into to being less self empowered, to become obedient, unquestioning wage slaves and consumers or put up with being marginalised and abandoned.

If people can be persuaded to buy things by misleading, illogical or meaningless advertising is it any surprise that they can be persuaded to vote for populist demagogues and causes? Particularly when people who feel powerless are fed the democratic myth that somehow voting makes them powerful.

The analysis of why people voted the way they did is essentially the same as working out why they buy certain products. When people are relatively unable to make decisions in their own power it is just a question of manipulating them into feeling like voting a particular way, or buying a particular product.

To stop the world heading for even more disaster we urgently need programmes for empowerment. That is, supporting people to learn to be more in their own power, to be more aware of the possibilities open to them, to gain knowledge and abilities to act in different ways and to choose for themselves what is in their own genuine self interests.