Daily Archives: 17 December 2014

Letters to the Oppressed

(from me)

Dear oppressed. I think you are lying. I think your rhetoric is a completely Machaivellian bid for power. You evoke general principles when they benefit your group, and forget them when they don’t. I think your rhetoric will evolve along the same lines that the rhetoric in South Africa evolved: liberty! -> equality! -> reparations! -> Kill the Boer! The latter is advocated openly by some of S. Africa’s political organizations. In 2012 President Zuma sang ‘Kill the Boer’ at a celebration of the African National Congress (the ruling political party). The silence of the world’s media was terrifying. I can no longer assume everyone in the world is a member of my tribe. Continuing to do so while my people are demonized, while violence against us is encouraged, ignored and excused, is madness.

I want to cooperate. Most of us can cooperate. I just 1) need to be careful (ie. trust can’t be automatic), and 2) consider your demonizing of me an act of aggression.

(from Eli)

first address:

To individuals of all races/ethnicities/backgrounds/(append additional classifications here):

If I am not one of you, then you are not one of us.

Despite this distinction, I believe that we can nevertheless coexist peacefully on the basis of productive, mutually-beneficial, exchange.

Do you agree? Are you willing to demonstrate this by your actions? If so, then we can be cool (although the transaction costs of conducting exchanges will necessarily vary in proportion to our differences.) If not, then we will have problems.

I am not ashamed of who I am, what I have done, or who my ancestors were. You will gain no leverage and obtain no discounts with me by these means.

second address:

Dear oppressed of various categories. We have given up oppressing you in many ways. Yet we do not seem to have gained anything by this. In fact we’ve lost quite a bit. You have declined even to give us the slightest moral respite, as it now seems clear that the shaming and scorning will continue apace for the foreseeable future. Once one aim is achieved, they will simply lend themselves to the next.

Oppression and persecution seem ever more appealing in comparison.

(from Curt)

ON THE UNGRATEFUL OPPRESSED
If you think you are oppressed, then let me introduce you to some of my ancestors. The thought of it as ‘settling’, ‘civilizing’ or ‘conquering’. And the fact is that getting settled, civilized and conquered by them was a pretty good thing compared to some of the alternatives. So if you really think that your current state is unjust, then I think it’s perhaps time to remind you what ‘unjust’ can be.

Besides. If we don’t. Others will do it in our stead.

Because you’re a dead end.