“People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” Aldous Huxley
I was going to start this story by saying I have no idea where my next story will come from. While it sounds good, it is not true. First of all and most of all, I am not that creative or bright. So, we can dispel that bullshit before even getting deep into this one. Like all of them, it is something small that stays with me longer than it ought to, a sure sign of a percolating, little ditty. Yes, I know I have opened some of my stories with that “no idea” line , only because it’s true.
We can thank or blame my grandson for getting me started on this one. My feelings for him are between the two of us, but let me just say I am monumentally in love with him. I often tell him I don’t want to be a pain in the ass by assuming he has nothing more important to do. When I find myself getting angry, because I haven’t heard from him in a while, I catch myself and see it for what it is. It is twisting deep affection into selfish oppression of the other. OK, maybe it’s a little over the top, but I’m workin’ here.
I have learned the hard way and I mean the hard way, that truly loving another is letting them be who they are. I guess compassion would be a good word to use right here, too. Like every feeling, it always begins with us and not the other. We do talk often and I always tell him I have no interest in him being someone else. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I was tapped on my forehead as a kid by an angel. Then, I’d imagine her whispering, “You can be anyone you want to be and do whatever you want to do.” Trust me, I’m no angel to him. I bust my ass just to be honest and self-effacing.
I am also beyond blessed to be in a loving relationship and the fact that we are pretty much polar opposites has been the best emotional education I could ever have hoped for. The funny thing is, it’s has been effortless. There is nothing to do, only to accept and embrace and be a fake angel. Folks, that’s love. It has helped me immeasurably in accepting my grandson for precisely who he is. This is done without reacting to feelings of my own insecurity, weaponizing it into a kind of oppression.
It didn’t take long for my leaky brain to drip on to oppression as a consequence of selfish love. Yeah, I know it is a bit melodramatic, but I’m telling a story here and fishing for some attention. When you don’t think about the feelings of the other, being consumed by your own, you are doomed to poisoning their hearts, sucking the life out of any relationship.
A society that operates as an oppressive regime, chokes love and promotes hatred. It is amazing how many will capitulate to it. Stifling the heart never works, whether we do it to ourselves or another. It can mindlessly morph into looking for a scapegoat. It works differently on a personal level than a societal one, but neither has a good ending.
It is always good to start out small and bring people along with you, at least it’s my brilliant strategy for this story. To be honest, it was kind of effortless, primarily because any comparison falls apart pretty quickly. We can start with love. It is between people and most recognizable as a one to one sharing. Rare beings like the Dalai Lama have love in their hearts for all. I can sit on my cushion forever and that just ain’t gonna happen.
Let’s spend a bit more time on how oppression morphs from the personal to the societal. Making demands on another, because they are not who you want them to be is more than futile. Inevitably, it backfires. On a societal level, oppression is purposeful, not accidental. In case you didn’t know it, it is how we are now living in this country, with endless examples throughout our history, plus it’s a global epidemic today.
Look no further than Project 2025 for a road map, running on morosity and victimization. It eats at the ability to love another, always searching for blame. Conscious oppression is meant to instigate looking for its cause, blaming the other is its consequence. Sadly, love is not a cure for this disease, because it is perfectly suffocated and denied any air at all by the numbers of obeisant, mummified zombies. At the moment, society is the oppressive perpetrator and our love for one another is the victim. I wish I could say there is cure for the hate filled rhetoric perpetrated by our ruling class, but there isn’t. It is not correctable and revolution is the only effective response.
I began floundering a bit after the above paragraph. When it happens and it usually does, I just wait for a while:
OK, I am inserting this days after writing nearly the whole enchilada. I just can’t help it. I love words being used to create their own echo. This is from a Progressive Democrat, who won his primary. Thank you William Lawrence. “ Organized people can beat organized money.”In terms of our oppressive government, it is only a matter of time until some shit happens and you can take it to the bank.
I swear, I started out only thinking about how damaging selfish love can be and nothing more. My hysterically, informal way of writing allows me to go anywhere and I usually do. My love for my grandson and my exquisite partner launched this one. Embracing who they are is the only way forward for me and I relearn it every day.
The news provides a steady diet of how our government foments its lobotomized followers to mobilize against everyone and everything that is in the way of its total domination. Today is no exception. The headline reads, “Trump USDA Chief Calls Kicking 5 Million People Off Food Aid ‘A Pretty Big Win”. Brooke Collins is quoted as saying, ““For those of us that love work and celebrate work and want people to work and not be on food stamps, it’s a pretty big win”. It makes completes sense to me, because the role of government is not to take care of its people. What was I thinking?
Love is a wonderful accident, the heart opening to embrace another, because of who they are, not because of whom you want them to be. It never works when you want to make them over into someone they are not. It pollutes this beautiful emotion. On a societal level, love is a wonderful idea, at home in poetry, but a stranger to the behavior of the populace. Certainly, oppression can destroy a relationship, but it is far more sinister and calculating as a political dagger into the hearts of our brothers and sisters. Yes, they are our brothers and sisters, but the chasm between us is likely non-negotiable.
I want you to know I write only about what is going on for me and presentation takes a back seat to honesty. I would die before I pandered to anyone or anything. I also know this could lead to some pretty disjointed shit making it to the page. I have a pretty terrible feeling this one could be relegated to being a victim of mind shrapnel.
What are you gonna do? Even if this makes you think only a little, it’s a home run for me. Thinking I’m an idiot also means you spent some time with it, too. I’ll take it.
Blessings.
LISTEN TO IT HERE:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/1292459/episodes/19616807-love-vs-oppression