Can you name everyday man made oppressive things?
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We often speak about how certain things in mainstream religions are oppressive. It is also claimed by others that religions are made to control people. But I have been thinking about other oppressive stuffs found outside religions. Can you name some? They don't have to be universal. So far these are some things I have found about our American system.
School Yes education is needed, but why start all schools in the morning???? I still hate waking up in the morning. American parents have no choice but to send their kids to school or they get in trouble. I suppose home schooling is available, but not sure if it is approved everywhere. But after a lot of thinking I realized school kids have no life. Daily routine 8am class starts, ends at somewhere around 3pm. Once at home, homework takes up the entire evening. Yet education wise we suffer.
Higher education One can go without it, but such move proves to be bad for career and even relationships. So its pretty much a do or die situation. But education is so expensive that majority of the students need loan. One person I know revealed to me that he would have to work 19 more years to pay it all off. Currently, he is in his 50's. I still fail to understand why a textbook containing copy paste from other sources is sold at $200.
Tax and regulations I am all for laws, but now even someone selling lemonade for 75 cents near their house requires approval from the government. If they don't get it they can be arrested for starting the business. Couple of months ago, I found out that our state tax department vacuumed the entire bank account of one of my classmates because she owed them taxes. She had no idea about it. She ended up sending us emails to help her with money. She couldn't take class this quarter because of tight budget. I also have problem with property tax. How nice that I buy the house, but someone else enjoys a major chunk of money from it for free!
Work like a slave This is one of the biggest problems we have. A person should not be seen doing nothing at work even for 15 minutes. This applies to those who work in private sector. Physical work is far more demanding. Hands must keep going no matter what. The employers want blind obedience, but if the business begins to do bad they'll lay off the workers.
Cultural expectations This goes for all countries. I have a phobia towards cultures because they force people to lose their individuality and privacy.
Example
You are 35 year old guy and still a virgin? Is there something wrong with you?
Comment Never understood how someone's virginity affects anyone. hmmTell me what is oppressive to you?
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Relationship
Relationships can be oppressive when one party is less committed than the other. For instance, most individuals are selfish, only concerned about themselves, only looking for material benefits or to just get laid. Many who put all their heart in a relationship, desiring as much as marriage or genuine love have been left devastated or heart broken because they fell for and dated or courted greedy persons who never truly loved them. This kind of exploitation exist even in marriage. A woman may threaten her husband with divorce, a man may threaten his wife with taking another wife. All these just to get what they want. Too often, the partner at the receiving end is the selfless and good willed.
See, I have heard one too many of these abusive relationships. I know of ladies whose boyfriend or fiancee cheats on, emotionally and physically abuse them. Yet the abused in many cases continue to endure this suffering all in the name of love, sometimes even begging of or apologising to the abuser. A friend of mine toiled to fund his partner 's college education while living on a pittance salary, she dumped him immediately after graduating to marry an older and richer man whom she barely knew or loved. An aunt of mine didn't marry till her mid 30s. Her hubby turned out to be a jobless psycho who dwelled exclusively on her earnings whilst physically abusing her and confiscating her belongings until he deserted her without a word.
Love can be a burden and being in a relationship can be just unplesant as it could be pleasant.
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Peer pressure and social pressure, that is your closer and wider environments pressure.
I think we live under the tirany of those three pressures, which act mediatically, socially in any sphere. It is not necessarily cultural, I mean for many things any culture is like any other, because in fact that pressure is what changes "culture" and decides on it. In fact many times it is a counterculture but sanctified by the anonymity of the medias and the environment, which may include godless undeclared religions as well as trditional religion, any body or ideology or set of opinions that adopts de attitude of having the absolute truth even without declaring it so.
Salaam
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We often speak about how certain things in mainstream religions are oppressive. It is also claimed by others that religions are made to control people. But I have been thinking about other oppressive stuffs found outside religions. Can you name some? They don't have to be universal. So far these are some things I have found about our American system.
Not just in America! Any similar government model the world over, have oppression.
School Yes education is needed, but why start all schools in the morning???? I still hate waking up in the morning. American parents have no choice but to send their kids to school or they get in trouble. I suppose home schooling is available, but not sure if it is approved everywhere. But after a lot of thinking I realized school kids have no life. Daily routine 8am class starts, ends at somewhere around 3pm. Once at home, homework takes up the entire evening. Yet education wise we suffer.
Why start schools in the morning? To oppress healthy mental and physical growth. Our body clocks vary with age. This is easily observed, we don't need laboratories and brain scans to prove this. Just compare infant, child, adolescent and adult general sleep patterns, noting the cycles of children, adolescents and adults while they are on vacation. Notice how adolescents go to bed later and wake up later. Children and adults have similar cycles where they go to bed relatively early and wake up earlier.
Disrupting the sleep cycle is a way of control and oppression. Moody, sleep deprived, unhealthy teens will likely not realize their intellectual potential, nor will they help society. This is also true for adults and children, no one can function correctly when sleep deprived. There was an experiment on army soldiers, I have forgotten the details, but the findings showed that even these elite physically conditioned people could not function correctly when sleep deprived. These individuals (though not blame free) serve as the source of income for law and order enforcers. Governments WANT crime. A crime free society takes away one more justification for the political government.
Higher education One can go without it, but such move proves to be bad for career and even relationships. So its pretty much a do or die situation. But education is so expensive that majority of the students need loan. One person I know revealed to me that he would have to work 19 more years to pay it all off. Currently, he is in his 50's. I still fail to understand why a textbook containing copy paste from other sources is sold at $200.
It's the financial gap between the "rich" and the "poor" that makes the rich, richer! Governments WANT poverty. The combined governments in the world have enough wealth to eliminate poverty completely. But if this goes away, another justification goes away too with regards to the need of a political government.
This entire system, based on materialism is a hell in its own right, and it is based on usury, multiplied over and over. Student loans are not interest free, and where they are, the lump sum is a trench deep and wide enough for an ocean to fill, just like your 50 year old friend.Tax and regulations I am all for laws, but now even someone selling lemonade for 75 cents near their house requires approval from the government. If they don't get it they can be arrested for starting the business. Couple of months ago, I found out that our state tax department vacuumed the entire bank account of one of my classmates because she owed them taxes. She had no idea about it. She ended up sending us emails to help her with money. She couldn't take class this quarter because of tight budget. I also have problem with property tax. How nice that I buy the house, but someone else enjoys a major chunk of money from it for free!
Yes, one of the most sinister schemes in human history. The government ownership of your lives, trade and land. There is no need for trading licenses at all. The reason we are given is to prevent illegal activity. Established laws suffice to prevent this. Why do you think that despite all these controls, the world is full, FULL of vice trade and drugs? The answer? It's in the governments' interests! They want illegal activities to support their oppressive policies and control, power and wealth. We are usually fed the lie that policies are a response to problems. I say problems created by these policies out number the problems that these policies solve, superficially at that, and they cleverly end up creating a lot of the problems.
Furthermore, Earth, is God's Earth, All land belongs to God. Who are these political bastards to claim ownership? Tax, while a useful concept, only makes sense when applied to business income. Salaries and wages are different from business income. What the hell is property tax? I mean, you are paying for your electricity and water supply, you are paying for resources. Why should you pay for just living on a piece of land? This is usury double multiplied.
Work like a slave This is one of the biggest problems we have. A person should not be seen doing nothing at work even for 15 minutes. This applies to those who work in private sector. Physical work is far more demanding. Hands must keep going no matter what. The employers want blind obedience, but if the business begins to do bad they'll lay off the workers.
Another way of preventing people from getting out of this vicious cycle. Too tired to think, too hungry, poor and bound by employer terms, establishment regulations and unrealistic job requirements to switch jobs, no time to sleep makes jack a good looking zombie slave.
Cultural expectations This goes for all countries. I have a phobia towards cultures because they force people to lose their individuality and privacy.
Example
You are 35 year old guy and still a virgin? Is there something wrong with you?
Comment Never understood how someone's virginity affects anyone. hmmTell me what is oppressive to you?
This is one thing that seems unrelated. I tend to think this has always existed in any society for any number of reasons, not just this elaborate slavery system the whole world follows today.
Yes, this system we are unfortunately in, is a very oppressive, elaborate system that finds its roots in usury/interest compounding and multiplying and making sure that the gap between the rich and poor is as wide as possible. Ever notice how the ones who come into power are always rich and educated? Ocassionally you have the odd individual, who was formerly "poor" but I tend to classify this as an attempt by those in power to better cloak this system.
The system requires you to be materialistic, it requires you to be darwinistic, (an adaptation of survival of the fittest), it is the survival of the richest! And the requirements for this are such that only the rich can realistically attain this!
And at the center, you have the demonic occult, following their desires (think celebrities and all their elaborate bullshit that plagues the news) via controlling the governments and its people.
Governments, corporate employers and scientists, all have an elaborate line of bullshit of how they are working towards the benefit of the people, which is superficially true, but that's not what drives them. None of these bastards are driven by such abstractions as truth or benefitting mankind, it's nothing of the sort! The system is based on materialism, remember!? These agents are driven by personal accomplishment (Get rich!) and creating a divide between the rich and poor!
Ever notice corporate employers' advertisments for jobs? All the unrealistic and nonsensical jargon aside, what they look for fundamentally in a potential employee is Ego, materialism, cut throat approach to fellow traders who might do the same business and idolizing the employer.
I know some people are going to say
But without the current system (that includes "competition" as supposedly a healthy feature) we wouldn't have any advancements!
WHAT ADVANCEMENTS??
The number of hours women devote to housework hasn't changed since the 1930s despite all the so called "advancements". Why does it take as much time to complete chores today? BECAUSE there haven't been any advancements! Not really! Keep in mind how the entire system works.
30,000 years ago, human beings worked 20 hours a week, JUST 20 hours for their food growing, resource, residence maintenance and self maintenance. The rest of their time they spent in other, beneficial activities, being social, playing, thinking, praying, meditating, peaceful endeavours! Further more, they lived, breathing in clean air, marvelling at beautiful trees and sunsets.
You want to go back to the stone age? Or turn back time?
No ofcourse not! I just wish people woke up!
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School Yes education is needed, but why start all schools in the morning? I still hate waking up in the
morning. American parents have no choice but to send
their kids to school or they get in trouble. I suppose
home schooling is available, but not sure if it is
approved everywhere. But after a lot of thinking I
realized school kids have no life. Daily routine 8am
class starts, ends at somewhere around 3pm. Once at
home, homework takes up the entire evening. Yet
education wise we suffer.On my end, waking up early has never been a problem. Regardless of when I go to bed, even without alarm I still wake up the same time(500AM-6.00AM).
So how did school oppress me? Well, by depriving me of sleep. Those who attended Medical, Pharmacy or Law school understand what am talking. I can't get enough sleep because lecture notes are too bulky. I don't get enough time to cover my notes because the tests are too frequent.
In my third year, a grave calamity befell me among others because of this. I was taking over 20 CU, the notes were bulky, some passages were difficult to understand, lot of memorizing to do, and I was running a schedule of 40-45 hours weekly. I lived far off campus with unserious roommates who wouldn't let me rest or read. You know the kind of roommate who is always having friends over, chatting noisily, watching movies on high volume. And worse still, overcome by sleep, no matter how I tried, I could never last beyond 900PM in daily night studying typical of college students. Needless to say, the odds were stacked against me, I was looking at the devil directly in the eye, I was doomed from the onset.
In defiance to my parent's warnings, I turned to coffee in desperation to pull more hours at night study. Though effective at first, returns began to diminish overtime. By mid semester, I was diagnosed of chronic constipation and dehydration, I was emaciated and noticeably sleep deprived leading the doctor warn me off coffee. It was a tough decision to give up coffee. Academic excellence matters, of course. But of what use is academic excellence that comes at the expense of health? As you might have guessed, giving up coffee meant choosing my health over my studies. There was no other alternative to help prolong my night study beyond 900PM. A once distinguished high school student had become mere shadow of himself.
At the dawn of the final exams, I was hopeless and helpless. I hadn't covered enough ground in preparation. The few friends whom I confided in were too lost in their own plight to assist me. In the end, I lost. I had to repeat 6 of the 12 courses I took that semester.
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Relationships can be oppressive when one party is less committed than the other. For instance, most individuals are selfish, only concerned about themselves, only looking for material benefits or to just get laid. Many who put all their heart in a relationship, desiring as much as marriage or genuine love have been left devastated or heart broken because they fell for and dated or courted greedy persons who never truly loved them. This kind of exploitation exist even in marriage. A woman may threaten her husband with divorce, a man may threaten his wife with taking another wife. All these just to get what they want. Too often, the partner at the receiving end is the selfless and good willed.
See, I have heard one too many of these abusive relationships. I know of ladies whose boyfriend or fiancee cheats on, emotionally and physically abuse them. Yet the abused in many cases continue to endure this suffering all in the name of love, sometimes even begging of or apologising to the abuser. A friend of mine toiled to fund his partner 's college education while living on a pittance salary, she dumped him immediately after graduating to marry an older and richer man whom she barely knew or loved. An aunt of mine didn't marry till her mid 30s. Her hubby turned out to be a jobless psycho who dwelled exclusively on her earnings whilst physically abusing her and confiscating her belongings until he deserted her without a word.
Man, saw that soooo many times...in the east and west.
Love can be a burden and being in a relationship can be just unplesant as it could be pleasant.
People just need to choose the right person. Unfortunately, many times incompatibility issues are ignored because of the attachment. The problem is that majority of the people want to please the society. They hardly give importance to whether it is possible to be with the person under the same roof. Not talking about cohabitation, but the peace between two people.
Disrupting the sleep cycle is a way of control and oppression. Moody, sleep deprived, unhealthy teens will likely not realize their intellectual potential, nor will they help society. This is also true for adults and children, no one can function correctly when sleep deprived. There was an experiment on army soldiers, I have forgotten the details, but the findings showed that even these elite physically conditioned people could not function correctly when sleep deprived. These individuals (though not blame free) serve as the source of income for law and order enforcers. Governments WANT crime. A crime free society takes away one more justification for the political government.
I will look for the experiment report. This one sounds intriguing. In some countries, morning is not bad. Middle East is a good example. But here in the west, especially in winter, it is crazy. I feel bad for the kids who live in snowy places.
It's the financial gap between the "rich" and the "poor" that makes the rich, richer! Governments WANT poverty. The combined governments in the world have enough wealth to eliminate poverty completely. But if this goes away, another justification goes away too with regards to the need of a political government.
This entire system, based on materialism is a hell in its own right, and it is based on usury, multiplied over and over. Student loans are not interest free, and where they are, the lump sum is a trench deep and wide enough for an ocean to fill, just like your 50 year old friend.Aha, I see the point and they say we are free in the west hmm
Why do you think that despite all these controls, the world is full, FULL of vice trade and drugs? The answer? It's in the governments' interests! They want illegal activities to support their oppressive policies and control, power and wealth.
Of course yes! Its the government who does the drug business. https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_CIA_drug_trafficking
Furthermore, Earth, is God's Earth, All land belongs to God. Who are these political bastards to claim ownership? Tax, while a useful concept, only makes sense when applied to business income. Salaries and wages are different from business income. What the hell is property tax? I mean, you are paying for your electricity and water supply, you are paying for resources. Why should you pay for just living on a piece of land? This is usury double multiplied.
They claim that property tax is used for public schools. The question is no one in my house goes to one. Hence, I shouldn't be charged for it.
But its tax after tax. There are 97 of them!http//www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-25/list-97-taxes-americans-pay-every-yearAnother way of preventing people from getting out of this vicious cycle. Too tired to think, too hungry, poor and bound by employer terms, establishment regulations and unrealistic job requirements to switch jobs, no time to sleep makes jack a good looking zombie slave.
And people still think we have the best society -\
This is one thing that seems unrelated. I tend to think this has always existed in any society for any number of reasons, not just this elaborate slavery system the whole world follows today.
I was just trying to hint that even the cultures are oppressive also as described by Huruf
Peer pressure and social pressure, that is your closer and wider environments pressure.
I think we live under the tirany of those three pressures, which act mediatically, socially in any sphere. It is not necessarily cultural, I mean for many things any culture is like any other, because in fact that pressure is what changes "culture" and decides on it. In fact many times it is a counterculture but sanctified by the anonymity of the medias and the environment, which may include godless undeclared religions as well as trditional religion, any body or ideology or set of opinions that adopts de attitude of having the absolute truth even without declaring it so
Some parts of cultures like art, food and language are great for the society. But these days sleep with random people is also taken part of the culture which seems to me very oppressive.
On my end, waking up early has never been a problem. Regardless of when I go to bed, even without alarm I still wake up the same time(500AM-6.00AM)
It seems you have got used to it which is totally normal. My problem is that its always very cold in the morning. The temperature can influence the body. Hence, the loss of interest at work or in school. Once I started going to college I made sure to take classes available between 10am to 7pm.
So how did school oppress me? Well, by depriving me of sleep. Those who attended Medical, Pharmacy or Law school understand what am talking. I can't get enough sleep because lecture notes are too bulky. I don't get enough time to cover my notes because the tests are too frequent.
Happens to me even now. I don't get exams, but bulky assignments It feels like torture, but then I hear from professors who also are businessmen or working somewhere else that getting A's is nothing because exam materials are forgotten after some time. This is the reason why they hire experienced people over those who get such graded. They should get rid of grading system.
And worse still, overcome by sleep, no matter how I tried, I could never last beyond 900PM in daily night studying typical of college students.
I tried till 12am. At 1am, I start hallucinating.
In defiance to my parent's warnings, I turned to coffee in desperation to pull more hours at night study. Though effective at first, returns began to diminish overtime. By mid semester, I was diagnosed of chronic constipation and dehydration, I was emaciated and noticeably sleep deprived leading the doctor warn me off coffee. It was a tough decision to give up coffee. Academic excellence matters, of course. But of what use is academic excellence that comes at the expense of health? As you might have guessed, giving up coffee meant choosing my health over my studies. There was no other alternative to help prolong my night study beyond 900PM. A once distinguished high school student had become mere shadow of himself.
I am so sorry to hear that Neptin. Didn't you feel that coffee was giving you some kind of fake energy? I tried it also. It felt like that. I was very sleepy, but body was able to function.
At the dawn of the final exams, I was hopeless and helpless. I hadn't covered enough ground in preparation. The few friends whom I confided in were too lost in their own plight to assist me. In the end, I lost. I had to repeat 6 of the 12 courses I took that semester.
This is the sad story of many students. Even these professors went through it in their college days, yet I don't get why they torture students like this. I must add that although we have progressed a lot, two things are still common 1. the idea that students are hard drives 2. all professors should be respected no matter how douchebag many of them are.
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Peer pressure and social pressure, that is your closer and wider environments pressure.
I think we live under the tirany of those three pressures, which act mediatically, socially in any sphere. It is not necessarily cultural, I mean for many things any culture is like any other, because in fact that pressure is what changes "culture" and decides on it. In fact many times it is a counterculture but sanctified by the anonymity of the medias and the environment, which may include godless undeclared religions as well as trditional religion, any body or ideology or set of opinions that adopts de attitude of having the absolute truth even without declaring it so.
Salaam
i've been pressured many times to get drunk, go to prostitutes and just "have fun"
social and peer pressure is the worst when used to push trash on people
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My Gnostic-style living generates comments from people who think I deprive myself of things. People say you miss something and waste your life but what kind of life is it that I miss?
Be safe
Amenuel -
My Gnostic-style living generates comments from people who think I deprive myself of things. People say you miss something and waste your life but what kind of life is it that I miss?
Be safe
AmenuelWhat do you deprive yourself of?
Lol - it seems like I'm asking you a lot of questions, I'm not picking on you or good logic or anyone else I promise!
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What do you deprive yourself of?
I thought you were acquainted with the esoteric knowledge that I proclaim?
However, I can agree that "deprive" may be an incorrect term, that is what people tell me that I do.
I suppress the instinctive drive of my Body as much as I can and this can be perceived as a deprivation of my being. But you do not suffer for what you cease to miss. One example is that I do not eat refined sugar, i.e. no sweets. The sugar that I get is from fruits and what is naturally existing sugars in foods. If I drink a soda now I get a high.
The above are the most visible "deprivations" but that I do not indulge anything in materialism is also something else, e.g. I have nothing of particular value in my possession and what I have is exactly what sustains my needs. I have a computer, but that is because I have a need for it. My car is barely worth anything but I keep it in good shape and it seems at least 7 years younger than it actually is for being a 14 year old car both on the exterior and interior.
Be safe
Amenuel -
I suppress the instinctive drive of my Body as much as I can and this can be perceived as a deprivation of my being. But you do not suffer for what you cease to miss. One example is that I do not eat refined sugar, i.e. no sweets. The sugar that I get is from fruits and what is naturally existing sugars in foods. If I drink a soda now I get a high.
That's probably a good thing to do, Sugar is a relatively new thing in the modern diet and a lot more damaging than most realise -\
The above are the most visible "deprivations" but that I do not indulge anything in materialism is also something else, e.g. I have nothing of particular value in my possession and what I have is exactly what sustains my needs. I have a computer, but that is because I have a need for it. My car is barely worth anything but I keep it in good shape and it seems at least 7 years younger than it actually is for being a 14 year old car both on the exterior and interior.
I know what you mean. My laptop is nearly 10 years old now and still does the job. I've noticed a lot of us here seem to not be the wealthiest kind of people!
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I've noticed a lot of us here seem to not be the wealthiest kind of people!
Why worry about that when we gather wealth in Heaven. yay
Be safe
Amenuel