CREEDE HINSHAW: A meditation on oppression

I’ve been slowly reading through the peculiar Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. These 12 chapters offer a rare opportunity to ponder the mystery of life. Here are the words I wrote in my journal earlier this week:

A Meditation on Oppression

“Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed – with no one to comfort them!” Ecclesiastes 4:1 (New Revised Standard Version)

Who dares examine the oppressions practiced on this planet? How many prefer to remain blind? Who will identify the power games, recognize the intimidations, enumerate the insolences and one-upsmanship? Who dare acknowledge the personal savageries, the political and international lust for domination, the racial and gender profiling and accompanying humiliations large and small, the subtle, pervasive prejudice against every group, the small indignities, the extermination of people groups, the denigration of faith and religion, the marginalization of the free thinker, the rape of the soul, the wielding of petty power, the insolence of superior learning or so-called estate? The catalogue of oppressions is vast and the reasons for ignoring oppression are impressive. Who dare recognize it?

And who will see the tears of the oppressed? Tears get so old. Don’t weak crybabies use emotion to manipulate the resolute strong? Let these snivelers weep alone. Deny their tears. Criticize them for crying. Tell them to get over it, that their tears are wasted, their grievances imaginary. Look the other way; exhort them to be strong and take it like a man. Shame them or make them feel guilty for pointless weeping. Instruct them that whatever causes their tears is good for them and that they’ll eventually thank God for their oppression, seeing it as an opportunity for growth and maturity.

Tell them God has a plan for everything: their part is to be oppressed with dignity while your part is to give advice and comfort while avoiding being oppressed. Explain that they got what was coming to them or will understand by and by. Remind them that people have been oppressed ever since Abel got his comeuppance from Cain. Crying won’t help.

Paint appealing portraits of people who have suffered nobly. Pound it into them that mourn that hard work and application will help them escape their circumstance but laziness and lack of determination is their real problem. Imply that they’re oppressed for a good reason if they’d spend more time figuring it out and less time crying the world would be a better place for all – or at least for those who don’t like crybabies.

Most of all never ever think deeply about oppression, your own complicity in it and your relationship to and/or responsibility for the tears of the oppressed. If you ever accept any slight complicity for or sympathy with these sufferers, your goose is cooked. Stay aloof.

Blame others. Ignore their tears if possible. Don’t be suckered into compassion. Be logical and patronizing. Remain impassive to their tears and impervious to their cries lest your sympathy opens the lachrymose sluice gates of weaklings waiting in the wings to overwhelm you and become oppressors in their own right. Better them than you.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw at [email protected]