Group Oppression of Other Groups

2. Intractable Conflict Threat and Opportunity

We wrote in the introduction to our section on oppression in the original BI knowledge base that "oppression is at the root of many of the most serious, enduring conflicts in the world today. Racial and religious conflicts; conflicts between dictatorial governments and their citizens; the battle between the sexes; conflicts between management and labor; between heterosexuals and homosexuals, between liberals and conservatives, all stem, in whole or in part, to oppression or perceived oppression." The opposite, however, is also true. Conflicts between each of these groups has been resolved, for years — centuries, even — not by collaboration or constructive confrontation, but by the continued or even increasing oppression of one group by another. So, oppression is both a cause and a result of intractable conflict.

In 2017,we wrote "conflicts between religion and races seemed to be on the significant increase, both in the U.S. and abroad. Many (on both sides) were talking about a serious conflict between "the West" (mostly Christian) and Islam. The conflict between Jews (mostly in Israel) and Muslims has a long, extremely intractable, history. The conflict in Syria is one of oppression based on religion (among other things), and the migration that has caused has spawned oppression of minorities in many other countries as well. In the United States, race, immigration, and resentment of elites were big factors in the 2016 Presidential election, as working-class whites, long feeling oppressed by the liberal elite, lashed back by electing a President, who, though extremely rich, they still viewed as "one of their own," or at least one who wouldn't oppress whites, as they believed President Obama and other liberals before him had done" All that is still true in winter of 2025. Oppression is driving intractable conflict, and is being driven by it. It is another of many positive feedback systems that result in intractability, severe conflict, and widespread suffering.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, we need to quit complaining about oppression and actually do something about it. And, in order to do that, we need to understand the multi-faceted nature of the problem and the strategies for addressing it that are most likely to be successful.