Well so far my “rich kid” book has exceeded all expectations, at least in terms of initial reader response.
As is so often the case when I write a new book, months after the fact I do a Homer Simpson “D’OH” and realize that a single sentence was actually the beginning of an entire chapter.
So the topic for today, and perhaps will be somehow retrofitted into future editions, is injustice and oppression.
I define oppression as any economic interaction where one party specifically exploits some advantage on their part (or vulnerability on another’s part) to gain financial gain for themselves at the loss of someone else, as opposed to a fair exchange of value.
Oppression happens in all sorts of ways. Everyone, it seems, is looking to gain some edge for themselves in their business doings. Very often oppression results from some well-intended bit of social engineering legislation. At least, virtually every instance of legal oppression has always “justified” its injustice by claiming to be a benefit to us, or it is based on some specious claim of an inherent “inferiority” of the people who are about to be officially oppressed.
One kind of oppression that weighs on me these days is oppression of class. One example, I think it is fair to say that women, collectively and historically (with notable exceptions of course), have been an oppressed class. Whenever I hear about unequal pay for women for the same job I am always intrigued. Why is that? How could that be? There will always be instances of prejudice and malfeasance, but for such things to be so widespread there has to be a better answer, and I am starting to believe that the lower pay women receive is in no small way a legacy of their being the descendants of an oppressed class. It’s partly prejudice and exploitation, but it is also that being a member of a traditionally oppressed class makes one a lousy negotiator.
(At this point, I hope, dear reader, that you will give me some leeway and understand I am not claiming to be an expert on women’s issues. They are just a very good example. Being a “poor kid,” I was also a member of an oppressed class, and I, too suffer from lousy negotiation skills as a result.)
People in oppressed classes are always worried about whether they will be let in the door at all, much less get the same respect as everyone else. They also worry about what the other members of the oppressed class will think of them. Insecurity abounds. So the collective effect is to ask for less money.
If you go back just three generations, you will find a grandma who was not encouraged to get any kind of major formal education, who was perhaps not allowed to vote, could not apply for certain jobs, and if they ignored convention, was even disapproved of by other women for trying to better herself. Oppression Culture is hard to change on a dime.
One perfect example: In the Star Trek pilot episode, Majel Barrett played a character that was the 2nd in command of a starship. Gene Roddenberry thought women viewers would all rally round and applaud him for creating this fabulous role model, but instead, the majority of female viewers took umbrage at the character, saying, “who does she think she is, doing so much better than the rest of us?”
This is the culture of constant oppression. It wears you down. You start to embrace it and accept it and after a while you may even become complicit in its propagation, as this is sometimes easier than facing the pain and the magnitude of the injustice that has been done to you.
Of course, there are lots of males who are the victims of oppression too. In fact the majority of people everywhere suffer from it, and a very small group of people tend to benefit from it.
We often try to turn it into an “us vs. them “sexual or racial issue, but all too often that just slows things down, as various oppressed parties go to war with each other, leaving the current power structure unscathed and in place.
In any event, the new book is very much about dealing with the emotional conditioning that is so much a part of “poverty thinking.” Feeling resentment for the injustice of oppression is not a fix. The past is over. One must focus on achieving justice in the future. Justice, in and of itself, is a kind of wealth. Believing you have an inalienable right to being treated in a just manner is a big part of being a rich kid. If you truly believe that, then the money will follow.
© Justin Locke
