The myth of Oppressed Minority is as vital for USA as myths of Frontier and American Dream were. It is actually the same myth. It is always We Few against It.
We Few white colonists against It - wild land that got to be conquered; every man got to rip a peace of it for himself, fight it from harsh nature and evil savages and bring the Frontier one step further. Then it was We Few honest and hard working men who have to fight against It - soulless capitalistic machine that rules the world, rip a peace of prosperity from it, conquer it, get on top of it, fulfil an American Dream. Now its We Few oppressed minority fighting against It - oppressing majority - for our godgiven rights etc etc. Frontier begot American Dream, American Dream begot Be Different.
And there are two ways to Be Different, be among We Few - either to MAKE a difference (which is hard) or just BE different by the right of birth. Be minority. Gay, Ethnic, Religious, Female (which is statistical absurdity, but since liberalistic society treats them as such...).
The only thing is that every one of us is the oppressed minority in some regards and oppressing majority in all the other. And the choice is which part we will identify with. When I ride a bus and hear сhanson, rap or pop-puke from driver's radio I feel myself very minor and very oppressed. And of cause I would like to have a law that protect Us Few who still remember how real music sounds like from this audail hogwash. But I'm very happy that we here don't have (for now) a tradition of such kind of laws. Because every time you try to rip something from It you end up with the peace of your neighbour’s flesh at your hand. And some legally justified hand is already reaching for the peace of yours. So I'm just put on my soundproof headphones on and make a sound of Beatles louder.
It's not a problem when minority is oppressed for the sake of majority, it's kind of a definition; problem is when it's the other way around. Like for example we have a traffic lights with sound confirmation for blind. The one I refer now is set near central subway station. All day long it goes like bip bip bip bip bip bip bip bip crossing allowed crossing allowed crossing allowed bip bip bip bip... All day. There were a diner at the corner, once I've spend there 15 minutes and my brain exploded. It might be that in the office building nearby work more people then there are blind persons in the whole area. If I were working there I'd killed myself on the third day.
This traffic light is the brilliant example of such make-majority-suffer-for-the-sake-of-minority approach. To make short range radiotransmitter into traffic lights and make blind people to wear a headphone set to specific frequency, from my point of view, is more humanistic approach. But it means stigmatizing blind people even more and blah blah bip bip bip bip...
We Few white colonists against It - wild land that got to be conquered; every man got to rip a peace of it for himself, fight it from harsh nature and evil savages and bring the Frontier one step further. Then it was We Few honest and hard working men who have to fight against It - soulless capitalistic machine that rules the world, rip a peace of prosperity from it, conquer it, get on top of it, fulfil an American Dream. Now its We Few oppressed minority fighting against It - oppressing majority - for our godgiven rights etc etc. Frontier begot American Dream, American Dream begot Be Different.
And there are two ways to Be Different, be among We Few - either to MAKE a difference (which is hard) or just BE different by the right of birth. Be minority. Gay, Ethnic, Religious, Female (which is statistical absurdity, but since liberalistic society treats them as such...).
The only thing is that every one of us is the oppressed minority in some regards and oppressing majority in all the other. And the choice is which part we will identify with. When I ride a bus and hear сhanson, rap or pop-puke from driver's radio I feel myself very minor and very oppressed. And of cause I would like to have a law that protect Us Few who still remember how real music sounds like from this audail hogwash. But I'm very happy that we here don't have (for now) a tradition of such kind of laws. Because every time you try to rip something from It you end up with the peace of your neighbour’s flesh at your hand. And some legally justified hand is already reaching for the peace of yours. So I'm just put on my soundproof headphones on and make a sound of Beatles louder.
It's not a problem when minority is oppressed for the sake of majority, it's kind of a definition; problem is when it's the other way around. Like for example we have a traffic lights with sound confirmation for blind. The one I refer now is set near central subway station. All day long it goes like bip bip bip bip bip bip bip bip crossing allowed crossing allowed crossing allowed bip bip bip bip... All day. There were a diner at the corner, once I've spend there 15 minutes and my brain exploded. It might be that in the office building nearby work more people then there are blind persons in the whole area. If I were working there I'd killed myself on the third day.
This traffic light is the brilliant example of such make-majority-suffer-for-the-sake-of-minority approach. To make short range radiotransmitter into traffic lights and make blind people to wear a headphone set to specific frequency, from my point of view, is more humanistic approach. But it means stigmatizing blind people even more and blah blah bip bip bip bip...
