Society operates within the economic philosophy of social darwinism (i.e. survival of the fittest). Through the institutionalization of systems of domination, oppressed people are put in a position of enforced weakness. Simultaneously, on an emotional level we are given the message that our survival depends on the acceptance of the same values that keep us in an inferior position in society. For many of us, it is too painful to continue to function while holding the knowledge that we are participating in a society that is hurting us and others. Our self concepts are damaged from the get go by the oppressive system and the messages about who we are as individuals and in society. We are force-fed outright lies about who we are and who’s histories define our identity as a nation. Henry Kissinger wrote that “history is the memory of States.” Mainstream versions of reality mystify and obscure people’s real stories, relegating them to paranoid fantasies of the disenfranchised and “weak” members of society.
hero conquerors
empty lands
ignorant savages
hysterical women
inferior races
is it any wonder
that they are saying
there are
false memories
now?”
f. spavarious
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