#Oppression

Oppression Entraps Both the Oppressed and Oppressor

Finally, Washington’s sentence functions as a test for everyday decisions as well as institutions. In workplaces, families, or politics, attempts to control through humiliation, exclusion, or intimidation may win compliance, but they also shrink trust and poison relationships. The controller becomes dependent on pressure rather than respect. Seen this way, the quote is not only condemnation but invitation: choose forms of leadership that do not require keeping others small. The path upward is shared; if someone must be held down for you to feel secure, then your security is already a kind of confinement. [...]

Taking Sides: Elie Wiesel on Moral Courage

History illustrates the calculus. During the Holocaust, many communities averted their gaze, and trains ran on time; yet Denmark’s 1943 rescue of Jews to Sweden shows how taking sides can disrupt atrocity. Decades later, the 1994 Rwandan genocide unfolded as UN forces, constrained by a neutral mandate, watched slaughter escalate—an anguish recounted by Roméo Dallaire in Shake Hands with the Devil (2003). Likewise, at Srebrenica (1995), the posture of neutrality failed to shield civilians from genocide. These cases do not argue for rashness; they demonstrate that passivity typically favors organized violence over vulnerable lives. [...]

Those Who Do Not Move Do Not Notice Their Chains - Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg, a Marxist thinker and revolutionary, often spoke against social stagnation and political oppression. This quote reflects her advocacy for revolutionary action and her belief in awakening class consciousness among the oppressed. [...]