The Oppresser and the Oppressed...Pt1

Current mood: HIDE!!!!
Category: HIDE!!!! Life

Back when I was being a full time roads protester, we'd often have the 'Oppressor vs Oppressed' discussion...

This discussion essentially boiled down to the idea that to successfully mount any kind of a serious revolution, one has to be the 'Oppressed' and not the 'Oppressor'...

Geoff, who was at the time 16 years old (and might feisty with it) was of the opinion that us in The UK ( a rich heavily industrialized country) were always going to be the 'Oppressor' and not the 'Oppressed'.

He was therefore sure that we'd never be able to rouse a big enough sized mob to change things, no matter how stern and serious we were...


And though I wasn't quite sure at the time, I now think he was right...


This so, there have only ever been very few occasions where I have personally felt I was 'The Oppressor'

Yes boss, as does everyone on this island, I SLURP my way through plenty of resources, drink cash crop tea for fun, and think nothing of doing whatever my money will allow - but on only 2 clear occasions have I had the definite I'm BAD!!!..


One of these was when I was in Northern Ireland as per that blog of before...

I went there pretty naively, and it was only when I arrived, looked and opened my eyes, that I understood my sort might not be that welcome..


This was in the inbetweener time of Northern Ireland

Around about 1999

It was before peace had properly broken out - but because of the big CITY bombs, they were definitely talking heavily about it and there was a ceasefire in place


Until going there. I'd never much thought about the whole situation other than it all seemed to be a waste of time.

As far as I could see, no-one in England gave much of a fuck about Northern Ireland.

Whatever the argument was about was way beyond both the understanding and my interest of most folk I knew...

It all seemed to be silly...


Of course, I well understand and understood the need to make a political point and had spent a lot of time doing just that myself.

But I'd never got close enough to seeing violence of any serious kind, to be the right way to achieve something...

No boss, I've been standing there with a can full of petrol, about to start a very big prison sentence sized fire on a very good political reason and thought..

'Nah, this is ridiculous...'

And walked away...


In Northern Ireland, I found that I was there as a guest of one of the families that though it wasn't politically active at the time, must have had a fair old input into the unhappy status quo at some point in the past..

I WAS THEREFORE ONE OF THE BAD GUYS!!!


One day we drove past Stormont.

Stormont was where all the peace talks went on and is now where the united parliament sits..

Never before or since have I seen such an imposing colonial building..

This picture is good, but it gives no serious impression of how this place looks from the road that passes a mile down...

It rises up out of hillside like a fucking spaceship..

It's as empirical as things get...

And we went there and built that and expected to be loved by the locals???

This aside, there was one particular moment when i felt very, very uncomfortable

We were walking around central Belfast.

My then girlfriend pointed out the town hall which had been bombed on tens of occasions.

There were roadblocks and bomb barriers all over the place and rather than the regular squad cars, the police were driving about in these as standard...

(Notice the Crimestopers stencil on the side..)

Well, that day, I suddenly became very very conscious of my clear English accent and I felt far from comfortable using it.

I found myself always looking over my shoulder before talking...

It was no joke, that if you spoke with that accent in certain parts of town, you'd be considered to be a legitimate target and at the very least receive a serious kicking...

I found myself remembering the story of the SAS soldiers who went into a pub in the wrong part of town thinking it might be a razz, and never came out...


All told, there was a very heavy and uncertain atmosphere and i felt like I was on the wrong side of it...

And that was the first time I ever really felt like I was the Oppressor..

Currently listening : Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent d’Arby By Terence Trent d’Arby Release date: 1990-10-25