If the majority hated each other less, they could free themselves from their oppression
What would have happened to the world if the ruling class had never found out how easy it is to employ the rest of the population: On the one hand, there are the landowners, nobles, heirs, owners of the means of production. And on the other, there are the others - the people, you know - who had a fief, were hired, were in position, were in employment, the self-employed, artists, jugglers, service providers, the unemployed. Never united through the centuries, divided in hatred for one another. To the strangers, witches, women, men, enemies, the weak.
And never, never was there a danger that the wonderful dream of the communist manifesto - proletarians of all countries, unite - would have been filled with life. At any given time, most people oriented themselves up, to the next higher class in our classless world. Nobody sees themselves for what they are: in most cases as part of the crowd, which has to function, has to buy, has to occupy itself, has to hate itself - otherwise the crowd would come up with stupid ideas.
Sibylle Berg arrow to the right
Joseph Shrub
Sibylle Berg is a writer and playwright. In 2019 her bestselling novel "GRM. Brainfuck" was published, and in 2020 the discussion volume "Nerds save the world". Berg has received numerous awards for her literary work, most recently the "Bertolt Brecht Prize" and the "Swiss Grand Prix for Literature". Together with Matze Hielscher she can be heard every 14 days in the podcast "Wesensfremd".
Populations have never been homogeneous. They consist of thousands of parallel societies. The urban and rural population, singles, families, couples, religious people, athletes and police officers and parents who have lived in a country for one or ten generations, held together by values that they have agreed on and laws, who regulate their coexistence. The different groups, people in their microcosms, basically all want the same thing: a fear-free life, peace, quiet, their families and something good to eat.
90 percent against ten
They are the 90 percent who have a fraction of the wealth of the remaining 10 percent of the population, to whom neither morality nor most laws apply. These are the ten percent who initiated wars at all times, to which they sent people from the 90 percent. The ten who were rich before and after Hitler, who become CEOs in elite schools in order to run the economy more or less splendidly. Those who decide the life of the 90 percent and keep them as far away from themselves as possible. The ones that occupy the 90 percent. And what is better suited to this than fear and hatred for one another?
One could fight the division of the population, the prejudices and aversions, the fear that another poor eater could take something away from you with education, with really good media work, with excellent propaganda, you could ensure real justice and equality, you could Abolish the inhuman Hartz IV alms, strengthen the state - but why? What good would it be to question a concept that has proven itself for so long? What was going on for so long to distract the masses from what they really had to hate and question?
Why, you might ask, should I fear jail time for cheating and stealing, but billionaires go unpunished? Why do I have to move to the outskirts and stand in a traffic jam so that I never get on? Why is the legend "anyone can make it to the top" not true? Why can I suddenly no longer pay my rent? Why is my health insurance no longer paying for medication? Why is it not okay to fly and smoke if I do not obey all laws and regulations and rules, and why does that not apply to a few people? Why does a CEO earn a hundred times more than me, he who sunk millions and was rewarded with a bonus? Why should I save electricity and water and separate rubbish and why does that not apply to other people? Why have I been preached for years that I am solely responsible for my own success and then I get fired? Why can associations like the INSM spread their neoliberal fairy tales? And why the fuck should I keep doing this?
The 90 percent might ask that, but fortunately that will never happen. Because they are busy. With burning witches or despising slaves. Or to hate people who look different, who are of a different gender, or who believe in something or not, or who drill holes in the too thin walls of the too expensive apartments. Nothing will change because people hate each other too much because they see each other in the other. Desperate and mortal, insecure and restless, looking for support. That there would only be in the awareness of not being alone, of being a part of 90 percent - but: that will never happen.
Or is it?
Icon: The mirror