Using the metaphor of a snake that under certain conditions will devour itself, Roos explains that similar problems are now facing the rulers of Israel who, like all oppressors in history, have become addicted to from their dominance and exploitation of others. The only way that this sort of relationship of oppression can sustain itself is to dehumanize their own populations with the tools of propaganda and indoctrination. He draws wisdom from other historical figures who have studied this phenomenon:
Not too long ago, great thinkers like Paulo Freire, Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon observed with great lucidity how the European colonizer, by brutalizing the colonized, ended up brutalizing himself. Running a colonial regime, they noted, requires not just the dehumanization of the oppressed, but — much more importantly — the thorough dehumanization of the oppressor. Human affects like empathy must be actively repressed to keep the colonial order intact; not only to justify the brutality ideologically, but simply to cope with one’s own atrocities emotionally.However, it has been very evident that such oppression of others has been a fact of human history. So, one is forced to ask the question: is it true that such dehumanizing oppression succeeds because of some weaknesses in the nature of human beings which, if they fail to overcome them with other character strengths, will ultimately end in the specie's annihilation? Here I am referring to the powerful effects of immediate gratification: the obtaining of material rewards and the allure of power through the use of violence or the threat of violence against others or nature.
I think the main reason that this sort of aggression against other human being has succeeded is the class structure of human societies which began roughly about 10,000 years ago. Because this period only constitutes about two percent of human existence--the last two percent--it can hardly be attributed to a defective human nature. No, the culprit here is the division of humanity into layers of privileged and less privileged groups, the institutionalization of inequality.
The top layers of unequal societies are ruling classes who exploit those below them to obtain their goodies of power and material rewards. I believe that the key to their success lies in the nature of the class structure itself. Ruling classes insulate themselves from the worst effects of their own dehumanizing actions by forcing or inducing lower classes to carrying out the worst forms of oppression and violence. Thus, the subordinate classes are the people who experience the worst forms of dehumanization, and the lower one is on the class structure, the worse are the effects. The ruling classes suffer very little of this damage.
Until we rid societies of the scourge of inequality, we will continue to suffer "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" in the form of wars and environmental destruction. And, worst of all, we risk total annihilation if we fail to do so.
