The Fight against Social Repression - Essay Example

This paper intends to look deeper into the ideas of Mill to understand further why he is so against social repression and to examine further the differences between social and political repression.

As mentioned earlier, Mill strongly believes in individuality. Consequently, he also has considerable confidence in diversity. As human beings, each of us has differences and such differences often make us differ in tastes, opinions, interests, and other important characteristics and traits. For Mill, such differences should be encouraged instead of stopped. He is against uniformity because this thwarts the expression of one’s unique attributes. As a result, uniformity encourages a few people to stand out because they take courage in being different however, ultimately, the numbered few will rise to rule over the uniformed others. Such a system eventually leads to other social problems such as political repression, tyranny, racism, and sexism. On the contrary, when individual attributes are to be encouraged, there would be no uniformity but diversity.

Diversity results in individualism which in turn inspires being informed. Information is very important in improving one’s self. As they say, knowledge is power. However, where diversity is diminished, only the strong and able few will be the informed ones. On the other hand, when there is diversity, information is encouraged because individual interests, inclinations, talents, abilities, and capabilities will be the foundation of acquiring the results of the information at hand. Whereas when there is uniformity, those who can access important information tend to keep it to themselves so that they will be the only ones to benefit from the knowledge.

In addition, the numbered few who tend to rise when there is uniformity often alter information fed to the bigger percentage of the population so that they are deceived to believe that they are well-informed. This leads to tyranny because the misinformed public tends to trust the stronger majority. Consequently, people can be transformed into puppets who will simply obey what is asked of them. People will be dictated by a few individuals who can control the information being told and they will in turn ‘mere industrious sheep’ who will simply obey orders without questioning. This again can lead to abuses such as what was witnessed in the relationship between the Black slaves and the White masters during the recent century. Through social repression, the Blacks were made to believe that they are mere objects who were supposed to serve their White masters. However, as social beings, the Blacks came to learn that they, too, can have the liberty the Whites are enjoying and that they can also have their lands by doing lesser jobs compared to when they are yet slaves.

For decades, there have been no Blacks who excelled in art, music, or other professions because they have been deprived of opportunities and information. This is the very reason why Mill is against social repression. He is afraid that there will come a day when the talents and creativity of individuals will not be encouraged because they have been limited to some standards. He sees this as a dangerous end because when such a circumstance happens, people will eventually become accustomed to an average way of living. Again, this will result in uniformity which leads people nowhere but to more social issues.

Going back to the case of the Black slaves, when they started breaking through the barriers that were set before them, their intelligent and talented personalities started rising and competing with White individuals. This is what Mill is encouraging with his philosophies. When people think they are individuals who have unique qualities, they will persevere and seek what they are capable of doing and producing using their talents and skills. This is the reason why Mill greatly advocates diversity and individuality. They tend to bring out the best in people and as a result, they also bring out the best in societies.

One other reason that Mill probably considers for strongly opposing social repression is the fact that it can lead to other problems such as political repression. Political discrimination somehow affects a large percentage of the population because as organized beings, people are also considered political beings. The persecution of individuals or groups due to political affiliations and beliefs, like social repression, hinders the improvement of individuals in terms of political dreams. This kind of repression is limited in the political arena while social repression affects individuals in almost all aspects of one’s life. This leads us to consider that Mill is very concerned about social repression because it has a wider and stronger effect on individuals. As mentioned above, social repression controls individuals and groups of people in their social lives. It is worth noting that political life is simply a part and parcel of one’s social life and it is here where the greatest difference between social and political repression perhaps lies.

In conclusion, Mill is found to fight against social repression because it is the mother of all repressions. It may be as simple as controlling information but such act greatly affects individual and corporal lives. In other words, social repression is the act of controlling one’s life just like the control of White masters on their Black slaves when slavery was still a part of American society. On the other hand, political repression is controlling only a part of a person, specifically those which concern his political beliefs. This means that social repression is broader in its jurisdiction than political repression. Read More