Mekelle፡Telaviv, Nairobi, Pretoria, London, (Tigray Herald)
The Architecture of Oppression: A Philosophical Excavation from the Self to the Stars
Written by Batseba Seifu
Oppression is more than a system; it is a condition of existence—an enduring pattern that replicates itself across scales, from the inner mind to the international stage. To view oppression structurally is to see its design: not accidental, but architected; not individual, but institutional and metaphysical.
- Structural Oppression Within the Individual: The Interior Empire
Oppression begins not in systems, but in the self. Drawing from existentialists like Simone de Beauvoir and Frantz Fanon, we see that marginalized individuals often internalize societal narratives about their inferiority. This is not mere psychology—it’s ontological warfare. When the oppressed adopt the master’s language of self-doubt, their interior becomes colonized.
Neuroscientific studies support this: chronic exposure to marginalization alters neural pathways, heightening stress and diminishing executive function. Philosophically, it represents what Sartre called bad faith—the surrender of authentic being to external roles.
- Structural Oppression in the Family: The Domestic Template
Families are often the first theaters of power. Michel Foucault described the family as a “micro-penal institution,” where discipline is internalized long before one enters school or society. Here, children learn gender, obedience, and silence.
Feminist theorists like bell hooks and Adrienne Rich highlight how domestic spaces replicate patriarchal structures. The father’s word becomes law. Emotional labor is gendered. Shame becomes a tool of regulation. Even love is conditional, teaching children to seek worth through compliance.
- Structural Oppression Within a Country: The Engineered Nation
At the national level, oppression becomes bureaucratized. It is encoded in laws, education, and media. Here, Antonio Gramsci’s notion of cultural hegemony is key: the ruling class maintains control not just through force, but through shaping common sense!
- Structural Oppression in the Global Order: The Planetary Pyramid
Globally, oppression scales through economics, geopolitics, and information flows. Neocolonialism did not vanish; it morphed into structural adjustment programs, extractive trade deals, and cultural domination through media.
The philosopher Enrique Dussel argues that modernity itself was founded on coloniality—the European “Self” only defined itself through the colonized “Other.” This persists today through debt peonage, resource theft, and climate apartheid.
The global South remains structurally disempowered, not due to lack of innovation, but due to global algorithms of dependency.
- Structural Oppression and AI: The Algorithmic Underworld
AI is often framed as objective, but its logic is archival. Trained on biased data, it replicates past oppressions—only faster and more invisibly. From facial recognition that misidentifies Black faces to predictive policing that targets poor neighborhoods, AI becomes the silent executor of historical prejudice.
Philosophers of technology like Ruha Benjamin argue that algorithms don’t just reflect society—they structure it. By prioritizing efficiency over equity, AI often reinforces hierarchy in ways that cannot be appealed to or resisted.
- Structural Oppression in the Universe: Cosmic Echoes or Human Projections?
Can oppression exist in a cosmos that lacks moral agency? Nietzsche believed the will to power was universal—stars consume, gravity dominates. But Stoics saw the universe as rational and ordered, a place where each being has a role in the cosmic whole (logos).
This cosmic ambiguity mirrors human conflict. We project hierarchy onto the stars, as we do on Earth. In doing so, we risk naturalizing oppression—saying it’s “just how things are.”
- Structural Oppression Spiritually: Faith or Control?
Religions can offer liberation or domination. The same texts that inspired abolitionist revolutions also justified slavery. The same spiritual leaders who preached love often enforced patriarchy.
The danger lies in hierarchical interpretations—God as king, priest as gatekeeper, salvation as obedience. Liberation theology flips this: God is with the oppressed. Faith becomes fuel for resistance, not submission.
Mystical traditions across cultures—Sufism, Kabbalah, Zen, Gnostic Christianity—reject external authority in favor of direct experience. They remind us that true spirituality resists structural power, embodying a truth that transcends domination.
Oppression is not one thing. It is a pattern that mutates across domains—psychic, familial, national, planetary, even spiritual.
