I say inequality for reference, but really it’s not inequality that all living beings detest; it’s inequity and the reason being that we each are born with an internal scale by which we can measure what’s equitable and what’s not.

In the scene below, two capuchin monkeys do the same job and expect the same reward. Watch how they react when one gets something better than the other for doing the same task.

Human beings are no different, with the exception that our internal scales can sometimes be manipulated to exhibit a bias against our own interests. This is one reason why people sometimes settle into their oppression – they simply don’t perceive it as it really is. Their scales are biased through repeated propaganda and conditioning. (Note that, in the video, the monkeys who had not done the task before exhibited the strongest reactions to the inequity, confirming that conditioning matters.)

So before we can free ourselves from oppression, we must first recover our awareness of the inalienable rights we possess. only then can we recognize that we are being oppressed. That is the first challenge an oppressed people must address.