Keeping people quiet and obedient...

In the shower this morning I came to think about employers in older times giving their employees "brännvin" (Scandinavian vodka), i.e. alcohol, as wage for their work!! I am living in a town with a mine that is 1000 years old. Earlier strictly separated in a finer and less fine part, by a creek winding through this town. Where the fine parts lay on the opposite side of the mine.

And it is still a fine-cultural town, with different culture-institutions!! The neighbor town is a working class town, with big industries!

The mine closed 1992 I think. The stories are many about the mining life... An extremely hard life. People needed to become numbed to survive... And people lived in extremely small cottages (now pretty attractive and not so cheap to buy? The wooden houses near the center of the town are fairly expensive today!! Ironically!). Whole families with many children lived in cottages with only one (small) room. How was this??

And today; what are we held calm with? Other sorts of addictions and things that are occupying us from thinking and reacting and noticing things?? Numbing us (even more than we perhaps already are).

Apropos politics and abuse...

The use of alcohol led to religious movements (very strict) as the laestadianism in the north of this country and a similar movement at the west-coast (I don't remember what it is called)? Everywhere where the life was hard and dangerous, was it??

And people moved to America not just because of poverty, but also to be allowed to practice religions that were forbidden here 100-150 years ago (I was reminded about this now when I read our church-musician magazine today about a trip church-musicians had done to USA, to see how they work in churches there. Which seemed to be a little different compared to here?? Here we try to "incorporate" many different genres when it comes to music in ceremonies and concerts in the church, something that has changed the last 30-40 years radically I think? But, yes, I am a typically secularized Swede? So educated church-musician I am!?? But, yes, I believe in God!?)

But I am not sure that poverty automatically has to lead to child abuse, even though it probably exists to a high degree in these homes. And I believe strongly in an equal society, so there are no misunderstandings or misinterpretations.

Skimmed an earlier posting where there was a quote (in the end of the posting) on what oppression is. Why do people need to use oppression, need to exercise power??

PS. February 11: and poverty including other (difficult) things are no excuse for abuse, neither of children nor anyone... All parents, or other grown ups for that matter, don't abuse others how difficult or severe their conditions even are...

And how difficult ones childhood even has been that's no excuse for ones bad behavior either...

Lars Levi Laestadius (1800-1861).