Time to Rethink
When was the last time you experienced real innovation in the pursuit of ending oppression? For decades, we’ve rallied, demonstrated, protested, passed legislation and elected officials who promised us a better outcome. Are these methods working? Are they working fast enough? Are we repeating ineffective strategies?
Meaningful progress requires innovation. Of course, sustained anti-oppression efforts are crucial and must continue chipping away at the systems and institutions designed to subjugate. But they can’t do it alone. We must think beyond current methods and create complimentary, additive solutions that accelerate a better future for everyone.
Recruitment
The National Council on Oppression is actively recruiting the brightest minds in academia, the most counterintuitive theorists, the deepest philosophers and the most streetwise agitators in oppression resistance with one prerequisite: We start from an understanding that all oppressions are intrinsically linked and that solving for one means solving for all.
Precedent
Humans have a long history of confronting big, hairy problems by throwing time, money, resources and most importantly, massive brainpower at them. Some of the big hits include DNA genome sequencing, vaccine development, The Manhattan Project, NASA’s Apollo 11, the Large Hadron Collider, and the continued advancements in science and medicine that have provided life-changing treatments (and one day, a cure) for diseases like AIDS and cancer.
What do these accomplishments have in common?
We had incentives to do it. Most commonly, a financial gain.
Better Systems
Why haven’t we overcome oppression? Is it because something in our human nature causes us to subjugate, even while we might be experiencing violent oppression against our own bodies? Or could incentives — financial or otherwise — counteract our more primitive impulses?
That’s what we’re here to explore with a new kind of think tank. One that draws on research without becoming mired in studies. One that incubates the wild ideas that might actually work. One that facilitates the moonshots that could replace existing systems. The National Council on Oppression exists to find incentives to finally take on oppression once and for all.
Sound Like You?
If you’re interested in joining the NCO Think Tank, please enter your information below and someone will get in touch with you ASAP.
You always told me it takes time. It’s taken my father’s time, my mother’s time… How much time do you want for your ‘progress’?
— James Baldwin
Impatience is a Virtue
Time is up on oppression. While we of course acknowledge that systems won’t be replaced overnight, we’re acting with a sense of urgency that is oftentimes discouraged by organizers in the pursuit of an ideal movement. This work will be messy and imperfect but the need is immediate, crucial and long overdue.