Insight Into Suppression: The TLDR Version

So my last post on suppression was a rather long story. While I enjoyed writing it, I wanted to make a more illustrated explanation of the impact of suppression, as we at IRI currently understand it. To make this a bit easier to digest, I am going to spread the illustrations out over the course of this week - one post a day, Monday-Friday. Since I also have a pre-suppression stage, today will be a double-long post.

Stage 0: Pre-Suppression

This is the culture before it is suppressed. In this case, we will assume the culture is a conceptually advanced, independent, self-directing culture. It's a healthy community that is growing and developing and perfectly capable of managing itself. It has a direct connection between what it understands about itself and it's activities and relationships. Good stuff.

Stage 1: Introduction of Suppression

Now we have a new player enter the picture. This group (which I will call The Suppressor from now on) takes over the general operation (including education) of the suppressed group (which I will call The Culture henceforward). The Culture still retains its old understanding of itself, but is now forced to comply with the wishes of The Suppressor. This means The Culture's identity will also be impacted, since part of that identity has changed from an independent culture to a subordinate one. The Suppressor may initiate additional changes to The Culture's identity, since The Suppressor is now in charge of The Culture's education to a large degree.

Next Up - Stage 2: Establishing a Culture of Suppression