The Tyranny Next Door: When Society Itself Is the True Oppressor

J.S. Mill famously quoted: The biggest threat to liberty arises from two sources:

1. The state, through laws that may restrict freedom.
2. The unorganised but formidable power of public opinion or societal norms.

Societal interference is often more intrusive than state power. From the highest class to the lowest, everyone lives under the eye of a hostile and dreaded censorship. We fear our neighbours more and the policemen less. This societal tyranny, which Mill saw as a serious threat to individual freedom, often constrains personal actions and weakens individual impulses and desires.

Starting with a few lines of poetry:
سنا ہے بولے تو باتوں سے پھول جھڑتے ہیں

یہ بات ہے تو چلو بات کر کے دیکھتے ہیں

State power is hierarchical, public, and institutional. It is applied by law, by administration, and by official policy. We can protest against the state, march against the state, or demand reform — and we have constitutional rights to appeal to in doing so. Where the state goes too far or overreaches, the courts are an institutional check, giving us a system of accountability and redress.

But public tyranny is totally different.

It is invisible, unregulated, and firmly entrenched in everyday life. It lacks a constitution or a court to go with it. There is no official method of reporting or contesting it. It directs our conduct, our decisions, and even our thoughts — not by law, but by shame, gossip, ridicule, and ostracism. Unlike the state, public tyranny does not have frontiers.

It comes into your house, into your workplace, into your computer life, into your head. It rules secretly, but brutally. And because it operates under the guise of ‘culture,’ ‘tradition,’ or ‘common sense,’ it most often goes uncontradicted. It is asphyxiating because it offers no space in which to live and breathe without restraint. It is permanent because there is no court to challenge it, no policy to reverse it, and no protest to stop it — without inviting more derision. And that is why public tyranny, though unofficial, can occasionally be much more destructive than state power itself.

“What we fear from the powerful, we often become among the powerless.”

Personal observation:
The difference between public tyranny and governmental power is always obscured. In democratic cultures, public opinion determines laws, whereas in dictatorial cultures, public opinion may be manufactured by the state. Either form of power — one formal, the other effective — can be tyrannical in a given moment.

But, in my humble opinion, public tyranny is much more intrusive because it doesn’t just control behaviour — it invades the soul. Public tyranny isn’t like state law that can be labeled and battled; it is subtle, unseen, and ubiquitous. It operates not through surveillance cameras and police officers, but through glances, whispers, sneers, and assumptions. And that’s why it is far more dangerous — it governs you when nobody’s watching.

Everything one does is up for public scrutiny. What one wears, who one talks to, what one wants — everything is no longer private. Should one make a mistake, failure is not private embarrassment, but public display. Not only is it witnessed by others — they gossip about it, exaggerate it, and use it to reaffirm one’s ‘place’ in society. The weight of these judgments suffocates not only initiative, but self-worth.

Over time, this pressure conditions your mind. You start making choices not because they align with your wishes, but because they align with other individuals’ expectations. You stifle your interests, dampen your voice, and adjust your dreams — to fit in. Your mind no longer asks, “What do I want?” but instead whispers, “What will they say?”

This shift is slow and subtle. It’s similar to self-preservation, but it’s actually self-erasure. You become a version of yourself edited for survival, not for fulfillment. You exist to avoid shame, not to seek joy. You begin to belong everywhere and feel at home nowhere — not even in your own skin.

Public tyranny, then, does not only make laws — it steals authenticity. It compels individuals to wear masks, to be afraid of being original, to leave behind the individual they were born to be. And in doing this, it not only steals individuals’ liberty — it steals society’s diversity, its creativity, and its soul.

Pride in Grades: A New Face of Social Tyranny

One social norm placed on society in today’s age, which is punishingly intense and tyrannical, is the obsession with grades. In a more competitive society, parents start equating the worth of a child with his or her report card. More seriously, this frenzy appears to create a silent social superiority — parents of high-achieving kids look down on others whose kids are not performing well in school.

This compares rather than sympathizes, overlooking children’s natural abilities in favor of pushing them down the value achievement scale. It turns into a silent tyranny — an academic “success” scale becomes a measure of social acceptability. Those who fail to make the mark are at the receiving end of the ire of the system and the people around them.

Privilege and Power: Keeping the Poor Beneath

The Tyranny of the Rich

I’ve seen it myself — the privilege of the wealthy becoming a silent force of comfort and access. The privileged walk into hospitals and are given instant, special care. Their children go to the best schools from the start, surrounded by resources, safety, and support. Their food is organic, their lives seeming to be free of the chaos others quietly endure. I don’t blame them for these. But I do see the stark disparity — that the poor are never, ever given the same chance.

Their children grow up without access, without exposure, without choice. Education promises equality, but how can a child who has never known support, who has never seen the world of plenty, ever hope to compete with one who was born to it?

The truth is, the wealthy want the poor to remain below them — always — as a constant reminder of their own superiority. But the chasm doesn’t stop there. In society, caste divides still rule, with the upper castes holding power, control, and privilege, and the lower castes struggling to be heard or seen. The majority, in its power, uses this chasm to silence the minority, keeping them marginalized, ignored, and voiceless.

For the poor and the lower castes, life isn’t about big dreams — it’s about survival, balancing the weight of a struggling family in one hand and trying to build a future with the other. There is no forgiveness, no second chance.

That too is a form of quiet, everyday tyranny.

The power of the state may be formal, visible, and contestable: but the power that society holds over individuals is silent, personal, and truly beyond reach.

On the face of it, we live in a world where opinions articulate and become law, wealth decides the access, caste determines the opportunity, and silence is often confused with peace. The tyranny that we face from each other — in the name of pride or from comparison, tradition, and power — that tyranny is not to be found written anywhere in law, yet it builds lives each day with every action.

Real transformation will not be a protest against the government; rather, it should be directed toward questioning self, prejudice, and the everyday violence with which we are complicit.

Dangerously, power is not always in the hands of rulers — but sometimes, it resides in the heart of the ruled.

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Salman Wani

Salman Wani is a contributor at The Chenab Times. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Political Science at Jammu University.