Systemic legal oppression can be harder to bear than arbitrary personal tyranny

Evidence

One aspect of the lives of these Moriscos that may appear to be in conflict with the simplistic view of them as oppressed in every way is the fact that their fate is subject to the law and its provisions (as we have already seen in ´Avila). That should not be taken to imply that their personal status was satisfactorily secure but that the oppression to which they were subject was not utterly arbitrary. (An injustice that is not the consequence of personal tyranny but is systematically embedded in the juridical structures of society, is, of course, not in any way easier to bear, perhaps the reverse.) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1140

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The whole notion of systematically embedded injustice versus personal tyranny — and the claim that the former is harder to bear — resists a one-sentence summary and connects to broad debates about structural vs. interpersonal oppression.
• XREF: Connects to critiques of formal legal equality (e.g., critical legal studies, Foucault on disciplinary vs. sovereign power). — connects to: State abuse of power harms everyone’s freedom more than private abuse does — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 536; Being unable to name oppression’s source intensifies its psychological harm — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 16
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1140