Consider 2 groups of any number of persons. Assume that the "dominant" group acts without any regard for the other group. Assume that there seem to be no consequences in the short time for the dominant part. In a generalized experiment over a very long time, I think the feelings of the oppressed group will create motivation to react.
Let's consider an example:
Women's rights had been limited for centuries. More recently the situation has been changing, and nowadays the opposite is being argued:
- A bias in the laws in Italy seems to favor women
- Official documents delivered in Italian's Senato describe many cases of women making false accusations to win divorce processes in a range of 16 years
- See also Wikipedia on false accusations of rape.
There was also an interesting study on the prevalence of sexual dependency among men and women: the number of male patients was 5 times greater than the number of female patients.
Consider the hypothesis: "History goes from one extreme to the other." Oppression & exploitation of one group leads to discomfort, which leads to motivation to react and fight, which leads to reaction (from the oppressed side) and maybe guilty feelings (on the oppressor's side), which leads to an egoistic solution, which is not always the more ethical. (In this case, a partial oppression of the previously dominant group).