“The oppressed, who have been shaped by the death-affirming climate of oppression, must find through their struggle the way to life-affirming humanization…” (68 Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed)
It’s strange, over the past couple weeks i’ve seen online cases of numerous people around the world being thrown in jail…fired from their jobs…or sued for speaking out against their oppressors online using Blogs such as the one i am using right now. Is freedome of speech just a facade…something the oppressors give to internalize the denial of oppression?
I was in class just the other day and we were talking about revolutions and popular struggles in Cuba (which although i learned nothing about it growing up…sly form of oppression…omission….I have come to realize Cuba is quite a fascinating place…and it’s very appropo for this thought too….US attempting to oppress Cuba…but fortunately for them, the US is not doing the best job at it). I asked outloud the following question. “How does one stand up against oppression when it is known their only fate is death (or other form of ’submission to silence’)?” Very few oppressors (if any) stand down without violence and denial of the oppression. It’s a hard question to answer….not having been having every exposed to being widely oppressed by such extreme and harsh forms of oppression as cololization for example or slavery or tyrant rule (oppression comes in many forms and degrees…people being thrown in jail for blogging dissent, parents oppressing children for what they deem as for ‘their own good’…schools too..wow yeah…..governments oppress citizens….and well…more clearly, people oppress people through various institutions and beaurocracies…economy….etc.)
And also, taking the example of the uprisings in Paris going on right now….why is that the oppressed are called rioters…why is the media claiming it is them that must be stopped….stop their violence….? Why is the EU giving money to the paris government to ‘put an end to the violence’…meaning the oppressed peoples uprising/resistence….but not telling the government to close up shop or fix the existing problems that have sparked the popular movement instead? Why are the oppressed blamed here, and not the oppressors?
“Any situation in which “A” objectively exploits “B” or hinders his and her pursuit of self-affirmation as a responsible person is one of oppression. Such a situation in itself constitutes violence, even when sweetened by false generosity, because it interferes with the individual’s ontological and historical vocation to be more fully human. With the establishment of a relationship of oppression, violence has already begun. Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed. How could they be the initiators, if they themselves are the result of violence? How could they be the sponsors of something whose objective inauguration called forth their existence as opporessed? There would be no oppressed had there been no prior situation of violence to establish their subjugation.
” Violence is initiated by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognize others as persons–notably those who are oppressed, exploited, and unrecognized. It is not the unloved who initiate disaffection, but those who cannot love because they love only themselves. It is not the helpless, subject to terror, who initiate terror, but the violent, who with their power create the concrete situation which begets the “rejects of life.” It is not the tyrannized who initiate despotism, but the tyrants. It is not the despised who initate hatred, but those who despise. It is not those whose humanity is denied who negate humankind, but those who denied that humanity (thus negating their own as well). Force is used not by those who have become weak under the preponderance of the strong, but by the strong who have emasculated them.
” For the oppressors, however, it is always the oppressed (whom they obviously never call ‘the oppressed’ but–depending on whether they are fellow countrymen or not–’those people’ or ‘the blind and envious masses’ or ’savages’ or ‘natives’ or ’subversives’) who are disaffected, who are ‘violent,’ ‘barbaric,’ ‘wicked’ or ‘ferocious’ when they react to the violence of the oppressors. ” (49 Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed)
I have also been thinking about how difficult it is for me and the other privaleged people like me (oppressors…) to envision true equality…because it would mean ‘loss’ to us. If we are to bring others up, we must bring ourselves down….
“Conditioned by the experience of oppressing others, any situation other than their former seems to them like oppression. Formerly, they could eat, dress, weat shoes, be educated, travel, and hear Beethoven; while millions did not eat, had no clothes or shoes, neither studied nor traveled, much less listened to Beethoven. Any restriction on this way of life, in the name of the rights of the community, appears to the former oppressors as a profound violation of their individual rights–although they had no respect for the millions who suffered and died of hunger, pain, sorrow, and despair. For the oppressors, “human beings” refers only to themselves; other people are things.” For the oppressors, there exists only one right: their right to live in peace, over against the right, not always even recofnized, but simply conceded, of the oppressed to survival. And they make this concession only because the existence of the oppressed is necessary to their own existence.” (58 Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed)
“In their unrestrained eagerness to possess, the oppressors develop the conviction that it is possible for them to transform everything into objects of their purchasing power; hence their strictly materialistic concept of existence. Money is the measure of all things, and profit the primary goal. For the oppressors, what is worthwhile is to have more–always more–even at the cost of the oppressed having less or having nothing. For them, to be is to have and to be the class of the “haves”.” (58 Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed)
“The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves (I think I DO recognize this though…but how to get away from it is a fucking hell-of-challenge….). They can not see that, in the egoistic pursuit of having as a possessing class, they suffocate in their own possessions and no longer are; they merely have. For them, having more is an inalienable right, a right they acquired through their own “effort,” with their “courage to take risks.” If others do not have more, it is because they are incompetent and lazy, and worst of allis their unjustifiable ingratitude towards the “generous gestures” of the dominant class (otherwise known as False Generosity). Precisely because they are “ungrateful” and “envious,” the oppressed are regarded as potential enemies who must be watched” and constantly controled (think PARIS!). (59 Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed)
“…certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation, thus moving from one pole of the contradiction to the other. Theirs is a fundamental role, and has been throughout the history of this sturggle. It happens, however that as they cease to be exploiters or indefferent spectators or simply the heirs of exploitation and move to the side of the exploited, they almost always bring with them the marks of their origin: their prejudices and their defomations, which include a lack of confidence in the people’s ability to think, to want, and to know. …they believe they must be the executers of the transormation. They talk about the people, but they do not trust them; and trusting the people is the indispensable precondition for revolutionary change. A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in the people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a thousand actions in their favor without that trust.
“Those who authentically commit themselves to the people must re-examine themselves constantly…Conversion to the people requires a profound rebirth. Those who undergo it must take on a new form of exitence; they can no longer remain as they were….The convert who approaches the people but feels alarm at each step they take, each doubt they express, and each suggestion they offer, and attempts to impose his “status,” remains nostalgic towards his origins.” (61 Paulo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed)
Hmmm……something to think about….and something to struggle for achieving!
-Chris
Posted by drpoo as Peace Works!, Personal Endeveavors at 11:58 PM PST