Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Chapter 1 Review

Mutual Dehumanization

Freire begins by dissecting the dialectical relationship between oppressors and the oppressed. He argues that oppression dehumanizes both groups: the oppressors justify their dominance through material exploitation, cultural control, and psychological manipulation, while the oppressed internalize the oppressors’ worldview, leading to a fear of freedom and self-deprecation. Liberation, Freire asserts, cannot be gifted by the oppressors or achieved by simply reversing power roles. Instead, it must arise from the oppressed themselves through critical consciousness (conscientização), a process of recognizing systemic injustice and reclaiming agency. True liberation dismantles oppressive structures rather than perpetuating cycles of domination.

This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves. Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both. Any attempt to "soften" the power of the oppressor in deference to the weakness of the oppressed almost always manifests itself in the form of false generosity; indeed, the attempt never goes beyond this. In order to have the continued opportunity to express their "generosity," the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust social order is the permanent fount of this "generosity," which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty. That is why the dispensers of false generosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source.

The term generosity is repeated in this chapter to remind the reader and demonstrate an interaction of power between themselves and their cultures social structure. It is an important tool to view social interactions with dialectical analysis, where generosity can be read as mocking or condescending to the recipient, and further by attributing wealthy charities supported by cultural elites supplying crumbs to avoid fixing systemic issues caused by their demonstrable greed and selfishness. To stick with Freire's terminology, cultural elites were the owners, controllers, and monopolizers of capital within the borders that make up Brazil in the first half of the 20th century. When individuals with considerable amount of power and resources are coerced to limit their extraction from the poor, native, or targeted group, the adjustment is met not just with resistance, but with hostility.

Freire alludes to his experience of the schemes deployed in Brasil and within the Americas before and after World War 2. There is an extensive history of local political revolutions, World Wars, Cold Wars, and ideological struggle that compound Freire's lived experience. Enough to see that the stranglehold of power and resources elites of the period had over the mortality, hope, and wealth of millions of people was by design. This includes observations of how elites strategize charities, corporate investments, missionaries, or Non-government organizations to economically develop and control populations.

True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the "rejects of life," to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands—whether of individuals or entire peoples—need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.

Rather than enabling forms of dialogue as Freire proposes later, we are mutually dehumanized by this deeper, interpersonal master-slave relationship that Western culture progenates. Oppressors lose their humanity by dehumanizing others; the oppressed lose theirs by internalizing oppression. Liberation is a struggle for both groups to regain humanity, though only the oppressed can lead this process. As suggested before, oppressor-led generosity does not aim to liberate, but supplicate through concessions to the oppressed. If we are on the same mid-1960's timeline, the Civil Rights movement in the United States were arriving at its peak state of concessions of 100 years of segregation following the end of the Civil War. This comparison serves as a reminder of the evolution of the social contract through U.S. constitutional law after World War 2 and the milestones that Native and Black communities fought and died for against the truly demonic Americans. The gradual steps forward worked within a social framework that Freire suggests being liberated from, a direct connection to how educating rural communities to learn to read and write in order to qualify for voting helps bring about direct social change that João Goulart administered prior to being deposed.

The Sub-Oppressors Fear of Freedom

This lesson and this apprenticeship must come, however, from the oppressed themselves and from those who are truly solidary with them. As individuals or as peoples, by fighting for the restoration of their humanity they will be attempting the restoration of true generosity.

The opening paragraphs are essential to understand as it formulates a solution for mutual liberation that can only be led by the oppressed. The oppressor's limited action is destined to act in self-preservation to maintain an identity in an evolving relationship with the oppressed surrounding their interests. Surrounding their interests is a visual cue of the mental saving throws rolling around in an anxious mind when the reaction from Others is to not act in accordance to the oppressors material interests. Freire continues to belabor the point of who is better prepared to understand oppression than the oppressed themselves, yet amongst the oppressed, their are those who become sub-oppressors to maintain the oppressive status quo.

The very structure of their thought has been conditioned by the contradictions of the concrete, existential situation by which they were shaped. Their ideal is to be men; but for them, to be men is to be oppressors. This is their model of humanity.

These materially-driven men 'adhere' to the oppressor as they are idealized (or deified) and defended. Much of what Freire describes is social conditioning that limits our perception in an 'unchanging situation', or the peasants state of poverty and state of mind. Notice the 'structure of their thought' is a potent metaphor for the fear of freedom, like a mind prison, the sub-oppressors internalize inferiority to their oppressors and depend on their mythological narratives of reality to conduct their actions and direct their thoughts. This categorically breaks the perceived binary notion of oppressor and oppressed and reframes the dialectic as a struggle for humanity, where the oppressors and sub-oppressors do not fully realize the impact of their actions. We see this modeled in the modern workplace (post-COVID, too much has changed since the 60's/70's, a separate Exploration on Neoliberalism) where the path on a career ladder leads us to what Freire describes as prescription. "Every prescription represents the imposition of one individual's choice upon another, transforming the consciousness of the person prescribed to into one that conforms with the preservers consciousness." And like a good and obedient child, the behavior of the oppressed is prescribed to them as guidelines to follow or risk further consequences described in later chapters.

This social conditioning is a concrete situation where 'the oppressor-oppressed contradiction is established'. Overcoming this contradiction is of course the subject matter of the book, but Freire insists on understanding the circumstances that lead to the contradiction is just as important as the action taken in response to it. Freire highlights that it is not necessarily true if a sub-oppressor (a member of the oppressed seeing themselves as a 'new man' in comparison to the poor and downtrodden) realizes their actions as extensions of oppression would convert their interests to the oppressed, say "mea culpa", and act in solidarity. Indeed, most people are incapable of change due to their attachment to a false identity. Freire examines freedom as a way to identify the oppression internalized through our social conditioning and offers a viewpoint that builds on the concept of the oppressors' model of 'manhood'.

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion.

What is striking about this statement on the realization of freedom is its focus on the recurring theme of self-determination. By 'critically recognizing the causes' of oppression, the imposed duality of the oppressed must take in to account unexamined assumptions that dictate their mental image of themselves and the way they interact in their limited and conditioned world. This 'world' is rather an empty vessel or host for the oppressor to enforce the duality of what it is like to be like them and not like the rest. Infecting others with this duality is the first step of dehumanization, the creation of the Other within the emptied host, which at the behest of the oppressor becomes an inauthentic and alienated version of you. Freire begins to transition towards the role of education plays in this process, describing it to be like a painful childbirth due to the infectious show of illusion of power and control blinding the oppressed. What then should the oppressed do to eject this false image from their inner being?

Critical Consciousness as Liberation

We briefly touched on the concept of Critical Consciousness in the preface lesson defining it as learning to perceive social, political and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive pillars of society. The process of unlearning oppression develops critical awareness of reality and acts as an instrument towards liberation. Freire introduces the concept  'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' as a pathway forged with the oppressed, emphasis on the with and not for the oppressed, towards their goal of becoming fully human by objectifying their oppression for personal and collective reflection. Acting for an oppressed group is described as a savior complex, prescribing paternalistic treatment towards the oppressed by rationalizing their own class guilt or participation in their position of dependence. Offering advice on what the oppressed needs in solidarity with them, Freire goes on to describe the humanization of the oppressor and dismantles their false generosity:

The oppressor is solidary with the oppressed only when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with, deprived of their voice, cheated in the sale of their labor—when he stops making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures and risks an act of love. True solidarity is found only in the plenitude of this act of love, in its existentiality, in its praxis. To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce.

While addressing the principle contradiction of the oppressor's misuse of acting for the oppressed, the motivation to overcome the oppressed's limiting situation becomes the oppressed's praxis, reflection plus action rooted in critical awareness. Being aware of contradictory behavior and reflecting on objectively verifiable resolutions to contradictions is a process of subjectivity. Indeed, the world is filled with people and to not recognize this is to believe in the impossible, a world without people. This point transcends the field of education and encourages the oppressed to view social interactions within an objective social reality that humans directly transform and indirectly become conditioned by.

Sustainability and Latin American Liberation Philosophy

A suggested connection between the Circles of Sustainability project and its information infrastructure (of which the Sangha's educational content is organized by) lists the domains of social life under politics, economics, culture, and ecology. This serves as a curriculum for learning the "field of life". The field of life will be a recurring theme in how we connect Sustainability and Critical Consciousness as it demonstrates the actor, environment, habitus, and dialectical position (in this book review, oppressor/oppressed, though this can be examined under different lenses as I cover in the Finance Model of Education module). This sidebar is important to establish because in objectifying reality for critical intervention, a 'field of life acts as a 'conceptual filter' to illuminate the connections between people and their actions within a power structure. The implementation of this pedagogical approach has two distinctions for learning, a systematized approach that aligns with political power or the educational projects (proyectos) that are 'carried out with the oppressed in the process of organizing them'.

‍

Proyectos, Latin America, and Liberation [philosophy (Enrique Dussel)/theology (Gustavo Gutiérrez)/psychology (Ignacio Martín-Baró)] have an extensive overlap in history ought to be explored briefly to explain the field that Freire and the aforementioned were experiencing. This period of time in Latin America ('south of the U.S. border') were the long term effects of American imperialism as state policy throughout its sordid expansionist history. From the Monroe Doctrine forward, the violent conquest of the Americas (Manifest Destiny) was of continued economic interest against the collapsing Spanish and Portuguese colonies present in the Western hemisphere. Latin America was an opportunity to exert hard and soft power through Nation-State building that enabled pre-existing elites to violently control the means and ends of capital in an emerging globalized market held together by gunboat diplomacy. Like the Mafia demanding protection money at the cost of your legs, Western hegemony maintained power and control with local sub-oppressors through military collaboration, economic privatization, cultural genocide, and natural resource extraction. This playbook from the 19th century continued with the long and documented history of regime changes that underdeveloped and traumatized Latin America, providing important context to Paulo Freire's adverse early childhood experiences and the significance of developing pedagogy.

Violence is initiated by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognize others as persons—not by 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 initiate hatred, but those who despise. It is not those whose humanity is denied them 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.

Liberation as an Weltanschauung or worldview in Latin American was the response amongst the oppressed and those with them in solidarity. Rooted deeply in the praxis of Jesus Christ and his preferential option for the poor, Catholic theologians in Latin America articulated through a religious-economic-class analysis the undeniable dehumanization and underdevelopment witnessed within their communities. This malignant treatment of the poor directly contradicted Catholic praxis and encouraged followers to collectively apply teachings to resolve contradictory political behavior through organizing and direct action. There is an interesting dynamic and reconciliation between the spread of Karl Marx's work outside of Europe and the oppressed Christian following in the Global South, ultimately setting aside ontological issues with personal faith in disagreement with Marx and agreement on the epistemic issues produced by his life work and philosophy. I will set aside an analysis of the fallout from Bolshevism and the future Soviet state, yet it was an antagonistic model of governance that the Global South assimilated into and rivaled internally with the garden variety of communism, anarchism, and socialism that emerged around the world. But it was the hammer and sickle that was used as the threat needed for America to expand its imperial control down the Western hemisphere while underwriting security from the Soviets, dooming their project to fail in competition and not cooperation.

Solidarity vs. Paternalism

Now that the stage is set, the dialect of the oppressor and oppressed and absolving this dichotomy becomes the central focus. Starting from the operant condition, Freire's conviction towards liberation is a process of mutual humanization, "Resolution of the oppressor-oppressed contradiction indeed implies the disappearance of the oppressors as a dominant class." Freire begins to identify behaviors performed by oppressors in the struggle to relinquish political power as well as a basic form of communication. The language of the "Other" where 'those people' are not called the oppressed, but those savages are envious of Me and must submit. Indeed, it is a wicked narcissistic mind that profits from objectifying humanity and enables dehumanization when their violence is reacted to. How can the oppressors 'love' or benevolence be challenged through rebellion or violent resistance? And more important, how do we find the oppressors language and behaviorisms conditioned in our actions while seeking liberation ourselves?

To be 'with' versus 'for' is a metaphor introducing the contradictory nature of prescription, Freire then introduces a 'have' and 'have not' comparison. While examining core beliefs of a class of people, in this scenario, those who have clear political, economic, cultural, and ecological material benefits compared to those who do not. Freire goes on to describe the benefits ignored by those who have and withhold:

The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot 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 all is their unjustifiable ingratitude towards the "generous gestures" of the dominant class. Precisely because they are "ungrateful" and "envious," the oppressed are regarded as potential enemies who must be watched.

Ignorance is a built in feature to life itself, galavanting with unexamined greed, delusion, and hatred is a demonic combination. A very important sidebar for meta-comparisons, Freire begins to describe dehumanization as an act of sadism and utilizes Erich Fromm's observation of the oppressed's behavior as necrophilic, effectively a philosophy of life and death in what I describe in the Finance Model as Necrocapitalism. Freire's description of human nature amongst the oppressed and oppressors fits perfectly into Chapter 16 of the Bhagavad Gita that describes our nature as Saintly or Daemonic. This is one of the most recognizable chapters amongst the Gita as it directly engages in what is ethical conduct that leads to liberation or bondage, a departure from the previous chapters that answers Arjuna's metaphysical, devotional, and educational questions to Sri Krishna on the battlefield of Kuru. It is recommended to look through the 24 verses and compare Freire's words, you will immediately connect the Liberation theology of Christianity to Dharma. In particular, these select quotes add a spiritual dimension to oppression which we will examine later, yet they coincide with Freire's development of what acting in prescription for the oppressed looks like:

(16.4) O Parth (Arjuna), the qualities of those who possess a demoniac nature are hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance.

(16.7) Those possessing a demoniac nature do not comprehend which actions are proper and which are improper. Hence, they possess neither purity, nor good conduct, nor even truthfulness.

(16.9) Holding fast to such views, these misdirected souls, with small intellect and cruel actions, arise as enemies of the world threatening its destruction.

(16.10) Harboring insatiable lust, full of hypocrisy, pride and arrogance, the demoniac cling to their false tenets. Thus illusioned, they are attracted to the impermanent and work with impure resolve.

(16.11) They are obsessed with endless anxieties that end only with death. Still, they maintain with complete assurance that gratification of desires and accumulation of wealth is the highest purpose of life.

(16.13-15) The demoniac persons think, “I have gained so much wealth today, and I shall now fulfill this desire of mine. This is mine, and tomorrow I shall have even more. That enemy has been destroyed by me, and I shall destroy the others too! I am like God Himself, I am the enjoyer, I am perfect, I am powerful, and I am happy. I am wealthy and I have highly placed relatives. Who else is equal to me? I shall perform sacrifices (to the celestial gods); I shall give alms; I shall rejoice.” In this way, they are deluded by ignorance.

Communion with the Oppressed

Returning to Pedagogy, we are faced with the political maneuverings of oppressors whom wish to join in solidarity with them. Freire uses the metaphor of the communion to describe another dichotomy in power relations, those who adhere to the status quo built on false generosity or those converted who truly desire to transform the status quo. A relationship with the oppressed is built on trust, Freire accurately reflects "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." Indeed, it is a process of constant self-reflection that ought to exorcise daemonic qualities in our social interactions, yet if it is not done with trusting outside of yourself, your anxiety will constantly spin your head and spew the vomit of the status quo (enlightened centrism) burning those around you.

The authentic commitment to working with the oppressed presents a series of challenges of doubt and reneging to what is familiar in the status quo. Conversion and rebirth as pedagogical religious metaphors are helpful to understanding the target audiences descent into a fatalistic condition programmed by the elites within a society. Organized religion, particularly the New World history of the Roman Catholic church, and its espoused theology has been used as an instrument of control and domination of colonized, oppressed peoples. Freire recognizes the docility and the learned helplessness that reinforces a divined status quo, managed by 'the boss', eluding to the collusion of elite interests that subjugate and turn communities against each other.

The oppressed must see examples of the vulnerability of the oppressor so that a contrary conviction can begin to grow within them. Until this occurs, they will continue disheartened, fearful, and beaten. As long as the oppressed remain unaware of the causes of their condition, they fatalistically "accept" their exploitation.

The way of life for the oppressed is one of dualism, internalizing a reality where there is repulsion and attraction to their oppressor. A systematized grooming process thus enables self-deprecation and reluctance to listen to anyone outside of a sphere of influence. The direct connection between abusive behavior and internalized beliefs limits us from becoming authentic beings with an ability to freely express our educational character. "The struggle begins with men's recognition that they have been destroyed" and the necrosis of inner character decomposes the oppressed to zombified husks, play things for the powerful to manipulate their thoughts and actions towards elite preservation.

Closing off the chapter, Freire offers an optimistic approach on the upcoming chapters focus on education. Co-intentional education is a solution forwarded to leaders of revolutionary movements, one that co-creates reality with the oppressed as they unveil inner and social realizations. True commitment, both of the oppressed and oppressors acting in solidarity with them, is a process of humanization and recognition of their temporary conditioning. The Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the process of gaining Critical Consciousness, a radicalization towards love, hope, and societal transformation. The next chapter will primarily focus on the teacher-student relationship and introduce the Banking Model of Education, providing another tool towards raising awareness through dialogue.

‍