The behavior of the oppressed is a prescribed behavior, following as it does the guidelines of the oppressor.
Paulo FreireRead
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.
Interpretation
The quote highlights how the desire for excessive wealth can dehumanize both the oppressor and the oppressed.
Paulo Freire's quote critiques the mindset of oppressors who fail to recognize that their accumulation of wealth and privilege comes at the cost of humanity. In their vain pursuit of possessions, they not only strip others of their dignity but also become trapped in a hollow existence where their value is defined solely by what they own, rather than who they are as individuals.
In practice
In a discussion about socioeconomic inequality.
The behavior of the oppressed is a prescribed behavior, following as it does the guidelines of the oppressor.
How can the oppressed, as divided, unauthentic beings, participate in developing the pedagogy of their liberation?
Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation. The content of that dialogue can and should vary in accordance with historical conditions and the level at which the oppressed perceive reality.
This is the sense in which I am obliged to be a listener. To listen to the student's doubts, fears, and incompetencies that are part of the learning process. It is in listening to the student that I learn to speak with him or her.
This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation. And in the struggle this pedagogy will be made and remade
Education is an act of love, and thus an act of courage
What a thing is and what it means are not separate, the former being physical and the latter mental as we are accustomed to believe.
In the poetic tradition, the heart's affections are indeed holy, and if organizations are asking for people's hearts and minds, they are asking in a way for their holy and hidden affections at the same time.
I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.
The line between lawful and unlawful abortion will be marked by the fact of having sensation and being alive.
The joke of it all is that you are looking from your true nature right now without knowing it. If you would stop being fascinated with the contents of your mind, you would experience what I am saying. Feel your way into what I am saying rather than thinking about it. Only a self-concept looks and longs for God. Drop your self-concept and there is only God meeting God. Enlightenment is the restoration of cosmic humor.
Yet the definition we have made of ourselves is ourselves. To break out of it, we must make a new self. But how can the self make a new self when the selflessness which it is, is the only substance from which the new self can be made?
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