A Bit of Freire and Oppression

Through his book entitled “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, Paulo Freire offers us a glimpse into what he thinks it will take to bring about a socio political upheaval characterized by a complete absence of gradients in society. He envisions a world devoid of wilful subjugation of man and posits, through this book, that it is only through complete awareness of our circumstance that we can hope to effect constructive changes.

Throughout this socio-political treatise, Freire tries to reiterate “dehumanization” as both the cause and the effect of the oppression which scars our society. He adopts a micro approach towards the study of society and tries to dissect, using, at times, elementary logic and knowledge of human behaviour, individual reactions to oppression. But what lends novelty to “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is its determination to explore the perspectives of not just the social underdogs but also of those who unleash this dehumanizing current.Objectively, dispassionately and yet with palpable intensity, Freire sets out to explore what makes the entrenched oppressor-oppressed dynamic so sturdy and resistant to change.

Freire opines that the diffusion of the oppressed into the environment of oppression blinds them to the reality of their circumstance and stifles any meaningful revolution. For us to peel away the coating of inequity and injustice smeared across the existing socio-political order and to emerge as liberated individuals , we must learn to isolate ourselves from the societal casserole which contains us and subject our roles as social actors to objective scrutiny.

Wary of hypocrisy and cowardice masquerading as “verbalism”, Freire endorses words which are a manifestation of the communion of incisive reflection and steadfast intent as an initiator of change. At the same time, he is aware that misdirected and visceral action only serves to exacerbate circumstances and obstruct the path of revolution .History is replete with instances which vindicate Freire’s reservations against what he calls “Activism”-the violent outburst of Indian freedom fighters at Chauri Chaura, to cite one.

The seeds of oppression, says Freire, are sown deep into the very heart of our education system in which there is an inherent disconnect between the teacher and the taught owing to a pedagogy which is built on the presumption of an intellectual gradient. Terming the existing approach as a “banking approach” Freire denounces it in favour of a more participative form of learning which involves a dialogue between teacher and student, shuns the pedantic and embraces the practical and creative. The purpose of education should be to stimulate independent, objective thinking which facilitates a critical and original outlook, so integral to a “radical”.

Freire goes a step further and identifies why the existing setup proves to be difficult to overthrow. The Oppressors who recognize the subjugation, make no real attempt to liberate the Oppressed in order to continue to have the opportunity to intermittently oblige them with displays of “false generosity”.

To truly empower the downtrodden, we must overcome our base urge to feel good by scattering largesse every now and then and, as a consequence, manufacturing an illusion of nobility. Empowerment results not from the odd incremental monetary or knowledge gains thrust into the hands of those who don’t know what do with it in the first place but from socially conscientizing these oppressed classes and allowing them to understand why they need what they need. Setting them on the course of a blind pursuit of one material conquest after another will merely serve to alleviate their lot without humanizing them and would set into motion the vicious cycle of the oppressed turning into the oppressor.

Which, to me, begs the question- “Just how effective is our response to the prevalent oppression?”
Sure, there are literacy programs fuelled by fund raisers in which celebrities get to walk the red carpet and revel in the glamour and glare which comes from being in the public eye. Sure, some of these funds do eventually reach NGO’s who manage to thrust a chalk and slate into the hands of impoverished kids and dilapidated elderly, and teach them to legibly scribble the 26 alphabets or count on their fingers. And then begins the prolonged self-congratulatory phase that we, the oppressors (deliberate or inadvertent), simply cannot resist. We claim to have attempted to “liberate” the under-privileged and “empowered” them. How? By teaching them to spell their names?

This myopic view of what constitutes social progress has proven to be our collective undoing. I, personally, refuse to believe that education- in its fundamental form- is the ability to write on a piece of paper, read out eloquently or the ability to summon impressive sounding managerial jargons. In its broadest definition possible, education must be the ability to assess your own little role in the infinitely large and endlessly complex scheme of things. Without that awareness, any personal goals that we define are parochial in thought and trivial in their overall consequence. Direction must be provided by a combination of social conscientization and self awareness and not by the prices of the latest tech gizmo or the trendiest outfit in the market.

Unless we are unable to, somehow, align our efforts at liberating with a broader vision and inject it with a sense of greater purpose, we will fail at making any significant inroads into the existing oppression-infested socio-political order.

Perhaps this line of thought strays into the territory of idealism. Which is perhaps why we don’t live in an ideal world.