I’ve been having reoccuring thoughts that I need to expunge.
I’ve been reading a great deal about subject-object oppression and the effects it has on individuals and a culture. It’s lead me to think about the malaise of our modern culture.
Let us suppose that the democratic America we know and love is actually an oppressive system of the elites and the populous. This translates to subjects who own, and objects who are possessed.
This manifests as those who own labor, and those who are labor; those who prescribe knowledge, and those who receive knowledge; those who make rules, those who follow rules; those who teach, those who memorize.
To retain power and dominance, it is not in the interest of the subjects for the the dominated objects to develop a critical consciousness as subjects and think. This would upset the power balance and strip the oppressive subjects of their ability to control. The oppressors do not what the oppressed to think.
As humans, we should all be subjects. As subjects, we should exercise our critical consciousness to solve the pressing dilemmas that are relevant and approximate to us. We should live as beings in ourselves, as ends in ourselves, fully employing our creative faculties of freedom to confront the demands of reality that lead to a fulfilling life. According to Freire,
"People are fulfilled only to the extent that they create their world (which is a human world), and create it with their transforming labor. The fulfillment of humankind as human beings lies, then, in the fulfillment of the world.
If for a person to be in the world of work if to be totally dependent, insecure,and permanently threated- if their work does not belong to them- the person cannot be fulfilled. Work that is not free ceases to be a fulfilling pursuit and becomes an effective means of dehumanization." (Peg.Opp.145)
Being an object in the world and not a subject suppresses freedom and submerges the critical consciousness. What effects would manifest in an oppressive society that is structured to suppress this critical consciousness?
In a world flooded with information and knowledge that has been pre-cognized and pre-objectified, where all of our answers have been prescribed for us, what does this do to our humanity, our critical consciousness and freedom?
All information is sloganized, media is simply propaganda perpetuated by those who ‘know best’.
To cut it short (I’m procrastinating with papers and studying for exams), I have to wonder if the repercussions to such oppression manifest as psychological ailments of society.
What is there are no ‘Learning disabilities’, or if ‘depression’ and ‘bipolar’ and the like, are simply the manifestations of an oppressed humanity, an oppressed freedom, that cannot cope with the prescribed expectations of our culture?
More thoughts on this later.
*****
William Dare 
too bad that knowledge can’t be bought…
You’re operating under the assumption that each individual possesses the ability to think that critically, to remove themselves from a situation and form conclusions, question authority and most of all–value knowledge and intelligence. That in itself is kind of your own personal entrapment and ignorance, that you value knowledge and education and assume it’s the key to freedom.
Though I do believe that genetically there is very little predisposition among social classes, individuals are quickly segregated from childhood by which schools they attend, what kind of nurturing they do or don’t receive and are indirectly put on the path toward academic achievement or failure. The fact is, though I believe nurture is to blame and nobody is genetically inferior, (Don’t know if you caught that reference to the Harvard Law students’ email last week…) some have such a low IQ they cannot think beyond their own situation. People must be taught to think, yet coincidentally, that is the very thing that oppresses individuals because many take it away as being taught what to think, not how. I realize how politically incorrect this is to point out, but quite frankly, it’s illogical to expect everyone to have the capacity to think in such broad and speculative terms. Does that determine their success or failure in life? Absolutely, but what can be done about it? Even public school systems segregate themselves by property values of the housing and the industry surrounding, which reflect on the student body and therefore the quality of education in public institutions. If even the government can’t give people a completely fair shot at life, then God save us all!!!
Social construction is more than just the amount of money you have in your pocket, it is literally the natural distribution of intelligence and reflects those who reap the benefits of their upbringing (their parents’ intelligence), their hard work or a combination of both. Ideas and values about things like education (A’s are attainable versus graduating high school with a C average is commendable), how to spend money (knowing how to invest versus literally being afraid of it), and views of authority, are how social classes widen the gap between themselves. It seems to me that the elite become elite and stay elite because they’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t, and the poor become poor and stay poor because they simply haven’t figured out how to get out of their situation, they might not be content, but they don’t know what else to do differently, meanwhile, the Democrats appease them with this notion that their situation is a social injustice, that the rich are to blame.
Each is trapped in a cycle and only those who deviate from the path before them will ever change. It certainly isn’t the poor’s fault they’ve been put at such a disadvantage in life by simply being born to unfortunate circumstances, but ultimately, each person is responsible for themselves: to either become a product of the environment they were born into or to completely remove themselves and likewise, the rich pat themselves on the back without realizing that their very mindset is a gift from those most influential in their lives. The fact that they value and pursue education is hardly a product of their own mind, it’s just influence of the adults around them.
Read Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
It’d be difficult for me to fully articulate here why that is not an assumption. My response is summarized in my recent post on education.
These posts are lots of thoughts that operate on the assumption that the audience has read Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I think you will find answers for each of your criticisms in the book, or maybe in my other posts.
…continued, my cue I’m getting a little carried away…
It is sad that by the time some people reach adulthood, due to circumstances beyond their control during childhood, they have already lost their shot at a better life. They’re limited by their own mindset and not even aware of it. I’ve decided to reject the idea of groups and how to classify everyone–the rich, the poor, the blacks, the whites, the gays, and to focus on individuals– individual friends and children (Hence, why I volunteer in South Seattle aka Compton, to try and be a mentor with a completely different mindset than the one they’re so familiar with at home. I tell the 9-year-olds I read with that reading is hard now, but if you get it down, you will be much better off for the rest.of.your.entire.life. Sometimes that motivates them, sometimes it doesn’t.)
And while I’m being as politically incorrect as possible, it scares the shit out of me what a propagandist Obama is. Start paying attention to how he defends his views and his actions, to instill confidence in his followers, he always says, “Don’t listen to the opposing argument, they’re just trying to scare you.” But I give him credit, he’s a great example of someone who learned the value of human relationships, social capital and how to be a leader and wam bam, hardly any outstanding credentials to speak of and he’s the president of the most powerful country in the world…
If there’s something I’ve learned in the public education system, it’s is completely monopolized by liberals and people who get off at hearing the sounds of their own voice, and their means of oppression is grading, which conveniently enough is the strongest determinant in continuing higher education. My econ professor can state as fact that America had been provoking terrorist attacks by flaunting our way of life at the Middle East, and no one even bats an eye. Maybe I should have challenged it, but I just didn’t feel like being the Conservative everyone in the class decided to shit on that day, maybe next time.
I have a bunch of thoughts on mental illness and learning disability, but this is long enough, so I’ll stop here.
I encourage you to read Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
I think it you will provide you with a lot of perspective. It changed the way I perceive a lot of things.
From the sounds of it, you may find it really rewarding.
Hello! Although I friended you, I wasn’t aware that you friended me, so no harm done. Cheers!