I think about Freire's thoughts on this a lot: "Because it is a distortion of being more fully human, sooner or later being less human leads the oppressed to struggle against those who made them so. In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both..." "Yet it is—paradoxical though it may seem—precisely in the response of the oppressed to the violence of their oppressors that a gesture of love may be found. Consciously or unconsciously, the act of rebellion by the oppressed (an act which is always, or nearly always, as violent as the initial violence of the oppressors) can initiate love. Whereas the violence of the oppressors prevents the oppressed from being fully human, the response of the latter to this violence is grounded in the desire to pursue the right to be human. As the oppressors dehumanize others and violate their rights, they them- selves also become dehumanized. As the oppressed, fighting to be human, take away the oppressors power to dominate and suppress, they restore to the oppressors the humanity they had lost in the exercise of oppression. It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors"

Once you get beyond a certain bracket of wealth, there is no longer any change on your quality of life and yet these capitalists are driven to making these numbers on a screen get bigger and bigger. This inevitably consumes them as they center their whole lives around the acquisition of wealth that does not bring anything with it. This seems indistinguishable from addiction. These people need help and they will only ever be able to break out of this toxicity through our own struggle for liberation. The revolution is necessary to save both us and the oppressors' from their own cruelty. **Mind you, Freire isn't engaging in liberal pleas for pacifism or anti-revolution, they clearly acknowledge that violence is inherent to revolution, but it is a hopeful thought that maybe we can re-educate or rehabilitate former oppressors once they have been stripped of their tools of oppression (similar to Mao's treatment of former emperor Puyi)

  • CertifiedFreak [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    4 years ago

    You articulated my feelings perfectly! I actually became a leftist because of Freire so his ideas are core to everything I believe and i hope more people get a chance to read him. Cheers comrade ('-'*ゞ