Deliberate de-humanisation is a psychosocial and political dynamic, a tactic and outcome of oppression.
Understanding this is key to avoiding being triggered or manipulated into internal conflict among those of us who seek to liberate ourselves and our communities from oppression. The struggle for freedom from oppression is not equivalent to the taking of liberty that Libertarianism promotes.
This is a critically important dynamic to be aware of as the embers of hatred are, on all sides, are being deliberately stoked and fuelled by online political grooming operations, public News and Press media that plays to the biases and vulnerabilities of people, that seeks to exploited the reactions of triggered folk.
The people who are being triggered, by intentional action, on all sides, are vulnerable. They are all being exploited.
It is not that people are pulling the triggers, in the sense it is their fault or that it is somehow a flaw in their character - it is that their vulnerability is being studied and targeted - they are being victimised by others who know exactly what they are doing.
We have to seek to protect all, or the project to humanise our social power structures is doomed to failure.
The consumer driven 'New Age' tends to reduce the project of liberation to a work of self interest.
Admonitions to alter individual behaviour, such as recycling, do less shopping, buy electric cars, stop eating meat etc whilst those who produce the things we need to recycle, who reap vast profits from stimulating our consumerism by offering easy credit make no effort to pay the externalised costs of their profit making is a sleight of hand.
The term 'consumer' to describe a human being is as dehumanising a term as is 'consumer responsibility' without the necessary equivalents of 'producer responsibility' or 'extractor responsibility' or 'mining responsibility'.
The sales pitch is that if only the ordinary person who has no real traction on the action and behaviour of the larger institutional powers that drive environmental degradation and air pollution could do their bit, then improvements would naturally occur and save us all. That is a lie.
Hence the rapidity with which the various streams of consumer pop psychology have become
weaponised to support that lie, to normalise it so that ordinary folk cannot see the lie, cannot see the wood for the trees. The deployment of pop psychology to that end is a dehumanising act/
Paolo Friere
Paolo Friere's practical work, among the poor and indigenous of South America stands as testimony to the accuracy of his insight, the practicality of his approach, the humility of his perception.
Understanding this is key to avoiding being triggered or manipulated into internal conflict among those of us who seek to liberate ourselves and our communities from oppression. The struggle for freedom from oppression is not equivalent to the taking of liberty that Libertarianism promotes.
This is a critically important dynamic to be aware of as the embers of hatred are, on all sides, are being deliberately stoked and fuelled by online political grooming operations, public News and Press media that plays to the biases and vulnerabilities of people, that seeks to exploited the reactions of triggered folk.
The people who are being triggered, by intentional action, on all sides, are vulnerable. They are all being exploited.
It is not that people are pulling the triggers, in the sense it is their fault or that it is somehow a flaw in their character - it is that their vulnerability is being studied and targeted - they are being victimised by others who know exactly what they are doing.
We have to seek to protect all, or the project to humanise our social power structures is doomed to failure.
The consumer driven 'New Age' tends to reduce the project of liberation to a work of self interest.
Admonitions to alter individual behaviour, such as recycling, do less shopping, buy electric cars, stop eating meat etc whilst those who produce the things we need to recycle, who reap vast profits from stimulating our consumerism by offering easy credit make no effort to pay the externalised costs of their profit making is a sleight of hand.
The term 'consumer' to describe a human being is as dehumanising a term as is 'consumer responsibility' without the necessary equivalents of 'producer responsibility' or 'extractor responsibility' or 'mining responsibility'.
The sales pitch is that if only the ordinary person who has no real traction on the action and behaviour of the larger institutional powers that drive environmental degradation and air pollution could do their bit, then improvements would naturally occur and save us all. That is a lie.
Hence the rapidity with which the various streams of consumer pop psychology have become
weaponised to support that lie, to normalise it so that ordinary folk cannot see the lie, cannot see the wood for the trees. The deployment of pop psychology to that end is a dehumanising act/
Paolo Friere
Paolo Friere's practical work, among the poor and indigenous of South America stands as testimony to the accuracy of his insight, the practicality of his approach, the humility of his perception.
Paolo Friere
I first read his work in the mid 1990s, and it was, to me at least, a revelation and a reassurance... That said it has taken me decades to integrate.
The opening lines of this book are a clear and succinct description of a problem we face, right now.
This link below is to an online version of his book.
The website History Is A Weapon (HIAW) holds a lot of really good practical information and insight for all of us. It has as it's cultural locus a focus on The America's and their Histories. That said, the information is useful to everyone concerned with a healthy future for our cultures.
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/hiawsitemap.html - sitemap, a quick way to see what is available.
Dehumanisation and the struggle to resist and prevent oppression.
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon2/pedagogy/pedagogychapter1.html
"While the problem of humanization has always, from an axiological point of view, been humankind's central problem, it now takes on the character of an inescapable concern.
Freire believed education could not be divorced from politics; the act of teaching and learning are considered political acts in and of themselves. Freire defined this connection as a main tenet of critical pedagogy. Teachers and students must be made aware of the politics that surround education. The way students are taught and what they are taught serves a political agenda. Teachers, themselves, have political notions they bring into the classroom. Freire believed that :
I offer my readers this link to one of his works, Pedagogy of The Oppressed, as a source of insight, reassurance and focus as we face the wide spread shouting match that is disrupting rational, deliberative discourse on matters that must concern us all - our very survival is on the line, and we need to envision a future not of mere survival rather a future of collective thrivival.The opening lines of this book are a clear and succinct description of a problem we face, right now.
This link below is to an online version of his book.
The website History Is A Weapon (HIAW) holds a lot of really good practical information and insight for all of us. It has as it's cultural locus a focus on The America's and their Histories. That said, the information is useful to everyone concerned with a healthy future for our cultures.
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/hiawsitemap.html - sitemap, a quick way to see what is available.
Dehumanisation and the struggle to resist and prevent oppression.
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon2/pedagogy/pedagogychapter1.html
"While the problem of humanization has always, from an axiological point of view, been humankind's central problem, it now takes on the character of an inescapable concern.
Concern for humanization leads at once to the recognition of dehumanization, not only as an ontological possibility but as an historical reality. And as an individual perceives the extent of dehumanization, he or she may ask if humanization is a viable possibility. Within history, in concrete, objective contexts, both humanization and dehumanization are possibilities for a person as an uncompleted being conscious of their incompletion."
In other words, the possibility of becoming more human - that is to say to become more humane, more empathic, kinder and thus stronger and clearer in understanding how best to resist and then prevent oppression is real. Another world is indeed possible.
"But while both humanization and dehumanization are real alternatives, only the first is the people's vocation. This vocation is constantly negated, yet it is affirmed by that very negation. It is thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression, and the violence of the oppressors; it is affirmed by the yearning of the oppressed for freedom and justice, and by their struggle to recover their lost humanity."
Here is makes clear that those who seek freedom from oppression must be aware that their task includes avoiding becoming dehumanisers themselves in their struggle.
"Dehumanization, which marks not only those whose humanity has been stolen, but also (though in a different way) those who have stolen it, is a distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human. This distortion occurs within history; but it is not an historical vocation. Indeed, to admit of dehumanization as an historical vocation would lead either to cynicism or total despair. "
This is the root of all dystopian thinking, the acceptance of a falsified given concerning our nature as human social creatures and cultures.
"The struggle for humanization, for the emancipation of labour, for the overcoming of alienation, for the affirmation of men and women as persons would be meaningless. This struggle is possible only because dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed."
In other words, if for example, one holds to the Christian worldview of Original Sin as a given, or that Humanity itself is destroying the Earth, (it's not, it's the culture of extractive wealth creation) then the struggle is inevitably undermined at source. That view makes the future appear hopeless.
"Because it (oppression, the entitlement to Rule and dominate - my added comment) 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."
The use of unjust power over another always creates resistance.
"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."
This is the central thread of the hate we see being fuelled as Donald Trump cedes power, yet resists, and quite clearly, deliberately uses dehumanisation as a weapon. It is also the same thread of hate being funnelled back at those people who have been groomed to support Trump, even as they do not understand that Trump is backed by the Oligarchy and he will not, and cannot 'drain the swamp'.
I urge caution to all of us to take these thoughts into consideration, to tone up the accurate analysis, and to tone down the dehumanisation. I need to learn and practice this as much as anyone else.
If we do not do this, we will be enrolled in war fare we are unable to counter.
This is not to make excuses for anyone's abusive behaviour, it is to approach the problem from a stronger, grass roots permeating comprehensive and collective awareness of what we are really dealing with, when we face our oppressors, so that we are not so readily led astray, on all sides.
Trump has a following of people who do feel some degrees of oppression - poverty, loss of income and status, fear for the future, exposure to systemic scapegoating, dehumanisation by those on the Left who claim to be seeking freedom from liberation....
It's easy to look at other ordinary people whose views, attitudes and behaviour challenges us, and it is easy to use them as whipping boys for our rage, on both sides.
Antifa and Racists shouting at each other, threat and counter threats of violence, insult and spittle exchanged to lead towards more violence. Christians at war with Muslims. Older voters voting for Brexit 'betraying' younger voters. Younger voters 'ignoring' the problems of the older voters.
These memes are fully weaponised and are driving social and emotional divisions that undermine potential resolution of problems, the boat we are all in is rocking and cannot make head way to a safe port. We have to counter that.
Not so easy is the task of humanising the situation, of understanding enough to build the bridges that will connect our humanity - the less easy task is the one most critical to our children's children's futures.
I find this song, by comedian Katie Goodman, very humanising, heart warming and reassuring - please enjoy, and take on some of the gentle yet fierce wisdom of it. I like to imagine a large crowd outside a political administration building singing this, with joy and with sorrow, with humility and determination..
Free SpeechAntifa and Racists shouting at each other, threat and counter threats of violence, insult and spittle exchanged to lead towards more violence. Christians at war with Muslims. Older voters voting for Brexit 'betraying' younger voters. Younger voters 'ignoring' the problems of the older voters.
These memes are fully weaponised and are driving social and emotional divisions that undermine potential resolution of problems, the boat we are all in is rocking and cannot make head way to a safe port. We have to counter that.
Not so easy is the task of humanising the situation, of understanding enough to build the bridges that will connect our humanity - the less easy task is the one most critical to our children's children's futures.
I find this song, by comedian Katie Goodman, very humanising, heart warming and reassuring - please enjoy, and take on some of the gentle yet fierce wisdom of it. I like to imagine a large crowd outside a political administration building singing this, with joy and with sorrow, with humility and determination..
Free Speech is a responsibility, it is neither an automatic right nor is it an entitlement or privilege.
The responsibility inherent in Free Speech into the public domain is that one must speak honestly, one must be, as far as possible, evidence based.
The responsibility inherent in Free Speech is to be as good a listener as a speaker and to acknowledge what is verified, reliable and true as such, and to also acknowledge beliefs as made up, as guess-work at the very best.
The responsibility inherent in Free Speech is to be as good a listener as a speaker and to acknowledge what is verified, reliable and true as such, and to also acknowledge beliefs as made up, as guess-work at the very best.
Free Speech is not a right to promote beliefs over evidence in action on matters concerning the shared commons, the welfare of people and their lives.
Free Speech is not a right to groom, manipulate or exploit others through use of language and various logical fallacies.
Lots of very clever abusive people hide behind Free Speech - the correct way to deal with that is to identify what is being done, name it and do so in full transparency.
This blog by Kitty Jones, is really, really useful in helping with this. How bullying operates within the political and media sphere..
Kindest regards
Corneilius
"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."
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