Revolution will not be propagandized
by rebecca ~ May 24th, 2005. Filed under: New Media Musings, Reading Minds.I agree that there are complex intricacies of power and
how those who are oppressed become numb (or accepting)
of what is happening to them, to see it as ‘normal’ and
to even self-regulate and peer-regulate continued
oppression.
Too often, these days, I think I blame the ‘rich
powerful white guys,’ but I think Foucault’s ideas you
mentioned (via Gerrie, 2003) of focusing on the very
power structures themselves, we can better recognize the
roles all of us play in oppressive structures: I would
rather think, like Foucault, that those at every level
of society are complicit in the inequalities and everyone
can gain awareness, and with effort, directed action..
His ideas seem related to the educator Paulo Freire’s in
that when fighting one’s oppressor, one cannot do so
healthily or entirely until one becomes aware of the
role one’s self plays in the power game
(“Conscientization”).
Also, he makes the apt observation that many so-called
“revolutions of the people” end up behaving exactly like
their oppressors, with the same propaganda tactics used
to influence the masses, resulting in intolerance for
protest and the fattened cats on the top.
You comment peaks my curiosity about how some workers in
these corporate factories must be fighting/resisting the
systems.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. NY: Herder
and Herder.
Last thought:…the revolution may not be televised, but will it be digitalized?