united colours of vruz

Paulo Friere, in Pedagogy of the Oppressed

He goes on to write:

For them, having more is an inalienable right, a right they acquired through their own ‘effort,’ with their “courage to take risks.’ If others do not have more, it is because they are incompetent and lazy, and worst of all is their unjustifiable ingratitude towards the ‘generous gestures’ of the dominant class. Precisely because they are ‘ungrateful’ and ‘envious,’ the oppressed are regarded as potential enemies who must be watched.

Ok. Now think about this in terms of the youth of color rioting in England. Friere is describing here the justification for police/state violence against poor people who are now destroying the material property of the oppressor class. As the news insinuates, “we must arm ourselves (with police) against those dark-skinned youth who just can’t be satisfied to not have what we have all worked so hard for.”

To this, Friere would say, “you no longer are, you merely have.”

(via usesforroots)

vruz: I watch societies infatuated with ownership from a distance, as a curious anthropologist would.  and when I look carefully enough, in the end I only see control freakery.