Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 50th Anniversary Edition

by Paulo Freire

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.

dehumanization can be unlearned as it is learned

This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the op-pressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well.

The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the op-pressed or themselves.

Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficient...

They prefer gregariousness to authentic comradeship; they prefer the security of conformity with their state of unfreedom to the creative communion produced by freedom and even the very pursuit of freedom.

The point of departure of the movement lies in the people themselves. But since people do not exist apart from the world, apart from reality, the movement must begin with the human-world