Paulo Freire — Quote from The Politics of Education
“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
The Politics of Education (1985)
Concepts: oppression, agency, solidarity
Resonant Quotes
- “Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.” — Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain Mann's tolerance of evil as complicity and Freire's neutrality as siding with the powerful make the identical argumen...
- “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convi...” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism Freire's warning against false neutrality and Arendt's portrait of the ideal totalitarian subject both describe how p...
- “The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the...” — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex Beauvoir's accomplices among the oppressed and Freire's false neutrality both expose how passivity perpetuates the sy...
- “The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.” — Günter Grass, Dog Years Grass's citizen whose job is to keep his mouth open and Freire's warning against false neutrality both insist that si...
- “To will oneself free is also to will others free.” — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity Both reveal the interconnected nature of freedom and oppression, where Freire's exposure of false neutrality compleme...
- “Your silence will not protect you.” — Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider Both unmask the illusion that withdrawal from struggle offers safety, revealing how apparent neutrality or silence ac...
- “Action, the only activity that goes on directly between men without the inter...” — Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition Freire's rejection of neutrality as a form of complicity directly supports Arendt's emphasis on action as the essenti...
- “The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness. It is the expre...” — Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom Both reveal how apparent strength or neutrality often masks fundamental weakness—the inability to face one's own powe...