“It is not the consciousness of men that determines their
existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their
consciousness.” (Marx, in the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of
Political Economy, 1867)
The quote above is clearly illustrated in the second chapter of
Pedagogy of the Oppressed written by Paulo Freire which is a Marxist Critique
of the banking system of education as it throws light on how an oppressed
student because of his oppression has limited consciousness of the world around
by considering the world to be static and separate from his existence. Paulo
Freire ridicules the banking system of education in which the teacher student
relationship is restricted to a teacher depositing in the banks(minds) of
students where as students receiving filling and storing the deposits without
any critical enquiry or reflection on what has been deposited by their
respective teachers. It is believed that this system of education comes from a characteristic ideology of oppression
as the teachers play the role of the oppressors by demonstrating an absolute
ignorance towards the students , rendering them as unaware and the students(the
oppressed) continue to be blinded and accept their ignorance because of their
allegiance to their teacher. Paulo Freire states that “the oppressors use the
banking concept of education in conjunction with a paternalistic social action
apparatus, within which the oppressed receive the euphemistic title of welfare
recipients. They are treated as individual cases as marginal persons who
deviate from the general configuration of a good, organised and just society
which must therefore adjust these incompetent and lazy folk to its own patterns
changing their mentality. These marginals have to be incorporated into the
healthy society that they have forsaken.” (Freire, 1993)
The Pedagogy of the Oppressed is based on the Marxist ideals in
the following ways-
Karl Marx saw history as
a succession of economic systems or modes of production (the material base),
and a superstructure, along with the claim that the mode of production
determines the general character of the super structure.. The term mode of
production includes the means of production used by a given society, such as
factories and other facilities, machines, and raw materials. It also includes
labor and the organization of the labor force. The term relation of production
refers to the relationship between those who own the means of production (the
capitalists or bourgeoisie) and those who do not (the workers or the
proletariat). According to Marx, history evolves through the dialectical
interaction between the mode of production and the relations of production. The
mode of production constantly evolves toward a realization of its fullest
productive capacity, but this evolution creates antagonisms between the classes
of people defined by the relations of production—owners and workers. This was
called Marx’s Historical Materialism. The view on schooling given by those who
work within historical materialism which is also portrayed in Pedagogy of the
oppressed is that schooling reproduces the labour power essential for the
process of accumulation and for the reproduction of relations of production,
the process of accumulation is ensured by the transmission of cognitive skills
and appropriate motivation. Inequalities are transmitted through a close
correspondence between the social relationship which govern personal
interaction in work place and social relations of educational system. (Bowles and Gintis, 1976 cited in Wilson,
Social Theory, 11, 1983)
Capitalism is a mode of production based on private ownership
of the means of production. Capitalists produce commodities for the exchange
market and to stay competitive, extract as much labor from the workers as
possible at the lowest possible cost. It can also be referred to as the
commodification of labour power. Marx describes how the worker under a capitalist
mode of production becomes estranged from himself, from his work, and from
other workers and calls it alienation. Drawing from Hegel, Marx argues that
labor is central to a human being’s self-conception and sense of well-being. By
working on and transforming objective matter into sustenance and objects of
use-value, human beings meet the needs of existence and come to see themselves
externalized in the world. Labor is as much an act of personal creation and a
projection of one’s identity as it is a means of survival. However, capitalism
deprives human beings of this essential source of self-worth and identity. The
worker approaches work only as a means of survival and derives none of the
other personal satisfactions of work because the products of his labor do not
belong to him. These products are instead expropriated by capitalists and sold
for profit. (Wilson, Social Theory, 11,
1983) Estranged from the production process, the worker is therefore also
estranged from his or her own humanity, since the transformation of nature into
useful objects is one of the fundamental facets of the human condition. The
worker is thus alienated from his or her “species being”—from what it is to be
human. The capitalist mode of production alienates human beings from other human
beings like the student who also suffers from alienating intellectualism where
his/her knowledge about things is influenced by the teacher and he consider
himself/herself seperate from the world
not within it and inhibits his/her creative power.
When the students find
their effort to act responsibly to be diminishing are unable to use their
faculties, they suffer. This suffering is rooted in the fact that human
equilibrium has been disturbed. The inability to act causes people anguish and
makes them reject their impotence by attempting to restore their capacity to
act. (Freire, 1993) This concept can be compared to Marxist view on class
struggle which states that the population becomes more polarised as capital
becomes concentrated in fewer hands and as the immoderation of the proletariat
proceeds.( Wilson, Social Theory, 12, 1983)
Fiinovation
- Marx believed that commodities and money are fetishes that prevent people
from seeing the truth about economics and society: that one class of people is
exploiting another called commodity fetishism. In capitalism, the production of
commodities is based on an exploitative economic relationship between owners of
factories and the workers who produce the commodities. In everyday life, we
think only of the market value of a commodity— its price. But this monetary
value simultaneously depends on and masks the fact that someone was exploited
to make that commodity. ( Marx, Das Kapital, 2010) The Pedagogy of the Oppressed talks about the
same by saying attempt of being more human, individualistically leads to having
more and dehumanization. One man’s having must not be allowed to constitute an
obstacle to others having, and therefore must not consolidate the power to
crush latter.
In The Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels argue that all changes in the shape of society, in political
institutions, in history itself, are driven by a process of collective struggle
on the part of groups of people with similar economic situations in order to
realize their material or economic interests. These struggles, occurring
throughout history from ancient Rome through the Middle Ages to the present
day, have been struggles of economically subordinate classes against
economically dominant classes who opposed their economic interests—slaves
against masters, serfs against landlords, and so on. The modern industrialized
world has been shaped by one such subordinate class—the bourgeoisie, or
merchant class—in its struggle against the aristocratic elite of feudal
society. (Marx and Engels, The Communist manifesto, 2005)
It draws from Marxist revolutionary politics when it talks
about the problem posing method which involves teachers using classrooms for a
critique of bourgeois ideology or the worldviews of the oppressors. The views
of the oppressed themselves, the students, are given a voice and legitimacy.
They are not suppressed by a dominant teacher who tells them ‘how it is’ and
‘what they must do’. Instead teachers and students seek to challenge
traditional models of their relationship, working together in a mutual dialogue
about how the world is and naming it accordingly devoid of suppressed
interpretations. For Freire this praxis is revolutionary because the ideas,
language and concepts of the oppressed will threaten and potentially overcome
the bourgeois relations of domination, both in education and in the wider
society. At its root, this critical education aims to undermine bourgeois
ideology and to transform undemocratic forms of society into free and
democratic socialist societies.
As per the contemporary viewpoint Fiinovation
a Corporate Social Responsibility consultancy adequately acknowledges the two
thinkers for their respective standpoints. In today’s world capitalism is a
relevant phenomenon. It is dynamic and creates opportunities for countries to
compete on the global platform. It is a well known fact that every model of
progress or development has its downsides. Profit making has been at the core
of Capitalism, as a result true wealth and power lies with a few. In this
regard Capitalism proves to be an exploitative practice as the society on the
whole is ignored. The employees are treated and paid miserably in the quest for
higher profits. However at present this
equilibrium is significant. As per Fiinovation given the Indian context, private
as well as public enterprises need to focus on the dimension of sustainability.
A model which strives for profits, growth and economic expansion along with the
interest of people, society and environment are the one effort need to be
directed towards. Businesses must now days keep the best interests of all its
stakeholders. Fiinovation explains that corporations need to look at
stakeholders and not just shareholders. One needs to move beyond the numbers
and concentrate on whom. Whether or not that is possible in the short term is a
different story.
By Ankita Dash
By Ankita Dash
