... the fundamental problem of political philosophy is still precisely the one that Spinoza saw so clearly ... : 'Why do men fight for their servitude as stubbornly as though it were their salvation?' How can people possibly reach the point of shouting: 'More taxes! Less bread!'? ... after centuries of exploitation, why do people still tolerate being humiliated and enslaved, to such a point, indeed, that they actually want humiliation and slavery not only for others but for themselves? (29)
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1984)
3 comments:
I have pondered this big question numerous times. My current belief is that they would rather be part of the group of subjugation than alone fighting against it.
I always say, There's no jailer like a prisoner.
It may be that some people prefer order and certainty to dignity and freedom. Or it's possible that, once humiliated, dignity is bought back by stealing it from the next person below you instead of retrieving it from the ones who took it from you in the first place.
Wealth Bondage is a prolonged meditation on this theme. The peasant identifies with the King; the captive with her jailer; the submissive with the dominant; the beaten child with the parent. Take away from the downtrodden their identification with pomp, success, celebrities - what have they then but humiliation and despair? Bush goes into the NASCAR pits and he is one of them. A theater of cruelty.
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