The oppressor becomes the oppressed. The oppressed becomes the oppressor. OR put more simply: the bully will eventually become the smallest kid in the class. The smallest kid in the class will become the bully eventually.
It struck a chord when I came across this idea in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, a well-known Brazilian born educator and theorist whom I am a fan of.
Amongst religions, races, castes, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, political parties, and on and on – we work towards an idea of freedom, equity and power (let’s be real) only to impose that “power” on someone else. Even and especially without realizing it. In my opinion, we never truly understand what it means to be free. So the cycle continues across the globe and history.
For all of the example categories of separation, that divide us mentioned above, people feel like they are justified and are geared up to vehemently defend their rights. But what happens when we explore the category of age?
If you are older, you were once young. If you are young (sorry to burst your bubble) but it’s only a matter of time friend, until you are considered older (by others of course!). What happens then?
A recent conversation that I had with someone that included: “This was before you time, so you probably haven’t heard of it…,” got me thinking about this issue. If this wasn’t in a professional context I might not have cared. But since my value/role in the conversation diminished after that comment, it got me thinking…
It got me thinking about quite a few past experiences where my elders in a work, academic and personal environment have written me off because I’m “too young.” On the other end: MTV-culture; certain friends, family and others make it clear that I’m not getting any younger, especially after the big 3-0! I'm sure I'm guilty of quite a few age-ist comments on either side myself.
In essence – it seems we have a societal culture where the more experienced generations (better word? J ) antagonize the younger generation and they in turn, disregard, undervalue and even neglect their elders when the ball is in their court.
Does this make sense especially given that we will be both young and old through the course of our lives?! It doesn’t to me. We are on the same damn continuum! It’s kind of ridiculous. So my next question is, can we actually break cycles like this?
I am not sure of the answer here, and would love to hear what you all think. I could say that this is just how things are and accept it, but er, well, uhh,…that didn’t work!
Something tells me that there is a common thread here that might involve an incredibly difficult but worthy leap of faith in ourselves and in others. But where do we start?
Until then, I guess it’s a fight to the finish - literally!
