Odpowiedzialność za swój los w "kulturze milczenia" według Paulo Freire

Abstract

The culture of silence characterizes the environment of poverty, operating both at the structural and the individual level. According to Paulo Freire culture is never accidental but originates as the result of a perennial coercion mechanism, through which the oppressors depersonalize and force their victims to submission. The only true way of liberation of the oppressed leads through the realization their own situation, and earning a new, critical consciousness (conscientizaçao) together with a sense of brotherhood. It allows to engage in the praxis of humanization that is not an attempt to imitate the oppressor's life but to eradicate the dualistic model of dependency. Taking responsibility for one's fate is an indispensable precondition for the change of the deterministic and fatalistic mentality, as well as an improvement of the situation of the poor.