Dehumanization

One of the many pieces that stuck with me in the first chapter of Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the act of oppression is dehumanizing for all parties involved. Oppression is dehumanizing for the oppressor as well as for the oppressed. Oppression  for the oppressor detaches them from humanity by shifting the focus from a communal society to a more individualistic existence. Rather than the focus of life being humanity and community it shifts to a materialistic existence. Quality of life is represented by gathering items others can not afford and stacking the deck to keep the status quo. The oppressed are dehumanized through oppression through a lack of freedoms due to circumstance. The first step of the oppressed is to realize who their oppressors are. The relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor is dehumanizing and symbiotic. There must be an oppressed people for the oppressor to exist. I do not believe a solution to this interdependency and inevitability should be violence. I think violence of any type whether vertical or horizontal is dehumanizing. Violence even against an oppressor seperates an individual from their humanity by violating one of the basic human rights, the right to live. While I believe violence is dehumanizing for all parties involved I do believe it is an acceptable reaction in extreme circumstance.