ABSTRACT
The struggle for humanization, for the emancipation of labor, for the overcoming of alienation, for the affirmation of men as persons would be meaningless. Concern for humanization leads at once to the recognition of dehumanization, not only as an ontological possibility but as an historical reality. Indeed, to admit of dehumanization as an historical vocation would lead either to cynicism or total despair. The "fear of freedom" which afflicts the oppressed, a fear which may equally well lead them to desire the role of oppressor or bind them to the role of oppressed, one of the basic elements of the relationship between oppressors and oppressed is prescription. The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization. Reality which becomes oppressive results in the contradistinction of men as oppressors and oppressed.
