What does this quote on oppression mean?

It’s along the lines of those “freedom isn’t free” posters.

But i don’t see any reference to oppression, other than as an abstract unmentioned counterpoint to being free.

It seems to me that it is an oxymoron when freedom is linked with conquest. The Civil War may have ended legitimate slavery, but can African Americans be considered free when they continue to be economically repressed? Are American Indians truly free? Has there ever been a conquest that has not given power and wealth to a few at a cost to the many? Freedom comes from enforced laws that protect everyone from discrimination and exploitation.

Freedom is like perfection. It can only be pursued, never truly attained. One can only hope to protect freedom through intelligent, analytical thought and participation in the process.

Sadly, here in the US we have a system so focused on the protection of freedom that it has become the victim of it’s own success. Freedom is taken for granted or outright misunderstood.

@Bill1939 says that “Freedom comes from enforced laws.” Well, more precisely freedom comes from guaranteed rights.

It’s obvious that the documents that insure these freedoms are falling out of fashion. It seems the general public is less familiar with our rights than ever, if our current President is any indication. I posit there would have been rioting in the streets if a President had tried to pull so many unconstitutional stunts 100 years ago.

@Bill1939 also states that “wealth is given.” No, wealth is earned or inherited. Again our President tried to tell me that I “didn’t build that.” Oh, but I did build that, Poptart. But the sheeple believe him.

Now, more than ever citizens will happily surrender freedom in exchange for an ever larger chunk of another’s paycheck.

So I agree with the statement. The best possible version of freedom must be constantly maintained. American freedom is constantly under attack, now, especially from within. Drastic measures are sometimes called for.

This is from “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paolo Freire, a treatise about using education as an instrument of liberation for the oppressed.

The “conquest” that he talks about in this passage is an internal one. He precedes this comment by describing the fear of freedom that results from internalizing the role of being the oppressed, subject to the dictates of the oppressor. What is conquered is this fear of freedom. This is why he says that freedom isn’t granted from outside; it’s the internal overthrowing of the myth of oppressor/oppressed.

Freedom must be earned by work or battle… no entity simply gives it to you. I think we Americans have either forgotten or never had reason to learn that.

@SecondHandStoke, I do not see where I stated that “wealth is given.” In many instances the wealth earned and later inherited was generated by the exploitation of labor and the environment. It still is.