Fear of freedom masks itself as defense of the status quo

Evidence

Men and women rarely admit their fear of freedom openly, however, tending rather to camouflage it—sometimes unconsciously—by presenting themselves as defenders of freedom. They give their doubts and misgivings an air of profound sobriety, as befitting custodians of freedom. But they confuse freedom with the maintenance of the status quo; so that if conscientização threatens to place that status quo in question, it thereby seems to constitute a threat to freedom itself. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 78

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: how to spot genuine resistance to learning reform disguised as principled defense of rigor or standards — ‘custodians of freedom’ in the classroom.
• XREF: connects to: Anguish is freedom’s self-apprehension, opposed to the serious man’s faith in external values — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 253; Existentialist anxiety is the vertigo of realizing one’s own freedom — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 61; Realizing one’s radical freedom produces anxiety, not liberation — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 501 (+2 more)