Independence cannot be bestowed as a gift by any leadership, however well-intentioned

Evidence

Libertarian action must recognize this dependence as a weak point and must attempt through reflection and action to transform it into independence. However, not even the best-intentioned leadership can bestow independence as a gift. The liberation of the oppressed is a liberation of women and men, not things. Accordingly, while no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others. Liberation, a human phenomenon, cannot be achieved by semihumans. Any attempt to treat people as semihumans only dehumanizes them. When people are already dehumanized, due to the oppression they suffer, the process of their liberation must not employ the methods of dehumanization. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 168

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: ‘No one liberates himself alone, neither is he liberated by others’ — the dual negation defines liberation as a genuinely collective process that resists both individualism and paternalism; sits at the precise tension the reader wants to interrogate.