Subordinated suffering must be negated in consciousness before it can motivate action
Evidence
A worker in 1830 is capable of revolting if his salary is lowered, for he easily conceives of a situation in which his wretched standard of living would be not as low as the one which is about to be imposed on him. But he does not represent his sufferings to himself as unbearable; he adapts himself to them not through resignation but because he lacks the education and reflection necessary for him to conceive of a social state in which these sufferings would not exist. Consequently he does not act. Masters of Lyon following a riot, the workers at Croix-Rousse do not know what to do with their victory; they return home bewildered, and the regular army has no trouble in overcoming them. Their misfortunes do not appear to them “habitual” but rather natural; they are, that is all, and they constitute the worker’s condition. They are not detached; they are not seen in the clear light of day, and consequently they are integrated by the worker with his being. He suffers without considering his suffering and without conferring value upon it. To suffer and to be are one and the same for him. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1068
Categorization
- SEED: The 1830 Lyon silk-workers returning home bewildered after a successful riot is a concrete historical scene that could anchor an essay on how lacking a conceivable alternative neutralizes political victory.
- ADDENDUM: Connects to the sacrifice essay’s theme of how subordinated groups internalize their condition as natural rather than imposed.
- XREF: connects to: Liberating the mystified slave requires external intervention to build consciousness