Privilege vs Power (My Public Violence Charge)

I’m currently engrossed in the powerful book ‘The Prince’ by Nicolò Machiavelli. I want to start my blog #2 with a compelling excerpt from this book that strongly supports my beliefs against an unjust system. It perpetuates the suffering of people in marginalized communities. It explains why I am prepared to stand up for the principle that all people are valuable, regardless of their circumstances, negative labels, or any other factors.

“A prince does not spend much on colonies, and he offends a minority only of the citizens from whom he takes lands and houses to give them to the new inhabitants; and those whom he offends, remaining poor and scattered, are never able to injure him; while the rest, being uninjured, are easily kept quiet, and at the same time are anxious not to err for fear it should happen to them as it has to those who have been despoiled…” – The Prince (Nicolò Machiavelli)

Let’s imagine an animal that is constantly subjected to abuse, with its food placed out of reach compared to the chain around its neck. What do you think happens to the emotions, thoughts, and actions of this abused animal? What do you believe this form of abuse does to the very existence of this animal? I believe that this animal will eventually become the product of its environment, similar to the Stockholm syndrome, in which the captive expresses empathy and sympathy and develops positive feelings toward their captors. I see this process reflected in the situation in our high-risk communities in Cape Town, South Africa. I’ve observed that we are not given the tools to advance or break free from the chains that keep us limited within our space. Yet, we still feel the need to be dependent on the very same system (apartheid relic structures) that keep us trapped.

Forced into a space, put the chains on, forced to conform to a set of beliefs that were never our own. Locked in a cage, fed soul food without an appetite for it. Subjected to conditions designed to keep us trapped within congested spaces with all the negativity in our heads, then allowed this indoctrinated process to make us believe in our limitations and eventually become a product of our environment. This process has taught us to be like fishes forced to climb trees.

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‘You Are Worth More’