The Three Levels of Oppression / Erich Fromm

The Three Levels of Oppression / Erich Fromm

The 1st level of oppression is expressed by the use of violent and brutal force in order to force another to act against their will and interests. This is the type of oppression that a slave experienced from a master armed with a gun.

The 2nd level of oppression is ideological oppression. The oppressor manipulates the oppressed and forces them to identify themselves, not of choice, with values and interests that are not theirs. Usually, as in the case of an oppressed person feeling small and worthless facing the existing system and social order, that are usually totalitarian and violent.

There is a 3rd level of oppression: a type of oppression that succeeds in making the oppressed accept it with dedication and internalization. This type of oppression is characterized by the inability of the oppressed to talk about it and their reference to it as an obvious space, that is impossible and unwanted to object to. In other words, the oppression is a creation of new desires and artificial needs. On this level, the alienation that exists in other oppressions, the feeling that "something is wrong", is dissolved. In this manner, an oppression seemingly without oppressors is created, and a new man- a new oppressed being is created, one that will not want to rebel and become liberated.