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Panel: Power in Liberation Theology—Three Thesis 132 THESIS II
Power and the Spirit of Justice: Elites in oppressive societies maintain their privileges and power through the monopolization of force and the promotion of ideologies rationalizing the plight of the poor. The power of the Spirit is revealed in the awakening of the poor to their own dignity as daughters and sons of the Creator and in their efforts to nurture mutuality and respect in the context of the struggles for new life. Power comes out of the barrel of a gun, and through the use of various instruments of torture like thumb screws and cattle prods. Many governments throughout the world, in Chile, El Salvador, the Philippines, South Africa, Argentina, Guatemala, Indonesia and elsewhere are demonstrating every day that unjust and exploitive political/economic regimes can be maintained in power through the use of terror as a matter of policy. Kidnappings, interrogations and torture are tools in the ongoing struggle of those in power to identify and keep tabs on opponents; murder is an efficient way to eliminate opponents, and those suspected of being opponents. And both torture and murder contribute to the overall climate of fear which helps to keep others in line. But no social order survives on sheer brute power for long. Even the military has to have food and clothing and housing, along with guns and tanks and instruments of torture, and an income to buy these and other necessities and luxuries of life. Foreign aid from "friendly" superpowers can help for a while, but even this is not enough in the long run. Sooner or later any government must promote an economic climate in which income can be generated and taxed to support the government and military. And even a modestly productive economy requires active support from signficant sectors of the population, especially from those who control capital and investment and those who staff the middle and upper levels of corporations and government, the "middle classes." The support of these groups depends, in turn, on the belief that the policies of the government and military serve their "interests"; in other words, it depends on an ideology which "makes sense" to these groups, a definition of the world, of the appropriateness of the policies of those in power, and of the "interests," material and otherwise, that are being fulfilled by these policies. A highly exploitive social order requires, over the long run, not so much the active support of the majority of poor and working people, as their passive acceptance of "the way things are." There are several familiar ideological devices for promoting this passive acceptance, the two most common being to convince the majority that their fate is "God's will," or the result of fate (the caste system in India), or biology (race or sex); or to convince them that it is their own fault: "if only they had worked harder. . . ." These ideologies inculcate a sense of inferiority in the oppressed which makes rebellion difficult. Oppressed people are under pressure to learn, emotionally as well as intellectually, not to question their "superiors," not to think for themselves, not to dare to dream of an alternative social order of justice. These attitudes are reinforced every day through the expectations those in power have for their "inferiors," and through the punishment they are quick to mete out when the oppressed give any signs of critical thought and initiative beyond acceptable limits. Those who are marginalized altogether from the world economy, not needed as workers or even as consumers in an age of automated factories and global markets (some