The issue of false consciousness is a genuinely difficult problem that has no definite solution. We should not approve of an unequal and brutal society because surveys show that people are happy. But who has the right to tell those oppressed women or starving landless peasants that they shouldn’t be happy, if they think they are? Does anyone have the right to make those people feel miserable by telling them the ‘truth’? There are no easy answers to these questions, but they definitely tell us that we cannot rely on ‘subjective’ happiness surveys to decide how well people are doing.
The more we're thrown into conflict with each other through engineered distrust, the less able we are to unite against those responsible.
fear war responsibility power deceit deception racism distrust unity conflict ideology class-struggle warfare conflicts political-power control-issues unity-quotes fear-quotes controlling-others false-consciousness racist mistrust deceit-quotes class-conflict controlling-people deception-quotes distrusting-others mistrusting-others unity-is-strength