The Fifth Characteristic of the Occupied

People tend to adapt to their own oppression and even behave in ways that perpetuate it, often unconsciously. This manifests in some oppressed people seeking not to overthrow their oppressor but to join them. Freer asserts that until the oppressed can become conscious of their own conditioning and genuinely desire to uproot it, they tend to express a fatalistic attitude. The role of the educator is to recognize these characteristics, their origins and their connections, and then help the oppressed to recognize them as well.