Blamming the lower/weaker classes for maintenance of the status quo only benefits the higher classes
Autor: Luiz_Alex007 | Publicado: 2016-12-19T05:02:00-11:00

I usually see a lot of people blaming the poorer, illiterate classes to current problems faced by several nations which declare themselves democratic and hold general elections. After all, "they voted for them". Well, I can't speak for every country. But I can speak for the country where I was brought up in, Brazil. And I think it's a fallacy, to which even I am guilty of, to blame lower classes for electing bad leaders. Not to mention it's being monochromatic about it. We can't ignore all the problems and say it's all due to poor leadership.

Putting the blame solely on the lower classes and their lack of education is a big mistake. It's mainly the sort of propaganda that the higher classes disseminated to wash their hands of guilty and gain support during election years.

The systems put in place ever since the Portuguese arrived here have always been the same establishment higher classes focused thing. It's always about maintaining the status quo and exploring the lower classes.

When the politicians from rich families blame the poorer parcels of society for their lack of proper education, they are trying to say that they know better and present themselves as saviors of the fatherland.

But, the thing is, the general public is only in this situation because the ancestors of such politicians intentionally kept and still keep both knowledge and political power from them.

Expecting people who have been intentionally left out of the power and drained of knowledge to make good decisions is quite the optimistic view. Not to mention that such models put in place make sure to take the most of the decisions away from the public and contradict the few left to them.

The elections, per example, are presented to be a democratic contest where everyone has equal power. But the only way to candidate yourself is to be part of a political party. Political parties need the avail of the current ones to exist and their numbers is about to be limited.

Also, even if you managed to create a party and candidate yourself, the lack of financial and political support from the richer and powerful classes would overshadow your candidacy.

So, it's quite over-simplistic to think that a change of attitude would reform the country. It would most definitely work. But even then it would take years of continuous popular pressure to change the current scenario.﻿

By that I mean that ignoring the general problems and putting blame on lower classes, or any specific class, is counterproductive to the general society. As in any society I have heard of, there are many problems and much to be solved. Separating the people and blaming key sectors of society for all the problems is hypocrisy. I admit it's easier, I am guilty of doing it myself when stressed, but it's not really productive.

Dividing the lower classes, draining their joint motivation and power of change, only benefits the higher classes, benefited by the systems put in place by them. It's natural for them to incentivize breaks among the lower classes and slowly drain their power away while pretending to still keep this power. Basically, creating a seemly democratic society where the lower classes wield no real power and are constantly divided into smaller groups. Sort of like a late medieval or imperial system of old where the people think they actually have the final say on the matters of state but barely have any in their own lives.

So, like the title says, blaming the lower/weaker classes for maintenance of the status quo, ultimately, only benefits the higher classes which desire no change. Criticism, like everything else in life, has a blurry line between healthy and counterproductive.


Em português, idolatrar outras nações e ignorar os problemas que elas apresentam é contraprodutivo. Assim como tentar descarregar a responsabilidades pelos problemas de uma sociedade em setores chaves. Especificamente, quando esses setores são os que menos tem poder e quando outros setores também apresentam sérios problemas e ineficiências.

Acredito que a situação brasileira é muito mais complexa do que uma mudança de atitude mudaria por si só e que precisamos sermos realistas. De nada adianta pessimismo ou otimismo em excessos. E de nada adianta que as classes mais baixas se dividam e digladiem enquanto as classes mais altas cometem erros macroscópicos tentando ignorar sua própria responsabilidade.

Os brasileiros precisam de um Brasil melhor? Ou é o Brasil que precisa de brasileiros melhores? Eu digo que ambos influenciam um ao outro. 

O ser é produto da sociedade em que existe e por si ele tende a modificá-la de acordo com o que conhece. É um balanço difícil de ser modificado.﻿ O natural é a manutenção do status quo até que a situação se torne insustentável e force mudança. Enquanto os sistemas em lugar mantiverem o mínimo de legitimidade e funcionalidade, contrabalanceando a vontade e o poder de mudança dos prejudicados, o sistema permanece em aequilibrium. Ou seja, enquanto os prejudicados permanecerem fora do poder e não se unirem em uma ação de mudança, nada mudará.

Eu sempre achei isso o mais óbvio do mundo. Sem vontade e poder o suficiente para a mudança, não há mudança. E drenar o poder das classes mais baixas as mantém sem a capacidade de mudar nada por si só. Dividindo-as e desmotivando-as a mudar, se torna um desejo natural das classes mais altas. Nesse modelo, a única esperança de mudança é que os sistemas e as relações de poder estabelecidos se quebrem a tal ponto que parcelas o suficiente da população, capazes de manejar poder o suficiente, decidam que é hora de mudar. É completamente natural e óbvio em praticamente todas as macro-sociedades humanas que eu já estudei e conheci.

Sendo assim, culpar as classes mais baixas, desfavorecidas e com menos poder em geral, pelos erros macroscópicos e gerais acaba, por fim, a beneficiar somente as classes mais altas e poderosas, beneficiadas pelos atuais modelos e que não desejam modificá-los. Ou seja, é contraprodutivo culpar em demasiado aqueles que fazem parte das classes com menos poder, especialmente quando o orador faz parte da mesma classe.

Criticismo, assim como tudo mais na vida, tem uma linha tênue entre algo saudável e contraprodutivo.