"When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. But when I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist”Dom Helder Camara (1909 - 1999)
In the 60s and 70s many Latin American catholics became radicalised. Dom Helder Camara was part of this wave, in his seminal 1971 text, The Spiral of Violence, he observed how violence built up at three levels in a society: Primary violence is the everyday effect of structurally ingrained social injustice. This generates secondary violence - the revolt of the oppressed. And that in turn provokes tertiary violence - repression by the powerful to secure their privileged position. And so the spiral of violence tightens
4 comments:
Hi Again,
An interesting perspective on the causes of violence...
Indeed, a clear and irrefutable
argument.
Sorry to intrude, but I thought I'd let you know I've added you to my blogroll. All the best :)
Nice graphic as well.
re. the graphic it has a quote from Bartolome De Las Casas, who has been called the father of anti-racism, liberation theology, and anti-imperialism. Interesting guy was a priest and eventually Bishop of the Chiapas in the 16th Century he campaigned against colonialism and was a witness to genocide in Cuba: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/las_casas.html
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