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extent that it remains hidden, that there are aspects of our behavior that are not understood, or that we are suppressing in order to get along in a situation of social inequality. The idea is to bring everything up to the level of consciousness where it can be reflected on and acted on, so that we can transform ourselves for the better. This is what being a conscious human being is all about.

On the other hand, an understanding social as well as individual psychology is important to the development of an objective social consciousness, one that is not based on common prejudice or focuses on external things, as if people were just so many unenlightened minds waiting to be educated.

People tend to adapt to their own individual circumstances, to justify their own situations so that liberation or even modification often appears impossible. People adapt to oppression and create elaborate mental constructs to justify why their own world cannot be any other way. Taking this to a social scale, people tend to view the prevailing order as natural, and the social order reinforces individual limitations. This is also one of the reasons why anti-poverty work is often frustrated.

It is almost impossible for a person to try to change his or herself apart from other people. And changing for the better requires knowing people with a better rather than a worse consciousness. Too often people find those who want to prey on them or drag them down because of their own insecurities and needs. Consciousness raising is about uplifting people without laying trips on them.

Philosophically, as well as politically, I think it is necessary to be of the frame of mind where everyone makes their own choices. Indeed, having real choices is what it is all about, i.e., empowerment, which provides a sense of liberation. All too often, the mistake is made to try to fit into one form or another of identity politics or identity consciousness.

Learn more about this author, Thomas Lacey.
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