There are two obstacles to liberation: aid and reform. However, well-intentioned aid perpetuates the dependence of the oppressed. Similarly, reform is the illusion that the oppressed can depend on the ruling elite to ‘grant’ them certain rights. In both instances, the oppressed relinquish decision: the decision to liberate oneself. In both instances, the ‘Other’ absorbs the self into his own project, into the narrow horizons of its own decisions. In both instances, the self anticipates the future without a desire “to penetrate it and discern its relevance for his presence decisions.” In both instances, the self is alienated from its existential uniqueness (the capacity to decide and choose) and loses its alterity (autonomy).
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