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The ordinary little tyranny:
elites, social humiliation and impossible democracy
The ordinary little tyranny:
elites, social humiliation and impossible democracy
There is a social violence that does not always make any noise. It does not overturn governments. It does not necessarily provoke demonstrations. She doesn't always leave written traces. It slides into salons, offices, office cars, bourgeois houses, administrations, businesses, ceremonies, schools — and in the ordinary relations between those who have and those who do not.
This phenomenon is deeply political, even when it seems private. Because A democracy is not only built in the ballot box. It is built in how individuals treat themselves when they are not equal in status. A society that tolerates the daily humiliation of the weak silently prepares the acceptance of the great public dominations.
Episode 1 analyzed the customization of power. Episode 2, clientelism and addiction. This episode 3 descends to the daily level — where the very foundation of democracy is played, stage after stage.
When status becomes right to overwrite
Every society has differences in function, income, training, age, experience and responsibility. The problem is not the difference. It comes from the transformation of difference into human superiority.
The employer and employee
The employment contract should be a legal relationship. But he often turns into a moral debt: the employer believes he has « given a chance »the employee receives almost a favor instead of a wage due.
Domestic employer
The domestic worker, working in private space, is often rendered socially invisible. We give her orders without looking at her. It is called by its function rather than by its name.
The leader and his driver
Physically close to the powerful, but deeply distant socially. Making your driver wait for hours sends a message: the time of the subordinate does not count.
Graduate and non-graduate
School capital becomes moral superiority. The scornful intellectual speaks to the people but rarely with them. He sometimes confuses mastery of French with real intelligence.
Language as a border
The mastery of a dominant language becomes a marker of distinction. When it is used to exclude rather than explain, the public debate is captured by a minority.
The colonial legacy of command
Power has sometimes changed color without changing gestures. The colonial administration of humiliation was nationalized. The independent citizen has sometimes remained administered as a subject.
The contract transformed into a debt
In the world of work, this domination takes a particular form. The employer does not just pay a job. He claims to have « given a chance ». Employees no longer receive wages due; He's almost getting a favor. From there, the report becomes unbalanced.
Mass unemployment reinforces this asymmetry. Whoever has a job knows he can lose him. The scarcity of employment becomes a weapon of social discipline. Some bosses behave like little monarchs: they speak dryly, convoke without warning, humiliate in front of others, require permanent availability, mix work and personal life.
This culture is not only unfair. She's inefficient. It produces fear, self-censorship, silent sabotage, flight of talents, prudent mediocrity and loss of initiative.
Home as a microcosm of society
The relationship between domestic employers and domestic workers is perhaps one of the most cruel mirrors of unequal societies. The servant, the nanny, the caretaker, the driver work in a space where the boundaries between work, availability, affection, dependence and domination are blurred.
Violence is all the more strong as it comes under normal clothes. « That's how it is. » « She's at our house. » « We're helping. » « She's part of the house. » These sentences can hide a harder reality.
The house then becomes a silent school of inequality. Children who see their parents treat a domestic servant as an inferior person learn very early that some lives are worth less than others. They internalize a hierarchy of dignity. Later, they may reproduce this position in business, administration, politics or their own home.
Loosting as a social language
In very unequal societies, success is shown. The car, the house, the telephone, the clothing, the procession, the ceremony, the driver, the close guard, the reserved place, the table d'honneur become all messages addressed to the society.
These signs do not just say: « I did it. » They sometimes say: « I'm above it. » They turn wealth into entertainment and poverty into silent humiliation.
The gestures that make domination
The most serious phenomenon is not only the display of wealth or rank. It's the need to humiliate to confirm his position. These gestures — Apparently anodizing — Every day produce a scene of domination:
- Keep waiting unnecessarily
- Talking without greeting
- Ordering witnesses
- Publicly repress
- Never say thank you
- Tutoring without reciprocity
- Call by function, never by name
- Ignore the presence of a subordinate
- Distribute aid with condescendence
- Talking about someone to the third person in his presence
Humiliation becomes proof of power. It shows that one can afford what the other cannot refuse. Ordinary rule survives because witnesses turn away their eyes. They know it's unfair, but prefer not to upset the dominant.
Paternalism: Helping and Dominating Both
African social domination often takes a paternalistic form. The boss who humiliates can also pay for the care of an employee. The mother of an authoritarian house can also finance the baptism of the child of her servant. This ambiguity makes domination more resistant.
The dominated suffers, but depends. He criticises in private, but thanks in public. He knows the report is unfair, but he does not want to lose protection. The dominant, however, saw himself as a benefactor. He forgets that he turns aid into debt and protection into control.
« I help you, so you owe me respect. » But this respect often becomes submissive. And help, instead of releasing, keeps addiction. Paternalism presents itself as generosity. It is in fact an instrument of control.
Democracy contradicts daily life
Democracy is not just a political regime. It's a culture of equality of dignity. It assumes that the poor citizen, the domestic worker, the driver, the guardian, the peasant, the informal seller, the graduate, the minister and the head of the enterprise belong to the same moral community.
We can vote on Sundays and humiliate Mondays. One can applaud the rule of law in speeches and treat his employee as a subject. We can denounce presidential authoritarianism and rule at home as a domestic tyrant.
That is why ordinary little tyranny is politically decisive. They teach societies to accept inequality of dignity. They prepare submission to the great tyranny.
Civilizing social relations: a revolution from the bottom
Dignity as a political foundation — Conclusion of series
The main African issue is not only economic development, growth, debt, infrastructure or elections. It is also that of the dignity. How can we build a society in which success does not give the right to despise? How can we build a state where the citizen does not need to beg?
The cult of the leader personifies domination. Clientelism organizes addiction. Economic inequalities undermine freedom. But Social humiliation destroys something even more intimate: the feeling that we all belong to the same political humanity.
The democratization of Africa will only be complete when it descends into offices, houses, cars, kitchens, administrations, schools and ordinary conversations. There, in these seemingly minor scenes, a decisive part of the democratic future of the continent is played.
birth of the institution
