"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."-- Victor Frankl When you feel powerless, you feel afraid to express your needs because you fear (often rightly) that what little you have will be taken from you. You may have learned powerlessness if you were kept in powerless positions repeatedly and/or over long periods of time (possibly during childhood) by those who used external forces (money, physical strength, legal status, and/or military force) to control you. You may have been abused as a child, a partner or spouse, an employee, a soldier, or you may have been the victim of racial or ethnic attacks. Such prolonged abuse can cause you to become afraid to feel even your own needs, i.e., to admit to yourself that you need something. You become immobilised. And in certain critical ways you stop growing, you cease to thrive.
Distinguishing Externally Imposed Powerlessness from Learnt Powerlessness
When powerlessness is "learnt", it becomes self-perpetuating, even if the external forces are no longer there. An abused child may grow up to feel permanently powerless as an adult, even though their parents no longer have physical or economic power over them. One may then enter into a situation that repeats childhood experiences (e.g., living with or marrying an abusive partner), and therefore keeping oneself in externally imposed danger. Or one may keep oneself down through self-abuse, compulsive behaviors, and/or depression...because the powerlessness has become internalised. This is different from the externally imposed powerlessness of colonisation, racial, class, and gender oppression, which may be enforced through economic, legal, physical, or military, might. The brown person who is arrested for driving while brown, the homeless family that cannot afford housing, the office worker who is being sexually harassed; these are people that require collective power and direct action to overcome their powerlessness. Collective power may take the form of a union, or a "network" of whanau, friends, supporters and/or professional helpers. Direct action might involve a lawsuit, going to the media, or organizing a strike or protest. Collective power and direct action together make an even more powerful combination. Even more insidious than this is when--as is often the case--externally imposed powerlessness is combined with learnt powerlessness. Overcoming Learnt Powerlessness The first step to overcoming learnt powerlessness is to recognise your personal rights. You have the right to live a life free from racial attacks, physical, emotional, sexual, and financial mistreatment. You have the right to be treated with respect, to earn a livable income, to be informed of matters that affect you, and to express yourself freely (without harming others). Most importantly, you have the right to ask for what you need (even though you may be turned down) and to fight for what you need and want (even if you are turned down!). This list of "legitimate entitlements" is easier to read than to experience. Most people who have learnt powerlessness barely feel entitled to speak, let alone to speak freely. When this is the case, professional counselling may be necessary to overcome the ingrained patterns. Nevertheless, to overcome learnt powerlessness, you must gradually, haltingly, but persistently lay claim to each and every human right, one after the other.