False Generosity of the State: Parasitic Subjectivity in J. M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K

Abstract

This paper holds that J. M. Coetzee’s novel, Life and Times of Michael K, demonstrates how apartheid, in order to preserve its domination over the nonwhite population of South Africa, as with other authoritarian regimes, commonly encouraged dependency. Its various institutions and camps aimed precisely to create a culture of dependence and to fashion subjects utterly dependent on the state. A dependent subject is a powerless, exploitable, and controllable subject; this is the right kind of subject for colonizers. The black majority of South Africa, then, could only have a parasitic existence, completely dependent on their white masters. The novel narrates how dependence is created through the false generosity of the state. As Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed argued, false charity is a state strategy that serves to reproduce the relations of domination. Coetzee’s novel, thus, suggests that to undermine the structure of domination, the oppressed have to reject the culture of dependence and the parasitic subjectivity that arise from the false generosity of the state.

False Generosity and the Out-of-School Children Conundrum in Nigeria: Assessing Media Strategies for Promoting Optimal School Enrolment

“…It makes no difference whether donor agencies and governments give US$10 billion or US$1 towards education; what matters, according to Freire, is whether their generosity is true or false. Keramatfar and Bavakhani (2019) demonstrate how apartheid, like other authoritarian regimes, frequently encouraged dependency to maintain its dominance over South Africa's nonwhite population. Institutions were explicitly designed to foster a dependency culture and make subjects utterly reliant on the state.…”

False Generosity: A Freirean Reflection on Food Aid and Lima’s Comedores Populares

“…In 1982President Fernando Belaúnde Terry (1980-1985 opened the first state-sponsored kitchens, the cocinas familiares (Blondet, 2004;Kamioka, 2001;Mujica, 1994). When Alan García was elected in 1985 (1985-1990), he created the comedores del pueblo (Blondet and Montero, 1995) and in 1986 started a direct assistance program that provided funds to state-sponsored comedores that were registered with the government (Rousseau, 2009: 106).…”

“…They can assuage their sense of guilt and “‘buy’ peace for [themselves]” (146). However, Keramatfar and Bavakhani (2019: 468) note that this sense of relief is not universally experienced by the oppressors, who are often “impervious to feelings of guilt.” (465).…”

“…. in supplication.” Turning to Freire, Keramatfar and Bavakhani (2019: 463) add that the normalization of dependency creates dependent subjects who are “powerless, exploitable, and controllable.” When the receivers are dependent on the kindness of the giver, it is difficult for them to push for true change. Those who need charity are often attempting simply to sustain what the philosopher Giorgio Agamben (1998) has called “bare life.” Therefore, when a token of help is offered, a state of oppression forces the oppressed to say “thank you” rather than ask why some can give while others must beg to get by.…”

“…Less discussed are his broader social critiques, including a power dynamic that he calls “false generosity” (Freire, 2018). In essence, the idea of false generosity is a critical reflection on the way powerful social actors can use charitable giving, aid, and welfare programs to paternalistically maintain power inequities and uneven socioeconomic structures (Ashton, 1997; Freire, 2018; Esteva, Stuchul, and Prakash, 2005; Keramatfar and Bavakhani, 2019; Macedo, 2005; Stone and Wolfteich, 2008). 1 As Freire (2018: 44) states, an “unjust social order is the permanent fount of this ‘generosity,’ which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty.”…”