3 Ways to Escape Tyranny

Freedom is not the absence of society, but it is a conscious relation to a self. As Berger says, “The individual who is conscious of his own freedom does not stand outside the world of causality, but rather perceives of his own volition as a very special category of cause (123).” I found it the three ways to escape tyranny which are transformation, detachment and manipulation (129). Transformation means by not giving typical response. Charisma is an example by Berger that people can use their charisma to change the society. Non-recognition and counter-definition of social norms are always potentially revolutionary. Another example is social sabotage that what Potter calls the “ploy,” doing so in such a way that the other participants in the situation are caught off guard and find themselves helpless to counterattack.” They may use violence or other deviant act in order to change the society.
The second way to escape tyranny is detachment. If we cannot transform or sabotage, we can withdraw form it inwardly. Berger says, “Detachment is a method of resistance to social controls.” People will build the counter-societies in a sub-world, constructed base on deviant and detached definitions. When they enter a sub-world, they feel entirely different universe. They create a sub-world carefully shielded from the physical and the ideological controls of the larger society.
The third way to escape tyranny is manipulation. People do not try to transform or detach themselves from social structure. They rather make deliberate use of social structures in ways unforeseen by their legitimate. “The convict who works in the prison laundry and uses its machinery to wash his own socks” is one of the “Working the system” examples mentions by Goffman. That is their own relative independence of its tyrannical demands. Another concept is “role distance,” which means the plating of a role tongue in cheek, without really meaning it and with an ulterior purpose (135). The concept could be...