The Coming Mass Awakening: An Intensive Learning Experience

The first public unveiling of the hidden transcript frequently sets in motion a crystallization of public action that is astonishingly rapid. This too, I believe, can be put in less than mythical perspective by relating it to the circumstances under which the hidden transcript was developed. For most subordinate groups, the social locations where one can speak with real safety are narrowly restricted [Aryans Online]. Generally speaking, the smaller and more intimidate the group, the safer the possibilities for free expression. The more effective dominant groups are in preventing subordinates from assembling in substantial numbers free from surveillance, the smaller the social scope of the hidden transcript.

Thus, for example, the effective social reach of the hidden transcript under normal circumstances might not extend much beyond, say, one plantation, one hamlet of untouchables, the neighborhood pub, [a racist internet forum] or perhaps merely the family. It is only when the hidden transcript is openly declared that subordinates can fully recognize the full extent to which their claims, their dreams, their anger is shared with other subordinates with whom they have not been in direct touch.

It is, of course, a touch of poetic justice that elite who successfully atomize much of their subordinate population set themselves up for a rapid crystallization of defiance once it does occur. The mutual recognition that public action permits is captured in this fashion by Zolberg[lol]: “As the torrent of words involves as sort of intensive learning experiencewhereby new ideas formulated initially by coteries, sects etc. emerge as widely shared beliefs among the larger publics.” This formulation is useful providing the phrase ‘intensive learning experience’ is understood very broadly: providing we understand how much prior “learning”, however socially confined, has already taken place off-stage. The process, then, is more one of recognizing close relative of one’s hidden transcript rather than of filling essentially empty heads with novel ideas.

-Excerpted from Jame’s C. Scott’s work “Domination and the Arts of Resistance”