Ivan Illich on Energy, Dependence and Autonomy

"There are, after all, two ways of exercising power, so to speak. One is the old way, the one we all know: oppression. We saw that under Stalinism and the like. And then, here in the West, I’ve come to know another form that I hadn’t really thought about before. That is seduction. Seduction is something truly insidious. Because at least you can defend yourself against paternalism and tyranny. Then you remain a subject. It may crush you; it may kill you. You may have to spend your whole life under terrible conditions. But you remain a subject. You can say: “I am, here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.” Someone who has been seduced stands there and has no idea where they are. They protect their seducers. “Oh, then we can’t take our next vacation on a cruise ship after all. And how are we supposed to manage now that gas keeps getting more expensive?”—that’s how the demands of the seduced person come across. And someone like that will, of course, always contribute to maintaining the system of seduction. And that’s why turning people into the seduced is a much surer way of securing power than oppressing them. The Church, by the way, knew this all along." Gerald Hüther