"We Fear Being So Broken We Are Unable to Rebel Against Tyranny"
-SnakeAppleTree
Abstract
This article explores the profound human fear of becoming so broken by trauma or systemic oppression that the capacity for rebellion is lost. Drawing upon philosophy, psychology, sociology, and literature, it argues that rebellion is not merely a political act but an existential assertion of agency and humanity. The paper examines how totalitarian regimes, trauma, and disciplinary institutions threaten this capacity, and why the fear of losing it remains central to the human experience. Through analysis of works by Albert Camus, Hannah Arendt, Judith Herman, Bessel van der Kolk, Michel Foucault, and literary texts such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the article concludes that while the breaking of the individual is possible, the shared human commitment to resist—even in small acts—persists as a testament to human dignity.
At the heart of human experience lies the paradoxical tension between vulnerability and resistance. “We fear being so broken we are unable to rebel against tyranny” speaks to an ancient and modern dread alike: that oppression, trauma, or despair might cripple the very faculties that allow us to say no to dehumanisation. This paper explores the psychological, philosophical, and cultural dimensions of this fear, drawing on a range of thinkers to understand what it means to be broken, what it means to rebel, and why the fear of losing this capacity cuts so deeply.
1. The Human Imperative to Resist
Throughout history, philosophers and revolutionaries have insisted that resistance to tyranny is a defining human trait. As Albert Camus writes in The Rebel:
“I rebel; therefore we exist.”
For Camus, rebellion is more than an act of defiance—it is the affirmation of meaning and selfhood in an absurd world. Camus frames rebellion not merely as an act of political defiance but as an existential affirmation: to refuse dehumanisation is to affirm our humanity. This rebellion is both collective (“we exist”) and personal, rooted in dignity. To fear losing it is to fear losing ourselves.
Similarly, Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism extends this insight by highlighting the way tyranny seeks to strip individuals of their spontaneity and plurality; the very qualities that allow them to act freely. When these are destroyed, the individual becomes an “isolated atom” within the mass. This is why totalitarian regimes invest so heavily in breaking spirits: the broken cannot rebel. Thus, the fear of being broken is inseparable from the fear of losing our humanity.
2. Trauma and the Shattering of Agency
From a psychological perspective, research into trauma theory deepens this understanding by showing how not only profound suffering itself but its form as the fear of being broken, can disrupt the psychological structures necessary for resistance. Judith Herman, in Trauma and Recovery, describes how extreme abuse and political terror destroy the structures of the self:
“Traumatic events violate the autonomy of the person at the level of basic bodily integrity and beyond… they shatter the construction of the self.”
If tyranny’s deepest violence is the assault on the person’s ability to act, choose, and speak, then our deepest fear is being reduced to silence, unable to imagine or desire freedom.
Moreover, Bessel van der Kolk in The Body Keeps the Score notes how trauma can lock individuals into patterns of helplessness, embeds itself in the nervous system. Agency and choice, the very capacity to envisage rebellion, becomes neurologically and emotionally inhibited. Thus, “being so broken” is not merely metaphorical. It can manifest in the body, the nervous system, and memory itself.
3. The Social Dimension of Brokenness
From a sociological perspective, institutional life systematically strips individuals of identity and agency. Sociologists like Erving Goffman, in Asylums, have studied institutions designed to “break” individuals: prisons, asylums, and concentration camps. These institutions use routine, humiliation, and surveillance to erode identity and agency.
“The person becomes a manageable object, deprived of the chance to act upon the world.”
This illustrates how the fear of being broken is also a fear of systemic power: that it will not just defeat us externally but colonise us internally.
Michel Foucault, in Discipline and Punish, similarly argues that modern power is most effective not when it overtly coerces, but when it produces subjects who internalise discipline. The broken subject is one who has internalised the commands of tyranny to such a degree that external enforcement becomes unnecessary.
The fear, then, is of becoming so thoroughly shaped by power that rebellion ceases to even be conceivable.
4. Literature and the Symbolic Power of Rebellion
Literature often depicts this struggle between resistance and the risk of being broken. In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston Smith’s greatest terror is not only of physical torture and death, but the destruction of his capacity to love and hate freely, of becoming incapable of loving Julia or hating Big Brother. When he finally betrays her, it symbolises the destruction of his inner rebellion. The last refuge of rebellion—inner loyalty—is destroyed. This narrative shows how tyranny’s final victory is to break the subject’s inner resistance.
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale similarly depicts how ritual, surveillance, and trauma can render people compliant, induce complicity. Yet Atwood also emphasises the fragility and persistence of small acts of rebellion; through memory and storytelling, whispered words, hidden names, and secret histories.
These works resonate with Camus’s insight: that rebellion is an assertion of meaning against the absurdity of oppression. The deepest fear is losing the will or ability to make that assertion.
5. The Necessity of the Fear
Paradoxically, this fear can itself be a source of strength. The dread of becoming so broken that we cannot rebel may motivate us to preserve inner freedom, to sustain resistance. Václav Havel, in The Power of the Powerless, wrote that the only true defeat under tyranny is the “loss of the desire to live in truth.” Even small, silent refusals become acts of rebellion. By speaking honestly, refusing to collaborate; people assert that they remain unbroken. This fear keeps alive the awareness of what is at stake: our dignity and capacity for self-determination.
6. Conclusion: Brokenness, Hope, and the Human Spirit
The fear of being broken beyond rebellion reflects a universal understanding that rebellion is integral to human identity and meaning. To fear being broken is to acknowledge what is at stake: not just survival, but dignity, agency, and the capacity to resist dehumanisation. While systems of oppression and trauma can indeed silence, isolate, and diminish individuals, the persistence of even the smallest acts of defiance testifies to a resilience that tyranny cannot wholly erase. Across philosophy, psychology, sociology, and literature, the evidence is clear, the message is consistent: while external defeat is possible, the final defeat lies in surrendering the will to rebel. Though we may fear the destruction of our agency, it is precisely this fear that helps preserve it.
And yet, history and art also show that rebellion can survive in unexpected ways: in memory, in language, and in solidarity. Even when individuals are broken, others remember and continue. The fear, then, is not only a sign of vulnerability but of care, of recognising what must never be lost.
Annotated Index of Sources
1. Albert Camus – The Rebel
Explores rebellion as an existential affirmation of meaning against an absurd world.. Central to understanding rebellion as a human imperative.
2. Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism
Analyzes how tyranny and totalitarian systems destroys spontaneity and plurality, leading to the isolated, broken subject, undermining the conditions for freedom.
3. Judith Herman – Trauma and Recovery
Discusses psychological trauma’s power to destroy agency and selfhood. and silence resistance.
4. Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score
Explores how trauma imprints on the body and can inhibit agency by influencing the ability to act and resist.
5. Erving Goffman – Asylums
Studies institutional systems and practices designed to break the individual’s autonomy and identity.
6. Michel Foucault – Discipline and Punish
Explores how modern disciplinary systems shape subjects who internalise power, producing compliance beyond coercion.
7. George Orwell – 1984
A fictional study of the destruction of inner rebellion and the psychological conquest of the individual. A narrative of the breaking of the individual’s inner rebellion, illustrating tyranny’s ultimate power.
8. Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale
Explores trauma, ritualised oppression, and the survival of small acts of rebellion. Depicts how ritual, surveillance, and trauma foster complicity, yet preserves the seeds of resistance.
9. Václav Havel – The Power of the Powerless
Argues that even small acts of truth-telling are powerful forms of resistance against tyranny. The real defeat under tyranny is internal—the loss of the will to live in truth.
See also: Zoo Planet (index)
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