Resistance through compliance. James C Scott

Resistance and uprising is found throughout any history in any populations. Whether it was an internal struggle between the structure of a system or the opposition of two forces. In the literature written by James C. Scott, he writes about the unseen dynamics of resistance. Based on my understanding of his text, the concept of rebellion is ironically not completely in the classification of resistance. The obvious view of rebellion is to resist the rule or current state of the people. As Scott states, it is the peasants that fight back. While the goal of a rebellion is to remove the current oppression, it often results in the same oppression through different leadership. This merely shifts the terms of a hegemonic state. Even more so, the matters of resistance can even fall within the plain of hegemony. For example, referred to the words of an Indonesian slave who tells a youngster to resist by only working when seen. This is a sense of rebellion since the slave are refusing to fulfil their duties designated by the owner, yet it still demonstrates their compliance with the system. There is still the hegemonic view of class and that the slave should work for the owners. The slaves still comply to their role in the current situation even if they are only pretending to do so. Rather than the typical understanding, it seems that rebellion and resistance lie within a region between opposition and containment.