[P.O.E.]

The key word is “lumpenproletariat”.

q.v. - (From Wikipedia)

“Paulo Freire contributed a philosophy of education that came not only from the more classical approaches stemming from Plato, but also from modern Marxist and anti-colonialist thinkers. In fact, in many ways his Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) may be best read as an extension of, or reply to, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961), which emphasized the need to provide native populations with an education which was simultaneously new and modern (rather than traditional) and anti-colonial (not simply an extension of the culture of the colonizer).”

[chajin]

“Paulo Freire contributed a philosophy of education that came not only from the more classical approaches stemming from Plato, but also from modern Marxist and anti-colonialist thinkers."

Herein lies the essential difference between progressives and conservatives, at least in Western philosophy: it's as old as ancient Greece, the dispute between Plato and Aristotle.

Plato thought the best society was built from the top down, with well-educated Guardians telling the schlubs, meaning the rest of us, ("lumpenproletariat," the Marxists would say) what to do, and in return be taken care of.

Aristotle thought the best society was built from the bottom up, with everyone educated in virtue, and authority balanced between the demos and the oligos, essentially the basis for the British Commons and Lords, or the original US House and Senate.

Progressives like Plato's politics, because they say they care about the people, but they don't trust the people. Conservatives like Aristotle's politics, because they also say they care about the people, but they show it, not by handouts, but by training in virtue, and then trusting the people.

The American amendment to Aristotle is the Founders' belief that virtue comes, not simply by practicing virtuous habits, but by relying on God's grace. That is why, among other reasons, Franklin defined humility as imitating Jesus and Socrates, because without Socrates there is no political basis for training people in virtue, and without Jesus there is no power (and remember, in Greek "virtue" is arete, meaning the power to do good) to overcome sin and replace it with virtue.