homeboy j.c. regarding The Man

"I was [...] merely a subject for official writing, filling up of forms with all the artificial superiority of a man of pen and ink to the men who grapple with realities outside the consecrated walls of official buildings. What ghosts we must have been to him! Mere symbols to juggle with in books and heavy registers, without brains and muscles and perplexities; something hardly useful and decidedly inferior."
-joseph conrad, the shadow line

appeals to male heroism aside, i've been wondering about this for a while. when we empower the quote unquote downtrodden and marginalized, do we empower them to function as members of the system, or as members outside of the system? there seems to be a lie somewhere in the ideal that bettering one's socioeconomic position means integration into mainstream ways of life. ultimately, do we believe that the system is, or can be, a tenable way of living?