(The prompt simply provides some ideas for your reflection. Responding directly to the prompt is not required! You are completely free to engage other ideas and to make connections between readings and with service in whatever way makes sense to you.)
Cornell West starts his piece "The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society" by stating the inherent complexity and irrationality of tough social issues, especially those related to race. He restates W.E.B. DeBois’s analysis that “Being Black in America is to be a problem . . . Problem people become indistinguishable and interchangeable, which means that only one of them has to be asked to find out what the rest of them think” (5). He connects this issue to the idea that democratic sensibility “cuts against the grain of history” in which the ruling class exerted its power over the underclass, effectively dehumanizing the “ordinary” individual. Thus, West asserts, if we are to live justly and democratically, we must critically engage and examine issues of race and power: “No democracy can survive with a middle class so insecure that it is willing to accept any authoritarian option in order to provide some sense of normalcy and security in their lives. It also opens the door for significant segments of that middle class to scapegoat those who are most vulnerable” (10).
Think about what this means and if you can relate to anything related to your service or community partner. Also, see if you can connect to similar ideas conveyed by Barzun and Goodall:
What does Barzun mean by his struggle against the “mechanical.” He writes that “any ossified [fossilized] institution . . . manifests the mechanical. So does race-thinking—a verdict passed mechanically at a color-coded signal. Ideology is likewise an idea machine, designed to spare the buyer all further thought” (pg. 3 of pdf, right hand side).
Jane Goodall writes that it is “impossible to overemphasize the power of the individual in the shaping of the values of a society. . . In human society, the legacies of a Hitler or a Jesus, a Gandhi or an Ayatollah Khomeini, are testimonies to the impact they made during their brief years on earth. . . Every single one of has, I believe, a significant part to play in the scheme of things” (pg. 9 of pdf, right hand side).
What does it mean to be part of a larger, democratic community. What happens if we don't struggle/question/strive as individuals but wait, instead for someone else to do it for us?
Reading "The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society" by Cornell West made me realize how much America has not been growing as a nation as a whole currently. Middle class and of course the lower class have been subordinate by upper classes because they are so "disadvantaged" in America. "One percent of the population owns 48 percent of the total net financial wealth. The top 10% owns 86 percent of the wealth, while the top 20 percent owns 94 percent of the wealth. Meanwhile, 80 percent of the population is experiencing stagnating and declining wages.” (West 211) It is hard to progress forward when currently our society is experiencing economic decline where it is near impossible for people to get jobs, people are getting laid off from their jobs, and tax cuts are put into place. Therefore it is not surprising that, “…Americans are concerned more about the low quality of their lives…” (West 212) However, we should take into consideration to communicate with one another so that not only will we have a better relationship with one another, but bring voices together and speak out to prevail what a true democracy is, “…giving each person a dignified voice in the decision-making processes.” (West 212)
ReplyDeleteWe see in these three writings the idea that people have the ability to think for themselves and strive for social democracy and protecting the rights of every living thing by not allowing surrounding influences cloud the ability to think freely. Social democracy was mentioned by the three writers, Cornel West spoke of black social issues, Jacques Burnaz made references to prejudices and Jan Goodall spoke of animal rights. All three establish this battle between the surrounding influences their ability altering what is valued. West believed that marketing was a great influenced and used Hip hop and the black panthers as an example, where hip hop marketed the rage of black society and the panthers marketed struggle and prevalence (214). Barzun Believed institutions and media programmed the minds of individual as if they were machines. Goodall suggest that it’s the ignorance of the people that has led to the destruction of the environment, “… for all teachers is to equip their pupils with the ability to see both sides of a dispute, to keep an open mind and above all question prevailing customs and values in society and science.”(11 on pdf)
ReplyDeleteThere is much truth in the common views of these three writers. If we allow others to do the thinking for us then what is our purpose? We have to say no to the blind fold that propaganda tries to put over our eyes and see the real picture. What comes to mind as I read this was the U.S. involvement in the capture of Saddam Hussein. The U. S. was not given sufficient reason to go to war, when the people question the cause, they were told information was not able to be given because it may jeopardize the cause and to just trust in the government. Many deaths later, there were no weapons of mass destruction that the American people were told, was the reason why we had go to war with Iraq. That is just one of many examples were people have allowed others to think for them, with a sad outcome. To prevent future mishaps like the Iraq war, people should THINK, question, and be aware of history.