Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Week 8
This week we discussed "Avoiding Politics." The question presented was: "How does the context for political action or inaction get created in everyday life?" The groups observed in "Avoiding Politics" address this question-- excuses not to participate include that people would rather address issues "closer to home." This is because people like to tackle problems that they can actually change. By taking on larger issues, people begin to feel more helpless and overwhelmed. I think this kind of apathy takes on a very individualistic stance; people only consider their own capabilities and neglect the change that a group effort can make. If instead of only addressing issues that can be changed locally, people decided to work together to change larger, more intimidating issues, then I think more would be achieved. It was also interesting to read about The Buffalos and their complete neglect towards politics. They carefully avoid all kinds of political discussion and instead stick to raunchy jokes and meaningless banter. What does this kind of apathy demonstrate? Deva also stated that there is a "pessimism of inevitability" which I found really interesting. So many people perceive things to be inevitable and then do not act on them, which is a pessimistic view. Instead, people should do everything in their power to address an issue in order to avoid the apathy that is conducted from the misconception of inevitability.
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Inevitability is a fascinating concept. When folks perceive something as inevitable, they do more than become seemingly apathetic, as you pointed out, Milly. Seeing events and patterns in the world as "inevitable" excuses oneself and everyone else in the world
ReplyDeleteof accountability. Not only does inevitableness create apathy, and powerlessness, but it makes no one responsible for the happenings of our world. Deva doesn't like this the same reason I don't like this - things can change and we have the power to do so. That's what all of our readings have been about this semester. When folks take responsibility and recognize their own power, and when we can hold each other accountable, we can be the change we want to see.
It's also really interesting to see in which context exactly Americans feel comfortable speaking about politics and their opinions of such. Can either of you think of times you didn't feel comfortable initiating political conversation? What did that situation look like? When do you are comfortable discussing politics? Do you consider yourself to be a publicly minded person?
This class is great because it puts this frustration of the apparent apathy of the world at ease and from the material we've read, it's not that people don't care, but that they just don't know how and when and why to express their concerns. I consider myself to be a publicly minded person. I think that has everything to do with growing up poor and being raised by my publicly minded mother. I don't identify with these studies because my family and I pretty much only talk about politics and I don't have a filter after a few days of knowing someone. Because of my public mind, I push to start dialogue about politics, especially social structures and hierarchies, all the time. What about y'all?