Prompt for 5/3 Precarious LIfe

I have just taken these straight from the reading notes that I have posted on blackboard . ..
“Who counts as human?” (20). Why are the experiences of loss, vulnerability, grief, mourning integral to Butler’s thesis? Do we agree that these are universal human experiences that might be a source of moral response? Can you illustrate with your community experience?

and/or

Awe: “Let’s face it, we’re undone by each other. And if we’re not, we’re missing something_ (23) Do you have a significant moment from service that illustrates this? I’m sure that everyone has a life experience that makes you tremble a bit when you read this.
Significance of the discussion of identity/autonomy/the body (24-38). Tie back to other points. This leads into important discussion of vulnerability—how does she then tie this back into the previous points she has built? Can you illustrate with your community experience?

and/or

Dehumanization of the Other 32-49. Crucial points here and she weaves in all the other points.
“We do not need to ground ourselves in a single model of communication, a single model of reason, a single notion of the subject before we are able to act” (48). Think about this in relation to in relation to your service-learning experience. Can you use a specific or significant moment to illuminate?

Someone should blow the whistle at county

Tutoring at phoenix has really opened my eyes as to why students don’t always seem to succeed in school, life or work. At phoenix allot of the students are there because they are told that are the worst kids ever. That they are going to fail because they are in gangs and take drugs. When reading about the narcissism in this book I came across something that made me connect the dots. “The narcissist wants to be whole, good, pure, and perfect. There are two ways to do this. Either one lowers one’s standards of wholeness, goodness, purity, and perfection until they correspond to one’s miserable self” (p. 63). Allot of the students at county and phoenix because they themselves have either lower their standards and they are the reason they can’t succeed. Because they are trying to live up to being one of the cool kids who doesn’t listen to any one or thinks that being bad is cool. Although that most of us in class agreed that if they themselves don’t raise their standards it makes it almost impossible to succeed. However, I have another theory that this kids in county are not completely there because they themselves have put themselves in that position. But the kid’s teachers friends and family members I think they have influenced them to be what they are today. For one example I had a teacher say that her students are one of the worst students ever and that they are not very smart. Or that this student is one of the most dangerous students we have at this school so be careful when tutoring him. In hearing this all I could think is what kind of example are you putting for these children. No wonder these kids are they way they are because their own teachers and family members always put them down especially with the constant reminder of how bad they are. What will keep on happening is not change for the better but for the worse. These students will probably think well then if I am so bad then I should start acting bad. My youth mentor from my church always tells us that if our parents or anyone we know starts saying that we are bad people, troublemakers any negative he says to rebuke those words. Because the word has power and if we take in those negative words it slowly starts to affect us and we begin acting like the words we were called. So it be really interesting to see who blew the whistle at county and stand up against all those teachers who are not there to help out these students and are just there for the money. I think it’s a really sad thing to see how this “true organization” is slowly starting to fall apart for the students because they are not being helped the way they are suppose to

Whistleblowers – Part 11
Being a whistle blower has a great deal of responsibility surrounding it. Many are considered martyrs for their cause. Whistle blowers find unjust situations that they find deeply unethical and want to correct the situations.
Alford states that “Filling one’s ego ideal with cultural values not only requires the ability to recognize one’s imperfection, it also requires the ability to sustain a heightened sense of imperfection….) this made sense to me.
Take for instance Linda Tripp, a former White House staff member who disclosed to the Office of Independent Counsel than Monica Lewinsky committed perjury and attempted to suborn perjury, and President Clinton committed misconduct, by denying the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship in the Paula Jones federal civil rights suit. Now Ms. Tripp did get a lot of publicity, going so far as to have some facial surgery. This whistle blower was in my opinion using her status to entice Lewinsky into a situation that was used by Tripp to gain credibility for her. Not only did she lose her reputation, she lost her job. She did come out on top, so to speak, since she sued the government and won. This whole incident was messy and confirmed to the nation that trust in our government is weak. Did Tripp realize her imperfections as she recorded Lewinsky’s conversations? Did the responsibility she took on come from an ethical background or was she just trying to make herself look good.
This statement could be debated for years, but the clandestine way in which Tripp set traps had nothing to do with ethics. She saw that a legal situation had risen and she wanted to be certain she was not caught in her own trap.

Alford also states that,”The ability to tolerate this heightened experience of imperfection, coupled with the recognition that time and work may lessen but never eliminate the gap, is the best definition of the distinction between mature and immature narcissism.”
Tripp is just one example of an immature narcissist. I am certain there are others. When disclosing negative information about government, companies, etc., a whistle blower needs to have very thick skin in order to shield them from retaliation. Tripp did have this. She was fired.
Presidents have a tremendous amount of power and have most likely for year’s hidden affairs. Of course John Kennedy was notorious for womanizing. No whistle blowing there. The ingrained deceit an lies that are used to cover up affairs makes me wonder, how does this affect running our government?

Whistleblowers

The idea of narcissism moralized was an interesting way to start out this reading. When one usually thinks of narcissism, one thinks of someone who is vain and obsessed with oneself. When one thinks of whistleblowers, one tends to think of someone who is standing up for what is right regardless of what it will do to his or her self. The two notions do not usually overlap. In fact, I had never before fathomed the term used by the author of a whistleblower being narcissistic in a moralized way. According to the author, "Shame is wounded narcissism. To be overcome with shame by the acts of others is to be wounded narcissistically by being associated with corruption. Doubly wounded, as one was too weak to do anything about it" (Alford, 76). There is a sense of shame lurking in most whistleblowers for being involved in or having knowledge of something that could harm another person or groups of people. It is completely logical when the author describes the whistleblowers as being unable to live with themselves having the knowledge that they posess. In my opinion, this is a good way to describe a moralized narcissism. The whistleblowers in this sense are acting because they cannot live with the guilt that what they are doing or have knowlege of within their company. This is brought up quite a bit in my service learning. It is amazing to think that there are people working for the sanitary district who would have no problems with not telling the public that there was a sewage spill in the creek, but it does happen. When I heard the amount of spills that were not reported to the public throughout the past few years, I was appalled. There is no way that I, personally, could live with the knowledge that hundreds of gallons of sewage get dumped into the creeks annually without the attention brought to the people who live in surrounding areas. It is amazing that there are people who can sit by and watch children go into the creek after there has been a sewage spill and not say anything about it. This comes back to the whistleblowers. Some people of course will be unhappy with the term narcissism being used to describe whistleblowers. It is not a vain, self-helping situation. The term that needs to be paid more attention is the "moralized" portion of the term. There is a completely moral and ethical responsibility that whistleblowers feel toward the people who they want to help, and that is why they blow the whistle on the companies for which they work.

Whistleblowers Ending

After finishing this book I now sympathize more with whistle-blowers than I did before. Originally I thought whistle-blowers where just people who where ticked off with their company or their job duties and found problems on purpose to complain about. I honestly have no idea why I felt that way but it kind of irks me now that I think back on it. It may have to do with the first job I had was union and they did the whole song and dance to let them know if we felt the company was miss treating us. I came to realize that the company and the union where very much working together. If an employee would go to the union with a complaint, one that was supposed to be anonymous somehow a manager would still find out who it came from. The end results would usually lead to a forced transfer to another store, or working unfair shifts say one day you would work 6 pm until 3 am and then turn around and the next day work 10 am until 7pm. The company knew they couldn’t do anything but make the person go crazy (not literally) and quit. I think it is a similar way as to what was mentioned in the reading. (106) “in a word discipline works through diagnosis.” I find that unfair to send someone to a shrink just because they stood up for what they believe in. The fact that company’s get away with this is just wrong. I feel that if someone stands up and makes a complaint or brings something to light that was hidden they should be interviewed, just not by a shrink to say their nuts. The other way that company’s dealt with things to say it’s over your head or not your department (106). Just because someone is not in a position of power or may not be in a certain area doesn’t mean they are wrong. After reading and thinking about all that was brought up in the book, I feel that whistle-blowers will always get the cold shoulder. Companies will always find ways to either sweep it under the door mat and bury it or make the person blowing the whistle go away.

Whistleblower Blog 2

'Of course, we don't all have to be whistleblowers and sacrifice all that is good in our lives for our ego-ideal--the values that we believe make our life worth living. In the service that you do for this class, hopefully you have more to gain than to lose--especially as the hope is that this experience, if nothing else, will deepen your learning in this class."

This prompt really relates to how i feel about my service learning. Yes I am not giving up my life like a whistleblower, but I do feel that what I am doing gives me great relief that I am helping make the difference in this animal overpopulated world. Lynne who is the founder/director of The Milo Foundation, has given up her life to do this. For the past 15 years she has saved over 15,000 animals! And the numbers keep rising. She gets about 250 plus emails a day. She is usually on a short sleep schedule. She has really sacrificed having a life, like a whistleblower, to do what they love. Though a whistleblower might not like what they are doing they still give him their lives to keep doing the job.

This brings me to moral maturity. (69-70) To bear the criticism is what I have had to do at my service learning. This criticism that we will never be able to do enough. But I can turn it around and say at least we are doing something. This moral maturity is what I believe a whistleblower lacked. They took the rough job and bared the judgment through authority. The whistleblower's felt shameful due to them working for a company that really didn't care about the public. (73) This is one thing I am not. My service learning has opened so many doors for me. I feel proud at the end of the day knowing that I got to be apart of finding an animal his/her forever home.

"The worst thing I can think of to say about a whistleblower is that he or sh has become a whiner." (122) This made my jaw drop. For someone who had to bare so much emotional and self punishment don't you think they deserve to whine. I do. I agree that if they want to take action against a company then they would have to have courage and they can not let disagreement bog them down. I think that they should get to tell their stories, hardships, and self grief. In the end its a hard thing to judge just based off positionality.

Whistleblower Blog

During the reading a found passage that not only stood out to me but find it to be relevant to my service-learning. “One might argue that although whistleblowers are not connected to those they benefit, the structure of their imagination for consequences is nonetheless the structure of all empathy: taking up in one’s imagination the place of the other” (68). The realization a person has when understanding the decisions being made at the time are enough or the wrong ones, that something must be done in order to prevent disaster from occurring. Seeing the bigger picture and not being able to stop thinking about what could happen if he/she doesn’t speak up and do anything about it. Having the non-stop inner dialogue of how people we will never know, will be affected by decisions made by others. The characteristic of empathy I believe is what allows the individual to make better decisions in life to stand up for what they believe is right even though they are told to drop the subject. My service-learning partner is Marin Link in which I am helping in the 2010 Marin Green Business Forum with this year’s theme being “How Sustainable Business Practices Create Opportunity and Jobs.” A lot of controversy has surrounded the issue of global warming with people being skeptical of whether this problem actually exists, whether is manmade or naturally occurring. Although skepticism may exist among this issue there are people who believe global warming is a problem and will only get worse if we do not take action now. This year Marin Green Business Forum will inform the community the steps companies are taking to become green and how some people have started sustainable business and been successful. People who worked on organizing the Marin Green Business Forum are doing it to inform the people and to protect the planet for future generations. Global warming is affecting everyone and will affect the people that live after we are gone; it is the inner feeling of not being to stop thinking about the others and the future we have left them.
Helping with this year’s forum has showed me there are people out there taking steps to fix a problem that many people aren’t willing to acknowledge or willing to fix. Instead of waiting for others they have taken the initiative to take on the problem head on while informing people of progress that is being done. While walking through 4th street asking businesses if I could post posters promoting the 2010 Marin Green Business Forum I saw how some people thought it was good this type of event was going on. Working for Marin Link is important to me because I realize and see firsthand how an organization is taking into consideration a big problem and is actually doing something about it. Whether is helping with the mailing or putting up posters around town I am glad to be a part of the project because instead of waiting around for things to get worse we are taking action now. I continue to learn more with everyday I work with Marin Link of the importance of seeing the picture of the problem and then going about to find solutions. Businesses are established to make profits and few businesses have attempted to transition into becoming green but hopefully with more people realizing the advantages of going green more and more businesses will be willing to make the transition. Once this happen the ideology of profit coming first over anything will change and the number one importance will be the people and the planet.

Whistle Blower Blog

Unless a whistleblower did what he did for some personal gain i.e. money promotion etc., I still think they were justified for doing what was right. The author addressed this issue ( pg 64). Everyone should stand for something; not taking a position at all is worse. What kind of society would we be without ethics?

I am not completely convinced that all whistleblowers are moral narcissists. Some may lean towards this tendency, but not all. The environment, in which we are raised, plays an important role in the type of choices we make; this has a direct effect on our decisions. (pg 69) If you grew up in a community that taught you to help others, and taught you to treat people with kindness and respect, does that make you a narcissist, to want to do the right thing? Having moral convictions and ethics makes us human; totally destroying a person emotionally, physically and financially, because they were trying to stop people from dying, is much worse act, than blowing the whistle. The arguments presented to explain narcisstic moralization, could have some merit, depending on how you look at it, but I don’t feel it rings true for all of the whistleblowers. There are some people who truly care about children dying and not just their own children; in some communities people believe in looking out for all the children. I could see this type of person blowing the whistle. I guess the term moral narcissism is more what I have a problem with. The whistleblower is not according to the author, a narcissist in the true sense of the word per say. (pg 63) His discussion (pg 79) gives what I feel to be a better depiction of a person in relationship to using the narcissist term, for an individual who is doing the right thing.

I am reminded of what it means for a politician, an elected official to work for the people. You take on the responsibility of looking out for the interests of the public. You are the people’s voice. If there were some sort of environmental danger to the people of the community, which the candidate that I am volunteering for represents and he did nothing, he would not be fulfilling his commitment. It is his job to see that the people he represents are taken care of.

Moral Maturity by: Elizabeth O'Neill

This quote stated by Anna Freud really summed up an important part of this weeks reading. “An early stage in the development of conscience, identification with the aggressor occurs not just when we are scared of others but when we cannot bear their censure. We internalize the criticism, but rather than directing it at ourselves we turn it outward becoming the critic because we cannot bear the criticism. Moral maturity is reached…when we become able to turn this criticism back against ourselves” (69-70). It is easy for a person to see a fellow employee participating in deeds that are unethical and set themselves apart from them, saying they are not like that employee. But for that individual to set their self apart from the employee is avoiding the bigger picture. That person should asking why are they doing that, and is it really for the good of the company? And if so, am I too acting unethically? This line of questioning is at most times hard to face, and it is easier for an individual to lash out on others instead of themselves.

By participating in classes where Service Learning plays a key role, the student participating is taking his or her steps towards moral maturity. They are doing this by acknowledging that they can be a solution to a huge problem that affects the community as a whole. For me at MarinLink, I am participating indirectly in trying to help with bringing down pollution and the use of plastic products. My job has been to help think of ways to reach consumers so they have the information to make consumer decisions that is not only beneficial for them, but for the environment as well. When participating in any community organization that has goals to help solve major issues, that volunteer is looking at the big picture. They are acknowledging that they have to look at themselves before they point fingers at others. And instead of placing the blame, they are taking the steps to help the people around them be aware of the situation.

Whistleblowers part deux

Perhaps I should speak only for myself, but I think to say that any of us are doing our volunteer work solely as a result of our own ethical prerogative, would be complete fantasy thinking and a feeble attempt to preserve the primary narcissist perfection ( I do it because I am a good who only does good things for good reasons) we all pine away for. The truth however I believe lies in who and what we are surrounded by. Here is my argument:

The author describes the ego ideal as “a substitute for primary narcissistic perfection, but a substitute from which the ego is separated by a gulf, a split that man is constantly seeking to abolish” (p. 77). A short while later, the author continues, “The question is only how we seek to abolish the gap. Do we idealize the ideal, filling it with the greatest cultural achievements in which we can then share? Or do we fill our ego ideals with our own grandiosity?” (p. 77). The author then goes on to describe the ego ideal as the avatar of narcissistic perfection. Finally, the author proposes that moral narcissism depends on whether or not our ego ideal is moral or not, “Narcissism moralized requires that the content of the ego ideal – that is one’s ideals – become moral” (p. 78). The bottom line is everything points back to the ego ideal and how we fill it. Is it filled with the influences and ideals of our culture or with our own selfish grandiosity?

I believe that as social animals, we are most apt to fill our ego ideals with the influences of our culture. What happens though when the culture that influences you (fills your ego ideal) is offbeat with mainstream culture or the ideals of our society? I believe this is the case with the majority of the students at MCCS. The immediate culture of these students is their peers and in some cases their family (which are often extremely dysfunctional). What then fills up these ego ideals of these teenagers? It is mostly rebellion, drugs, sex, cursing out the teachers and being tough and cool. Once one becomes entrenched in this culture, it becomes more and more difficult to return to the mainstream, because the ego ideal is increasingly filled with these aspects of life considered most important. Thus a life is pursued based on these ideals.

Those of us who survived the corrupting culture of our families, high school or whatever other distractions came along the way and find our way to college are entrenched in a culture that values learning, understanding and development of the self and our society. We are the lucky ones who are part of a culture that teaches, structures and motivates. We can fill our ego ideals with the knowledge and concepts of those who have more experience than we do. I believe it is the purpose of MCCS and those of us involved there to offer an alternative culture to the one that the students are a part of and/or have created amongst themselves. Hopefully in doing so, we provide alternatives views, ideals and material for the students to assimilate into their ego ideals and hopefully into their lives. As the author postulates, there are two options for the focus of our ego ideals; our community and culture or ourselves. While it is true that we are all engaged in actions focused on our community, I believe it is very unlikely that we would be engaged in such actions if it were not for the influences of our immediate culture.

I always post first! :-)

Directly in the beginning of this week’s reading something popped out to me as relating to my service learning. “The narcissist wants to be whole, good, pure, and perfect. There are two ways to do this. Either one lowers one’s standards of wholeness…until they correspond to one’s miserable self. Or one raises one’s miserable self as high as one possibly can so that one comes a little closer to these standards.”(p 63) This is a problem with most of the kids at County and Phoenix in a general sense (not just morally as described in the book). There are students (a majority of them) who have decided that they are in this school because they can’t do any better and their lives are already doomed. Then there are the students who understand that they can do better and become like the students at regular high schools. These are the students that eventually leave County or Phoenix with a degree or transfer back into the traditional school system.

What I feel my main goal as a tutor there is to show the students that they are better than they think they are. These kids don’t need to be “bad students,” but that is how a lot of them see themselves. I love it when a student can answer something that I can’t, in class because it shows them that they are of just as high of an intelligence level as a college student. The students at County think they are there because there are the “stupid kids” when in actuality, they have the potential of being smarter than students that come out of a regular high school. My job is not to show them this, but to have them figure it out on their own.

Loyalty is very important to the kids at County School. One reason is because of the gangs that exist and allegiance to one’s gang. The other allegiance is to the other kids that they are in school with. It seems like it is all of the students against the teacher. No one would ever want to be on the teacher’s side. Either all of the students are working or none of them are. They seem to do things as a pack. This might be the opposite thinking of whistleblowers. “Whistleblowers blow the whistle because they dread living with a corrupted self more than they dread isolation from others.” (p 90) The students I work with do fear isolation. It seems as though a kid at County would rather follow what the group wants to do rather than do the opposite (even if they know that what the group is doing is wrong).

I would like to propose an experiment. We hire some young people (after graduating high school of course) to come to County and pose as students. For a few weeks they talk with the kids and gain their trust and act similar to them. After a few weeks has passed what if these students (making up roughly half the class) started to do their work and listen to the teacher…would the rest follow?

prompt for week of 4/19--2nd reading in Whistleblowers

Again, the purpose of this prompt is to encourage you to think about textual concepts in relation to your work with the community (as this is what the final paper is all about!)--at the same time, the expectation is that the class discussion will engage many more points in the reading. The more textual concepts that you can bring into your posting, the better, but we will be covering more in the class discussion then you probably be able to unpack in this blog.

Alford talks about Arendt's "suspicion" that ethical behavior is grounded in our imaginative ability to "take others into account"(60). What Arendt means is that although we are subjective beings and can only experience reality through our own set of conditions--we have the capacity to imaginatively project ourselves into the reality of others. Thus, identification, humanization of the other, becomes a source of or motivation for ethical behavior.

Alford elaborates on the whistleblower's challenge using Buber's idea that "empathy is like a bridge, thrown from 'self-being to self-being across the abyss of the dread of the universe.'" He adds that for whistleblowers, "one end of this bridge must be supported by an imaginary abutment" (60). He uses the experience of the rescuer to unpack this distinction, explaining that unlike the rescuer who deals with particular persons, the whistleblower is driven to act by abstract ideals, not the concrete presence of the other.

He goes back to this idea at the end of Chapter 5: "Morality stems from empathy, in which we are deeply affected by the sufferings of others. . . It is easy to feel empathy for the sufferings of others, even when fear and ideology often team up to muffle this feeling." He sums up: "In a sense morality is easy, if by morality we mean feeling empathy and concern for others. What is difficult is acting on this basis when the self must pay a terrible price. . ." (95).

Of course, we don't all have to be whistleblowers and sacrifice all that is good in our lives for our ego-ideal--the values that we believe make our life worth living. In the service that you do for this class, hopefully you have more to gain than to lose--especially as the hope is that this experience, if nothing else, will deepen your learning in this class.

There are many different ways you could go with this prompt--if you are doing indirect service, you might reflect on the resources you have drawn on to address a larger ethical concept than that embodied in the presence/suffering of another individual. Even if you are doing direct service, you might find the larger issue to be the true motivator.

Or, you might describe the ways in which you have experienced that bridging to another human being or a cause that Buber describes. Or, you might reflect on the ways you have seen others do so in your service. Or, you might think about what you or others you work with sacrifice for shared ideals.

Basically, I am hoping you will think about your own resources for ethical action, and/or what motivates those you serve with, and how you or someone you serve with bridges the gap between nice idea and lived reality. . .

Responsibility and Guilt

I believe I have a very sensitive conscience. If I have done something wrong or haven't completed my work I cant sleep, and often get very fatigued. AS stated on page 147 of Responsibility and Judgement, "Guilt singles out; its strictly personal." I feel this all the time. With my service learning I often feel guilty about the dogs we don't save. I feel this guilt because I have singled them out for a reason, either they weren't cute enough or too big. I feel the guilt for the ones who die who I didnt choose. Its a very hard thing to live with.

In contrast, "The question is never whether an individual is good but whether his conduct is good for the world he lives in." (151) This is the other side of what I feel. I feel good for the ones i save. I am not doing this for myself I am doing this for the community of the animals who have no voice. "Powerlessness which always presupposes isolation is a valid excuse for doing nothing."(156) this quote grabbed me! I feel powerless most of the time. I feel that there is not enough in this world i can do to help all the animals. But I am not powerless nor can i think i am. Like the author stated it is a valid excuse for doing nothing. With my service learning I am doing something. I am making changes. I am picking up after the irresponsibility of another human. Being in the rescue world someone had to breed that dog that now sits in a kill shelter watching his/her time pass by. It's frustrating as hell that people cant take responsibility and kick their strong willed dignity of breeding out the window.

On page 160 it talks about evil doing, and whether it is just sin based. I don't think it is. Breeding a dog is not a sin but it can be considered an evil doing in the world that my service learning pertains too. Responsibility can be so problematic for some people. They just cant grasp the idea of owning up to their evil doing or what problems they have created in this world. In the world of animal rescue the same people who are helping the animals are only picking up what the irresponsible people have left behind. Thousands of homeless animals with not enough people to love them.

Lifes Choices

It has long been established that we willfully make choices. I believe that we are the product of our environment and our life’s experiences; which plays a big part in how we choose to do whatever it is we do. If the world is to change we must like Jane Goodall said start with our young. (Respect for Life PDF Pg. 10 ). It is important to teach about and create an environment that speaks to saving and making our world better; both physically and emotionally, or we will destroy it as we know it, and certainly make it worse. We are at a turning point; we can turn things around, before it’s too late. I was fortunate to grow up in an environment, which promoted fairness, and being humane to one another, as well as taking care of our environment.

I benefited from Jane Goodall’s beliefs. I know first hand that she lived her life practicing what she believed in. I attended a school as a young person that she visited and personally supported. I had the opportunity to meet her on several occasions, when she visited my school to speak. Jane Goodall was impressed by the way my school taught us to respect others and our planet. We were learning in the type of environment, she spoke of as being, one in which young people needed to live in. This school played a vital part, in the way I view the world today. Like Jane Goodall, I feel that our environment and life experiences, has a lot to do with shaping us to be who we are; which I feel in turn, is a determining factor in the choices we make.

My project involves getting a candidate elected, who believes in making the district a better place for all residents who live there, as well as the city as a whole; thus creating a healthy environment, and giving the peoples interests first priority In the end, it is all about humanity and saving our world.

thoughts of county

No one lives in solidarity. We all are forced to interact with one another in some form or matter to even conduct our day to day business. This being a fact how then do we create our own personal responsibility, when so much of your life is dependent on your interactions with others? In the readings Arendt talks about this idea of collective responsibility and while there is no direct contribution on your part you are still held responsible. This I believe applies to the mentality that I see in County. This idea that “we are all guilty” (pg. 148) unites the students with one another, since they see each other in the same place in life. This unity is great for creating and defining a community, but the problem that arises counteracts exactly what the community stands for; individual responsibility. In a community where “everyone is guilty”, in reality creates one where “no one is guilty” (pg.148). This is where my question arises; how do you create an environment that promotes individual responsibility, when the very community that is formed seems to promote the opposite? I don’t know the answer to this question and it vexes me when I see it played out at County. Yet at the same time you can see those students we don’t identify with this group mentality and it makes me smile when I see students try to make a difference. I bring this up because it proves that this problem of group thinking isn’t impossible to overcome, but we still need to fix the institute so that group think isn’t only overcome by those of the strongest of wills and inner discipline.

Guilt responsibility and sins

In reading the chapter on collective responsibility i was able to relate guilt and responsibility to phoenix academy at county. Could us as not only us citizens but as human beings be responsible for taking care of our community and youth. I would think yes to a certain extent. When I see the the students at phoenix struggling with an addiction or just simply trying to solve a simple math problem I cant help it but to feel a bit guilty. Even though I have not caused the problem towards these children i feel a bit guilty. This could be the reason why maybe so many people help out their community. Because we are apart of this country and are apart of this government we tend to feel guilty because our government does not do anything to help. thats why many of us try our best one way or another. either by running for mayor to make a difference in your city or just by simply volunteering at a school. I related this even more when Arendt stated that we are held accountable for the sins of our fathers. Because there is so many problems in our country or community because of what our fathers did in the past and now not only do we feel guilty but we have a responsibility to help out and change our community for the better.

An Unacknowledged Freedom

While reading Collective Responsibility by Hannah Arendt, I found the most interesting topic she brought up was the conflict between the responsibility of one’s self versus the responsibility of their community. I feel this is a conflict that every person struggles with. This is why organizations like MarinLink are so important. MarinLink lends a hand to local nonprofit organization to offer them legal and business advice so these positive organizations can flourish. MarinLink and the organizations that it helps allow citizens to fulfill that responsibility to their community to create a better environment for their neighbors and family. One aspect of this that really got my attention is when Ardent discusses how it a right for citizens to NOT participate in politics and their community, and that this is a right that most people take for granted. In the reading she states:

“…in free countries a certain group of citizens may not want to participate… simply because they have chosen to take advantage of one of our liberties, the pone usually not mentioned when we count our freedoms because it is so much taken for granted, and that is freedom from politics” (154).

I find this quote so powerful because it puts into light how much Americans take for granted the right to speak out against a politician or simply not walk down to the voting booth. Ardent brings up examples such as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union when under the power of Stalin. When faced with this type of situation, members within these communities face a death sentence for something that anyone living in the United States would not think twice about doing. This reading opened my eyes to on going conflict within each member of a community and the fact that they have a choice at all to decide whether or not to participate is freedom unacknowledged.

Blog for April 5, 2010

Blog for April 5, 2010

The students at the MYC are a group of young people who, working with adults are increasing their potential in all areas of art, music, computers, and life skills.
Hannah Arendt states on page 163, that “our desire to know opens up further horizons of knowables.” She goes on to state, that our desire to know stems from several things, one being curiosity.
The youth at MYC are reaching for knowledge not only by showing up each day or each week, but retaining what they have learned. They are learning to pass along to others what they have learned as a result of their practice in different skills of computers and video.
The Luna group has been learning software programs that can be used to implement music into a video and cartoons to superimpose onto film. The knowledge these girls learn may at some point in their lives become a passion that leads them into the computer world, TV, film, or even teaching. It may also become a hobby that they can pass along to others.
The girls in the Luna group are also learning how to work together and follow directions. This past week while making a video, one of the girls suggested making Q-Cards. Not only did this help the “actors” that were on screen, it was a lesson in learning to co-operate with each other. This decision was made with just the girls with no adult input.

Thinking at County...

At County School I see a lot of peer pressure and kids doing things just because the other kids are doing it, or not doing things because the other kids are not doing it. As part of a community there the kids feel safest by doing what everyone else there is doing. “Non-participation is actually a form of resistance.” (p 155) When the student I work with often, Mariella is in class without her friends she is willing and excited to do what the teacher and I ask her to do. She will sit down and complete her work with no fight at all. When Mariella is sitting next to her friends she will talk to them and goof around instead of work on the class work. Also, whenever I see her coming to class, she comes alone. When she has skipped school I see her outside of school grounds hanging out with her friends. If she were to not participate in the side conversations her classmates have during class or not participate in skipping school, she would be resisting peer pressure; which I wish she would. In this case not participating is harder than participating.

Non-thinking really pops out to me as an issue in every part of my life. What the kids at County are doing is “non-thinking” when they adhere to the rules of their community. Their governing body is not their teachers, but the other kids that go to school there. The rule is, “hate your teacher and hate learning,” and to go against that is showing some personal thought on the part of the student. I am so happy when a student actually works to learn something or listens to what the teacher says because they are breaking away from the rules. “By shielding people against the dangers of examination, it teaches them to hold fast to whatever the prescribed rules of conduct may be at a given time in a society.” (p 178) Several times during a class period I see kids break away from the non-thinking peer pressure of the school and look forward toward learning and an educational future.