It's nice that we can write blogs and tell everyone who cares to read what we stand for. Or analyze the latest trends, crazes and ideas. It's nice that we can express ourselves and find other people who care to comment. Or not. But in the end, does it really matter? I mean I'm most likely to read the bits and pieces that already fit my values and worldviews. What I read adds to what I already think, but it doesn't change it.If I am against abortion, I probably won't be reading Feministe (unless I want to trash them). And, it turns out, more and more young women are against abortion. I'm speechless. I simply cannot understand how a woman can be against abortion - unless she's brainwashed by religious beliefs. After all the fight that previous generations had to put up to get to the point where a woman could claim her right to her own body, some still fail to understand the importance of this right. And the price some people had to pay for it. Fighting for the right to abortion does not mean that all women get pregnant and have an abortion. It's like saying 'we are against condoms, because they encourage promiscuity'.
And if I am against abortion, it's most likely that I believe in the sanctity of my cause. Each year, some students in an university in a conservative city put up billboards on campus that equate abortion with genocide. The images are graphic, the students are believers. I'm speechless again. How can it be that students, who used to represent the revolutionary wave, have become the prophets of intolerance, blind faith and conservatism? Their 1968 French fellows must be really disappointed... Students used to represent the commitment to critical thinking and reason (I know, a heavy concept, but maybe it's time to reclaim it). Not anymore. Not since the university has become the labor-processing plant, serving the needs of governments and industry. Critical thinking is a dying breed - nobody needs it anymore.
Photo credits: Liverpool Street Station by victoriapeckham
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4 comments:
..maybe this is not a conservative attitude..maybe this is democracy...the right to ignore the others...and the right that everyone had to follow his own ideeas... and not know what anyone else think about'it..
the right to follow your own ideas is also dangerous one. it comes down to what type of ideas you have - if you are a sociopath, you'd better not follow your ideas...
ignoring one's ideas didn't work very well when it came to fascism. and i don't think it works when it comes to racism, sexism, nationalism.
i think democracy is way more complicated than 'everyone is free to think whatever they want'. we are not free, we are often manipulated. our ideas are part of ideological systems and hierarchies of power. the way we think about the world supports particular distribution of resources. social life is not that simple...
...welcome....
.of course democracy is complicated...and imperfect..and boring..and some time anoyng..and you are right that our ideas are part of ideological systems and hierarchies of power..acording with ideas what we know , and with ones that we don't know....but if you try to imagine a tipe of sistem that , teoreticaly, can determine..intentionaly...what we think...that is scary....
the democratic answer...is the diversity....
and i am sure that you can be free...if you realy want that...and if you are ready to change your life...
..knowing that "the way we think about the world supports particular distribution of resources"...means that your mind is free.....the rest will follow....maybe....
I agree with your statement about women in this (my) generation being against abortion. They can choose to never have one or have one- but to be against the law is ludicrous. The government shouldn't be allowed to tell anyone what to do with their body. That's what it's about to me.
And truer words couldn't have been said: "Students used to represent the commitment to critical thinking and reason (I know, a heavy concept, but maybe it's time to reclaim it). Not anymore.
Not since the university has become the labor-processing plant, serving the needs of governments and industry. Critical thinking is a dying breed - nobody needs it anymore"
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