Spring Break
Tune in, make change
Robert Sanchez
Issue date: 4/5/07 Section: Forum
One could argue that we live in a sick world, and while the root cause of our illness is debatable, the symptoms are clear. Every day, if we listen, we hear more evidence that all is not well. Just look at a newspaper and read the headlines: "Student dies after drinking binge," "Schools struggle to avoid tuition hikes," "Boys accused of beating homeless man," "Teacher indicted on charges of sex with five students," and on and on …
With all our technology, with all our progress, with all our wishes for a life where human actions do not add to the world's troubles, why do so many ills persist? Why do our choices seem to recreate endlessly the horrors of violence, of cruelty, of destruction and despair? There are many roots to the social maladies which plague us. Some are clear and easily approachable, and we pick at them and worry about them growing back, as we would a dandelion. Some are known to us, and yet are left alone, to fester, to spread and turn malignant, a tumor in the body of humanity. And some, it would seem, are yet unknown, buried deeply in our subconscious, in the recesses of awareness that we keep always locked.
One root cause of our problems is lack of knowledge. We all see the world differently, and it is our perception that shapes all our thoughts. We derive meaning from objects and ideas and we place things in relation to each other through the lens of our world view. If our knowledge base is not sufficiently broad, we can hope only for a myopic perspective, and a consequently narrow-minded world view. Cliché as it sounds, that there is always more to learn.
A lack of information can manifest itself negatively in many ways, but I want to focus here on how it affects the health of democracy. As an organizational system for managing the needs of people, democracy evolves as groups grow and change. Democracy has seen many forms, ranging the spectrum from full participatory to strictly representative, but certain elements have always been essential, including an informed and active public. Without information we can be steered, we wear blinders, we are as cattle to be herded, fattened, slaughtered, and not as we would chose, but at the whims of those more informed and more involved.
Uncensored, inclusive, and detailed information is increasingly hard to come by. Most large newspapers, magazines, television stations, and publishing companies are owned by six corporations. It is not news quality but audience size that controls profit levels. The majority of mainstream news is more like entertainment than a source of real facts and knowledge. Corporate ownership of our news sources leaves us in a very weak position. It is a sad fact that most news is tailored not toward informing the public for the good of our county and ourselves, but toward maintaining the status quo and enriching stockholders. With the real story often buried in fluff or obscured by carefully leading contexts and ambiguous content, one must work ever harder to learn what is truly going on.
Information combines with experience, and understanding is the synthesis of the two. In order to sooth the ills within and around us, understanding must be combined with action. Not much is really handed to us, and to see positive change, we typically must be proactive. No one is alone in their desire to see an end to suffering and injustice, but the challenge of confronting entrenched attitudes or institutions certainly feels daunting. For me the secret is finding where I fit, where I have a comparative advantage. Also, little things count, because they add up fast when multiplied by thousands, millions, even billions of people. Imagine if every one picked up one piece of trash once a day. Within a week, how different the world would be. How would we feel about having created such a massive improvement in our world with so little individual effort? Within certain physical limits, working together, we really can do anything.
The problem is getting things started, and a major obstacle to creating action is lack of awareness and open-mindedness among the general public. "Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News," by David Mindich, uses national survey data to show that fewer and fewer young people pay attention to what is happening around them. Mindich states in his introduction that "there is no democracy without an informed citizenry, and the future of our democracy depends on young people tuning back in." We live in a country with great freedoms and a deep respect for our right to participate in charting the path our nation travels. Democracy requires participation, like a muscle requires exercise, to prevent it from atrophying and eventually dying, becoming a democracy in name alone.
So we can sit back, plug in to our iPods, go to Myspace and Facebook, and watch history unfold around us. We can hear about rat poison in pet food, the rising cost of living, wars all over the world, and still be content in the relative comfort and safety of our personal lives. What responsibility do we have to anyone besides ourselves, right? I am reminded of that famous poem by Niemöller:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
We create the world we live in with our choices. It can be good or bad, so why not work to make it good? Be kind, pick up that piece of trash, hold the door for someone, remember to appreciate, and remember to love, do the easy little things that add up so fast.
---
Robert Sanchez is a sophomore in natural resources. The opinions expressed in his columns, which appear every Thursday, do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Daily Barometer staff. Sanchez can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.
With all our technology, with all our progress, with all our wishes for a life where human actions do not add to the world's troubles, why do so many ills persist? Why do our choices seem to recreate endlessly the horrors of violence, of cruelty, of destruction and despair? There are many roots to the social maladies which plague us. Some are clear and easily approachable, and we pick at them and worry about them growing back, as we would a dandelion. Some are known to us, and yet are left alone, to fester, to spread and turn malignant, a tumor in the body of humanity. And some, it would seem, are yet unknown, buried deeply in our subconscious, in the recesses of awareness that we keep always locked.
One root cause of our problems is lack of knowledge. We all see the world differently, and it is our perception that shapes all our thoughts. We derive meaning from objects and ideas and we place things in relation to each other through the lens of our world view. If our knowledge base is not sufficiently broad, we can hope only for a myopic perspective, and a consequently narrow-minded world view. Cliché as it sounds, that there is always more to learn.
A lack of information can manifest itself negatively in many ways, but I want to focus here on how it affects the health of democracy. As an organizational system for managing the needs of people, democracy evolves as groups grow and change. Democracy has seen many forms, ranging the spectrum from full participatory to strictly representative, but certain elements have always been essential, including an informed and active public. Without information we can be steered, we wear blinders, we are as cattle to be herded, fattened, slaughtered, and not as we would chose, but at the whims of those more informed and more involved.
Uncensored, inclusive, and detailed information is increasingly hard to come by. Most large newspapers, magazines, television stations, and publishing companies are owned by six corporations. It is not news quality but audience size that controls profit levels. The majority of mainstream news is more like entertainment than a source of real facts and knowledge. Corporate ownership of our news sources leaves us in a very weak position. It is a sad fact that most news is tailored not toward informing the public for the good of our county and ourselves, but toward maintaining the status quo and enriching stockholders. With the real story often buried in fluff or obscured by carefully leading contexts and ambiguous content, one must work ever harder to learn what is truly going on.
Information combines with experience, and understanding is the synthesis of the two. In order to sooth the ills within and around us, understanding must be combined with action. Not much is really handed to us, and to see positive change, we typically must be proactive. No one is alone in their desire to see an end to suffering and injustice, but the challenge of confronting entrenched attitudes or institutions certainly feels daunting. For me the secret is finding where I fit, where I have a comparative advantage. Also, little things count, because they add up fast when multiplied by thousands, millions, even billions of people. Imagine if every one picked up one piece of trash once a day. Within a week, how different the world would be. How would we feel about having created such a massive improvement in our world with so little individual effort? Within certain physical limits, working together, we really can do anything.
The problem is getting things started, and a major obstacle to creating action is lack of awareness and open-mindedness among the general public. "Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News," by David Mindich, uses national survey data to show that fewer and fewer young people pay attention to what is happening around them. Mindich states in his introduction that "there is no democracy without an informed citizenry, and the future of our democracy depends on young people tuning back in." We live in a country with great freedoms and a deep respect for our right to participate in charting the path our nation travels. Democracy requires participation, like a muscle requires exercise, to prevent it from atrophying and eventually dying, becoming a democracy in name alone.
So we can sit back, plug in to our iPods, go to Myspace and Facebook, and watch history unfold around us. We can hear about rat poison in pet food, the rising cost of living, wars all over the world, and still be content in the relative comfort and safety of our personal lives. What responsibility do we have to anyone besides ourselves, right? I am reminded of that famous poem by Niemöller:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
We create the world we live in with our choices. It can be good or bad, so why not work to make it good? Be kind, pick up that piece of trash, hold the door for someone, remember to appreciate, and remember to love, do the easy little things that add up so fast.
Robert Sanchez is a sophomore in natural resources. The opinions expressed in his columns, which appear every Thursday, do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Daily Barometer staff. Sanchez can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.
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