The last 2 paragraphs rocked my world (my emphasis)...
"...One of Arthur Conan Doyle's major mysteries was called 'The Dog that Didn't Bark.' In 2003, Americans were falsely assured that their sons and daughters were sent off to Iraq to find and destroy Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. When word crept out these weapons were nonexistent and that the intelligence that justified the invasion were faked, why did so few people protest? When residents of New Orleans whom Hurricane Katrina had washed out of their homes went without government assistance for days and weeks, why did they not demand better from their rulers?
"As our theories and narratives have taught, modern politics contains recurring contentious streams, but it also includes oceans of apathy. We now know a lot about why citizens of authoritarian regimes are normally compliant, rising in resistance only when dramatic windows of opportunity open up. But why do citizens of democratic regimes so often sit on their hands when they have the right to resist? And when democracy depends on their active participation?" (pages 198-199.)
'Nuff said!
Dude(tte), you need to sit down with Bryan and hear him hash out the details of Cognitive Dissonance. You may know about it already, but it completely jives with the lines you just emphasized. I wish he was able to come on the retreat (too bad he is busy with another awesome conference), because I thought this concept would be interesting to many of us. Seriously, he does the topic (and its relation to development/involvement/apathy) in a passionate, fascinating style. Which I guess is how he does everything...!
ReplyDeleteAw, he's not coming? You'll have to give me a summary. I personally think development is as much a philosophical/social road as it is a scientific/practical road. Stopping and asking, "Why do people behave this way? Why don't they behave that way? What are everyone's motivations?" seem to bring important nuances to light.
ReplyDeleteAsk just about any North American and they'll say their hearts go out to the starving in Africa, that their soul aches to hear about it. I think they're telling the truth - most people are good and benevolent. So why don't they *DO* something about it, especially because we're abundant in resources ... ? That's the $1,000,000 question. Where, socially, is our system hitting its biggest bottleneck?
And where, developmentally, are other societies hitting their biggest bottlenecks? Oooh...that just gave me another idea for a blog post...
And dude, you can call me dude. :)
RIGHT!?!?
ReplyDeleteAs the unofficial (and outspoken) Philosopher/Sociologist representative here, I gotta say that THIS VERY THING baffles me! (And I agree that development can be enhanced greatly by considering the philosophical and sociological perspectives and insights).
I can't speak for how things go in other nations, but I do know that Authority (and more specifically Male Authority) are revered in North American society. Children are taught from birth that Mama and Papa know best by the simple virtue that they are the Mama and the Papa. This socialization translates into the big world as a belief that the Big Mama and Big Papa (aka: Authority) are *always* *right* - and to question them is not only frowned upon, but usually punished. (Oh, and don't even get me started on Religion's role in this idiocy!)
I had a student complaining to me the other day about a class he received a poor grade in because the professor was (in his opinion) just TERRIBLE. "Say something, then," I encouraged, "use that online Professor Rating Form ... it's anonymous and I'm sure the department -and the professor himself- will appreciate the feedback!"
"Nah," was his (totally disempowered) reply, "I don't want to get him in trouble. It's ok - it only knocked my GPA down a little bit."
So, once again, something wasn't working for someone, yet that very someone did NOTHING to remedy the problem.
Lame.
Macrocosm of this: Uh, our world.