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| Democratic National Convention in Chicago (1968). Photo by Perry Riddle. |
After Frankie returns to the United States and encounters hosility from protestors and taxi drivers and indifference and apathy from the bystanders, she wonders, "What was wrong with the world?" (216)
This question is simple. Based on the world described in the text so far (and the way the story has been told?), what would you say is "wrong with the world"?
The biggest thing that was wrong with the world is the same thing that is still wrong with it today. There's a severe lack of compassion and empathy, even for the people you disagree with on a foundational level. If we all just had more compassion and love for one another the world would be an easier place to live in. It doesn't mean we all have to agree about everything, we just need to not hate one another.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a wonderful point, Paige. I agree that there is a lack of compassion and empathy today. It can be difficult to find mutual respect when discussing issues that you can't seem to agree on. Common ground and being able to have a conversation about these complex issues and perspectives creates a lack of understanding amongst people, furthering the divide. Simply being able to respect another person's conclusion to an issue would help to make the world an easier place to get along. There is no perfect answer sometimes.
DeleteThe biggest issue with the world at this time was people’s ability to jump to conclusions without evidence. As people, we naturally fill in the blanks on our conclusions to build what we feel like is a full puzzle. That quality can become weaponized when we don’t have enough context as to the picture we’re trying to paint; veterans returning from Vietnam became the victims of incorrectly made judgements. Citizens were still living comfortably in the States at this time, far from the horrors of war and near all their creature comforts and ideal lives. Some of them decided to volunteer for the military and fight a foreign threat, while others were drafted into service. Either way, once they were deployed they weren’t able to control the inhumane and unorthodox tactics used against them by the Viet Cong, such as child soldiers equipped with bombs. The only thing those soldiers could control was their will to survive their tour. This forced them to make impossible decisions so they could make it back home to their families at the end of the war. Then, people living in the states heard fragments of what was going on overseas and made their own conclusions. The ignorance to the true conditions in Vietnam, plus the growing distrust of the war effort, and the narrow view from their ivory towers led to the demonization of good people making a sacrifice for their country.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest issue is accountability and trust. Not many people trusted the government in the Vietnam days. Many bad things were happening in Vietnam and the truth was being twisted and spat back out to the American people. It definitely wouldn't have been easy to trust the government under such circumstances. I think many people had issues with trusting anything new because of their lack of trust for the government. Honesty was severely lacking back then and I think that was one of the biggest issues with the world.
ReplyDeleteQuestion- One of the biggest problems in the world is the follower mentality many people have. When a loud voice is shouting about an issue or a specific standpoint, it is easy to follow and shout with them. The problem with this is that people follow blindly, without further research on the topic, or the other side of the argument is ignored. When a movement grows and the people become more absorbed in the adrenaline rush of protesting, they seem to lose a sense of reality. Empathy towards people declines, and people turn on each other. Lack of empathy is seen when Frankie arrives back and is spat on. The lack of knowledge on the subject is shown when the people shouting at her call her “baby killer” when, in fact, she is a nurse who saved people. If they had known instead of following the protest, they would have been able to identify her as a nurse from her uniform.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies I forgot again, Taylor Inselman.
DeleteThe problem back then was the division. Everyone was divided between beliefs, women’s roles, women’s rights, mental health, gay rights, African American rights, and whether you’re a democrat or a republican. There was always a side to choose, always a side that was ‘wrong.’ There was no middle ground, mainly because no one wanted to talk about it. What happens when nothing is discussed and things are assumed? The wrong message is spread. The truth never comes to light. Misunderstanding weaves into lies and disparities. Most people never truly think about what it’s like to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. The United States is so focused on individuality. It can be hard to see the bigger picture, hard to look past ourselves and take a moment to listen and to understand differences.
ReplyDeleteThe fundamental thing wrong with the world is the inability for people to understand their fellow human. We wake up, and we begin to learn. No one has the correct answers. We beat against the wave with no land in sight. But we take these answers from the confidence of our elders who, most without realizing it, tell us in a way that acts as if its obvious, as if it has to be the truth. From this, we become the people are today. So does everyone else. And from the moment of contact between people - they look at another being with their own eyes. Eyes made from everything that has happened to them. Eyes made not only from parents. But language. Class. Education. Love. Whether they have heard the yell of a parent, or they have had to fight in a war. How the world has treated them based on the color of their skin. How much love they have known.
ReplyDeleteIt is this ailment of people not knowing the Other that, by default, they instinctively treat them as the same as the ground below them. It is from the human weakness of ignorance of their fellow consciousness-dwellers that such hate can reign.
As for solutions, the one I have more faith in than most is art. Art's ability to express human nature is ingrained in its appeal, I think. It is true that an artwork cannot stop a war. But It is my hope that it can be able to ease humanity's pathological predilection with it. Not at the bullet, not at the spit thrown on the way out of an insult. But in the mind, at the moment of contact. Where a young child looks upon a beautiful passage or a beautiful painting or a beautiful song or a beautiful anything and thinks to themselves, "I am not alone." Because the artist knows what the person feels like too. And if the artist knows, who else may know?
Art will not administer aid to the symptoms. The Mona Lisa cannot stop a bullet. Yet, perhaps, and maybe it is my blind, naive, optimistic faith saying this, that if anything has any chance of alleviating the causes of hate - it is art. It is the love found within this art. I do not think humanity will ever be fully non-ignorant (Utopias can be a dangerous idea), but perhaps this is where the medicine may begin. And I also think art has a long ways to go - despite how long it has existed. I think that just shows how hard art is.
Zachariah Hobia
DeleteI believe that the biggest thing that is “wrong with the world” is the lack of decency that has been around for much of time. There will not always be perfect solutions in all cases of disagreements. This being said, we can always go into things with compassion to the beliefs that others may behold, even if they do not align with our own. People are entitled to their own thoughts and opinions, and I believe that this needs to be true more often.
ReplyDelete