Equality, the goal not the signpost.
The United States of America has a long history of inequality, from its treatment of Native Americans to women’s rights, it has tended to favor one group over others, but it has attempted to repair the damage it caused. However, even though America is the “land of opportunity,” its formerly oppressed peoples are not equal, but what does it mean to be equal? Is equality the government saying you must have the same number of employees from each arbitrarily defined “race?” Does equality mean that people should be forced to be equal? In examining this issue, one must define equality itself.
There are three forms of equality: equality of outcome, of opportunity, and of perception. Equality of perception is the most basic: it dictates that for people to be equal, each person should be perceived as being of equal worth.
Hawthorn’s “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccinni’s Daughter” and the pursuit of perfection
Failed attempts to attain perfection are a frequent subject in Hawthorne’s short stories; these attempts at perfection fail because Hawthorne’s protagonists are misguided and their own innate imperfections cloud their judgments. Hawthorne’s short stories “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” both feature a male protagonist who desires to recreate a woman into their own view of perfection. However, a person’s desires often tell more about themselves than others: the belief that something is imperfect reflects the believer not the thing. Judith Fetterly, in her essay “Women Beware Science: ‘The Birthmark,’” argues that Hawthorne’s portrayal of women’s imperfections in “The Birthmark” and other short stories says less about the women than the men who fixate on these imperfections and try to reshape them. A more Freudian approach by Frederick Crews focuses on the birthmark and the garden as icons of feminine sexuality.
It started with a post on Aardvarchaeology which was then linked by Pharyngula and responded to with a post on Uncertain Principles. Martin Rundkvist, of Aardvarchaeology, declares that US Politics Have No Left Wing which was quickly responded to by Chad Orzel, of Uncertain Prinicples, who retorted that it could just as easily said that European Politics Have No Right Wing. I agree with their base statements: Europe is left of America which is right of Europe, Europeans and Americans both got where they are through trial and error, and that many American politicians are very right-wing, but…To argue that higher taxes are fundamentally better than lower ones, and that certain political positions are better than others, and that religious politicians — regardless of how they publicly use their religion — are inherently inferior to their counterparts is a little too broad for my tastes.
The power of the individual: The American Enlightenment and Romanticism
During the 18th century, scientific and social changes reshaped the concept of the self. The individual slowly separated from the collective and began to develop as an antithesis of the collective agrarian society of prior centuries; thus, giving rise to a wave of new philosophical thought that evolved into the popular movement of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment developed around the belief that scientific thought and expression should be free from religious interference and that the foundations of society should be human reason and logic. Over time, these ideals gave rise to Romanticism which introduced the contrast of nature and the self, the internal desires, feelings and beliefs, and juxtaposed Nature with science. Franklin, Poe and Thoreau each represent one of the three popular faces of Enlightenment and Romanticism: Franklin, a well-respected Enlightenment writer, focused his writings on the improvement of the social order through improvement of the self and the realization of a deistic world; Thoreau, an Emersonian or “bright” Romantic, merged Nature with science and allowed for both to work simultaneously while emphasizing the individual’s ability to remove themselves from the flow of society; Poe, a “dark” romantic, wrote mainly on the way the individual views his world and the way the nature of the mind can recreate the world.
The following text comes from an American Army guidebook that was distributed during the second World War to soldiers stationed in Iraq.
(Emphasis added to some lines.)
SOME IMPORTANT DO’S AND DON’TS
Keep away from mosques.
Smoke or spit somewhere else—never in front of a mosque.
If you come near a mosque, keep moving (away) and don’t loiter.
Keep silent when the Moslems are praying (which they do five times a day) and don’t stare.
Discuss something else—NEVER religion or politics or women—with Moslems.
Remember the fear of the “evil eye.” Don’t stare at anyone. Don’t point your camera in anyone’s face.
Avoid offering opinions on internal politics.
Shake hands with the Iraqi; otherwise don’t touch them or slap them on the back.
Remember that the Iraqi are a very modest people and avoid any exposure of the body in their presence.
Keep out of the sun whenever you can. When you can’t, keep your head and neck covered.
Start eating only after your host has begun.
Equiano’s “Narrative” and Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”
Jacobs lead a very easy life for a slave. Being born into a kind family and having a grandmother to watch out for her allowed her to have a childhood that was almost enviable, although she was mistreated after her original mistress died she never had to experience the brutal torture many slaves faced at the hands of their masters. Many would wonder why she ran away from her home and family when her life was not all that bad and could get a lot worse, however even though her life was not in constant danger of physical abuse she was still a slave and subject to her master’s every whim. This situation alone is enough to make a person risk life and limb to be able to reach freedom.
Unlike Jacobs, Equiano was not born a slave and instead was captured at the age of 11 by slave traders, however he did not immediately get shipped to the Americas as slaves but instead his first master was from another tribe.
