thesis and some other stuff
Sep. 22nd, 2006 06:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
2eclipsehad some ideas two nights ago for what i will do with my thesis.
dr. mitchell asked me what ideas was i struggling with in the area and i said i was really only struggling with the practical questions about how to get a job.....
well, i realized that's not really true.
I have a bit of a precis/proposal.
what i struggle with is self-justification from myself and others about WHY we should NOT give to the poor and why many believe....not that the poor are responsible for the poor (which is true) but that the rest of us are NOT responsible. In my mind, this is really an issue about free will and how we view it in this country. We are so married to the idea of our own independence (and that is not only because it is our history but because we are terrified of the alternative). It is not that we are not responsible for our own actions, but that we are also responsible for how our actions effects others, making us responsible for them and to them.....and we often ignore that idea or hide from it in this country. We are fond of saying "only we control our actions" but there is a framework outside of which we are not free to act. We are not free to be other than ourselves, for example. We are (mostly)not free to do things out of character, although we are free to change our characters. America's marriage to a narrow view of free will keeps us from seeing the poor as whole people. We generalize about people that "should be working" without acknowledging that they also are only as free as their abilities and their character. It also keeps both rich and poor from being free. The rich are not free to see the imago dei in their neighbors and treat them as loved children of God, and the poor are not free to actualize their real potential.
i believe in free will. I believe that we are responsible for our own actions, so i will be effectively arguing with myself some of the time....but i think there is another side to the truth as well and that unless we hold both sides of the argument together in tension with one another, we cannot see the whole picture or the whole truth.
if everything goes well, i am thinking of calling it My Brother's Keeper: Free-will and Poverty in America.
my cynicism thinks it is more likely that kendal soulen will make me re-write my topic all over again.
on the other side of things, jory interviewed for my position today. i told him it was okay to apply even though i don't think he'd be any happier there than i am. he might actually have a long-term future there as a salesman, whereas i'm pretty sure they will not hire me due to my conflict with physical inventory.
dr. mitchell asked me what ideas was i struggling with in the area and i said i was really only struggling with the practical questions about how to get a job.....
well, i realized that's not really true.
I have a bit of a precis/proposal.
what i struggle with is self-justification from myself and others about WHY we should NOT give to the poor and why many believe....not that the poor are responsible for the poor (which is true) but that the rest of us are NOT responsible. In my mind, this is really an issue about free will and how we view it in this country. We are so married to the idea of our own independence (and that is not only because it is our history but because we are terrified of the alternative). It is not that we are not responsible for our own actions, but that we are also responsible for how our actions effects others, making us responsible for them and to them.....and we often ignore that idea or hide from it in this country. We are fond of saying "only we control our actions" but there is a framework outside of which we are not free to act. We are not free to be other than ourselves, for example. We are (mostly)not free to do things out of character, although we are free to change our characters. America's marriage to a narrow view of free will keeps us from seeing the poor as whole people. We generalize about people that "should be working" without acknowledging that they also are only as free as their abilities and their character. It also keeps both rich and poor from being free. The rich are not free to see the imago dei in their neighbors and treat them as loved children of God, and the poor are not free to actualize their real potential.
i believe in free will. I believe that we are responsible for our own actions, so i will be effectively arguing with myself some of the time....but i think there is another side to the truth as well and that unless we hold both sides of the argument together in tension with one another, we cannot see the whole picture or the whole truth.
if everything goes well, i am thinking of calling it My Brother's Keeper: Free-will and Poverty in America.
my cynicism thinks it is more likely that kendal soulen will make me re-write my topic all over again.
on the other side of things, jory interviewed for my position today. i told him it was okay to apply even though i don't think he'd be any happier there than i am. he might actually have a long-term future there as a salesman, whereas i'm pretty sure they will not hire me due to my conflict with physical inventory.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
precis/proposal
Date: 2006-09-23 05:13 am (UTC)I was just reading about the flood in the Birch, Bruegemann etc. Old TEstament book and your topic reminds me of the discussion there about the meaning of free will as it is described and illustrated in Genesis.
(an aside)
Reading the authors assertions that although we can count on God to keep his promise not to destroy creation we cannot count on the actions and lifestyle of humankind not to do us all in...made me think of global warming. Talk about a parent allowing his children to learn from the natural consequences of their actions....
Your topic sounds exciting and much more likely to lead you to stimulating and provocative reading and discussion than your former topic. Go for it. Love you.