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.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-22 02:47 pm (UTC)Wah?
(I realize that has nothing to do with your thesis, which to me is even more amusing because it's really the part of your post I should have been able to follow with ease)
(We do need to get together and visit - I'd love to be a sounding board for your ideas if you ever want to toss them out at someone who loves a good argument - when I'm not over-tired - and is willing to switch sides if needed)
(Heck, we just need to visit and have tea anyway!)
(I'm avoding work right now. Chrysto can't find me if I hide in your journal comments!)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From: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.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-25 03:00 pm (UTC)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.
There is a third way here: that the poor are responsible for themselves, but that we should still give to the poor because it is to our own benefit (spiritual, economic and all other kinds of benefits). The responsibility of each for himself does not diminish my ability to be charitable. And my lack of *requirement* to be charitable does not remove my *option* to be (and my joy in being) charitable. The creation of obligation removes much of what is good in charity. It is freedom that allows us to be good.
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.
What is "character" here? What would it be to act outside of one's (as you indicated, mutable) character? This sentence is at risk of being circular reasoning. How could you demonstrate this assertion; if I were to act outside my character, would you tell me that my character has changed? If so, is this nothing more than a tautology?
The rich are not free to see the imago dei in their neighbors and treat them as loved children of God,
I am rich and am touched daily with the image of God (and God herself) in everyone. It is the core point of most of my writings (I friended you, so you can go back and look). It is because I believe in the God within everyone that I believe that they can each become more than their current station, whether rich or poor. Through the God within them, the poor are "free to actualize their real potential." That I may be able to help them do that is a gift of God to me, but only the individual can become what they wish or need to be; others cannot do it for them. It is the separation of people's character into economic classes that obscures the imago dei. Good and evil are found in all portions of the economic spectrum.
(no subject)
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