What a wonderful world we live in. A world full of ideas and opinions that can coincide with one another or contrast but either way not all of them will be the same. My question is, how can we just take and accept one view as truth, when we should explore all others as well?
The fact is we are all guilty of this, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, we will have a limited view of something. We share the common flaw of, as the writer Chimamanda Adichie calls it, going by a "single story." What Adichie believes and what I believe as well, is that we need to destroy this limitation of the "single story" view and be willing and able to decide our beliefs for ourselves and not have to depend on others to form them for us. In Adichie's interview "The Danger of a Single Story," she reveals many different examples of having these limiting views and from them spring an immense mix of ignorance and stereotypical thought. Her description of her time in America is composed primarily of her being constantly singled out by her ethnicity more than anything else. She tells of a roommate she once had and the shock she had when she heard her speak English so well, not knowing that English was the national language of Adichie's native country Nigeria. And then the same roommate continued to assume that Adichie was in fact unfamiliar with simple technologies like a stove for instance. For much of her time in school she was expected to know things about Africa whether or not it was involved with her home country or not. She herself formed these ignorant type of ideas in her own life about the illegal immigration of Mexicans into the U.S.; people, as she was told by the media, were desperate and miserable, only to find that they were just a group of people living their lives.
We cannot allow ourselves to be reliant on one view presented us; we need to be capable of looking at other view and must escape from these shortened views of a much larger world and only then can we determine what is right what is wrong, what are lies and what are truths.
Wow, Addison. Your response was very interesting. You made a great point when you said that we are all guilty of having this one-sided view; it is almost as if we are all criminals in having and going by a single story. You really went into depth when you commented on Adichie's video and made me further understand the things mentioned. I enjoyed reading this and your response had a very good rhythm to it. Your choice of words was well picked and you had a great into and ending; the attention grabber worked is all I can say. What a wonderful world we live in; I do so agree. Well, with your conclusion, I agree with what you say too, because we do need to escape from other's virtual worlds; we first need the freedom to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteAddy, your response was great.
ReplyDeleteI liked your introduction, especially when you asked, "How can we just take and accept one view as truth, when we should explore all others as well?" I stopped reading for a few minutes, and just thought about an answer to it. I think that exploring other ideas is more beneficial to people, in that it allows them to make a more knowledgeable decision on which "truth" to believe. I myself have to remember that just because another person's idea is different from mine, it is not wrong; rather, it is just different.
I didn't watch the video, so the fact that you were able to give me a premise was helpful. Your analysis of Chimamanda Adichie's experience in relation to all of humanity was very interesting. I have to agree with the fact that we are all guilty of having limited views and can all work on being open minded. Also, I liked how you concluded with some suggestions as to how to become better as a society overall. Throughout my reading, I too was trying to come up with ways to solve the problem, and your ideas were very different from mine.
I like your point of view, and your ideas are very insightful! It would have been awesome if you elaborated even further on them, because they're very interesting to read!