Our Trapped Minds
The exploitation of language has blurred the vision of American “capitalism” by hindering progress in reproductive health.
When you wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror do you ask yourself, who owns me? Probably not because nobody thinks of being owned in 2017 since times have changed. However, have times really changed or have people just changed the meaning of ownership to better suit today’s progressing world? Through a linguistic approach, language is analyzed to decipher how progress and change is understood. For example, politicians have used language to manipulate information to better fit their wants and needs. Voter ignorance is a struggle affecting Americans as only 34% of the public know about government branches. By analyzing how the public interacts socially a person can concur that language has affected human development. In this article, I will argue that reproduction policy has been affecting Americans by creating ignorance and exploiting voters among the uneducated.
During the industrial age in the US, immigrants were used as cheap labor to mass produce goods for the growing economy. With the end of slavery came new laws that were designed to still trap those who were enslaved into other situations. The law is very malleable and can be bent by anybody who understands the language. The language spoken by politicians is very much reformed to be understood only by law makers. Linguistically, language has changed because “in recent years, large-scale socioeconomic transformations linked to globalization, urbanization, militarization, and environmental changes have reshaped communities through the movement of people, ideas, and commodities” (Makihara & Schieffein 1). The transformation of language has made it possible for educated people to take advantage of it in today’s politics. Many lower and middle class Americans struggle with getting a higher education due to resources being limited. The poor effort to educate the public is shown by voter ignorance because many do not know much about the government they live in or how it functions.
America was built of the capitalist idea that anybody can create a business and become something of themselves. However, the capitalist idea became a nightmare when you are not part of the wealthy few. Many lower class to middle class people work day in and day out on minimum pay or very poor pay due to the competitive market. However, when you live in an economy such as the US you are forced to work or become homeless as in recent years’ the number of homeless people has gone up. It shows how poor the economy is doing to support the people who make the economy turn. The capitalist market has made it possible for the people who own the wealth to only get richer while the ones who make the goods are kept in the dark. Karl Marx theorized about the capitalist economy and how the means of production are owned by the corporations. A company pays a person to do a job, and the person gets paid based on their ability to succeed at the job. Without a job a person is left without shelter, food, or any basic necessities. The government states it can help its people out by making affordable housing, food stamps, and many other services for those in need. However, the government does a poor job of providing these communities reliable resources. All these small factors such as positioning of races in specific geographical areas and the government’s ability to influence public money spending are examples of biopower, a topic that gives an illustration to how language allows ignorance.
Biopower is an ideology that emerged from Michel Foucault in which he argues how modern states have regulated population by using different types of techniques (Foucault 267). In today’s world biopower is used a lot to regulate reproductive health. By using specific language, law makers can slip small clauses into bills to be passed. Language is being used by politicians who are funded by corporations to favor corporations over the public. In theory corporations have more power in government as they are to be exemplified as the “majority holders of the economy”. These influences have made it possible for the funding to stop towards the Global Women’s Health Agency. The defunding of this agency is due to the usage of biopower and limits the access to equal health care for people in other countries. Limiting the health care to other countries shows that the US is going back from its traditional democratic ways to a more conservative stance.
This conservative stance is affecting thousands of women around the world by limiting their health care ability. In a country where we believe that democracy must be spread and freedom should reach all, is limiting itself to others. This new stance that the US has taken in being more conservative with its national spending shows our ignorance for progression. Foucault argues that main problem with biopower is racism, and that is what the US is showing with the rest of the world. The US is trying to show its power and its presence by stopping the funds to progression. These steps show not the unity of nations, instead it shows the ability of power and segregation. The US is no longer caring about their citizens and instead only trying to conserve more capital. Times have not really changed, but in fact just have been made more confusing with new terminology that people are still trying to understand. This leads to the issues surrounding reproduction policy because it inhibits knowledge with the use of language. With this information now I ask who owns you?
