COMFORTABLY NUMB
As a result of this weeks’ homework, I am reminded of the song: Comfortably Numb, by Pink Floyd. It’s a song of quiet desperation. I used to play it at a time when I was deeply yearning to be seen and heard by someone I loved, who was supposed to be there for me, but wasn’t. After a long time, I lost a sense of hope, and as a result, became numb to my own feelings of vulnerability. For me, this song, then, seems like a metaphor for the current condition of society, and the disillusionment felt by the many people who struggle from not being seen or heard, which can lead to a loss of hope. As well, through the readings, it is clear that, individualism, fueled even further by capitalistic ideologies, results in a lack of inclusion that is not the basis of a true democracy. I see this as a time of “Critical Awakening” from that very disconnection that ails us. It is personal, but it is also institutional.
What struck me, in “Daring Democracy” by Lappe and Eichen, was the idea that “Americans are fundamentally not a divided people,” in terms of “our values and our vision” with the exception of the super-rich (p.3). However, the biggest impression this piece made on me, was the idea that “what crushes the human spirit most is that our voices are meaningless, that we feel we have ‘nothing to say, nothing to contribute, that we don’t count’”, and that this “sense of futility is what destroys us” (p.4). The authors call it the “emotional plague that affects Americans across all political lines.” Over and over again it seems that true change begins with our humanness, and the willingness to move beyond our self-centeredness, so that we may see and hear everyone’s voices in our society.
This leads me to question how I am living, and to look at my own ideas of individualism and independence, which I used to so highly prize. I am feeling a responsibility to look even more critically at the needs of others in my own community. In “Daring Democracy” I resonated with the three essential things that human’s need to survive: “the need for connection, meaning (purpose), and a sense of agency (personal power)” (p.6). I believe that real human connection starts with the simplest and smallest acts of kindness, consideration, and awareness, which eventually may lead toward a more outward role in using our voices and participating in activism to stand for something (a cause) beyond just ourselves. In ‘The Ethics of Authenticity,” Charles Taylor speaks of “‘the great chain of being’ in which humans figured in their proper place” bringing light to the idea that individualism has disrupted an important hierarchical order “which gave meaning to the world and to the activities of social life ” (p.3). He wants us to see that what is lost is something important, and that the direct result of this disruption is that “people no longer have a sense of higher purpose.” This is a stunning revelation. Have we all not felt this feeling that our world has begun to seem way too narrow? For Taylor, “people lost their broader vision because they focused on their individual lives” (p.4). Most of us never think of the “dark side of individualism” and that this is what “flattens and narrows our lives” (p.4). I am thinking about that now.
In working with my Community Partner, Parent Services Project (PSP), in the Canal District, I am aware that the immigrant families who participate there, are at a disadvantage in a community where socioeconomic status is high and where the majority of people are white. Though the children of this program will likely be enrolled in schools where there are more immigrant families than not, it is important that their needs are equally understood and addressed, and that they have access to the services which will allow their children to succeed on the same level as all children in Marin. Inclusivity rather than “othering” is important here. PSP is working to prepare the children and their parents within a local community center, which serves them. They are feeling a common connection with others in their community and the value of programs that help prepare their children for kindergarten, with kindness and care. The circle of “human concern” is felt here in the sense of community-inclusivity, and in the desire of others to help ensure that that children will thrive.
