Education and Acceptance- Final Blog

Recently I saw an insurance commercial on TV that said as drivers we should act more like each other’s neighbors. They showed images of people floating by each other as if they were in their cars. The commercial was meant to be emotional and to encourage people to be more careful when driving and treat each other as neighbors not just as hunks of metal flying down the road. Seeing this commercial made me think about how, as a society, we need to treat people more like our neighbors and friends. Everyday people pass each other by without a smile or a simple hello. Whether it is from fear, distraction or simply not caring, everyone needs to become more aware of each other and simply recognize that we are all sharing this planet. Despite our differences we have a responsibility as citizens of this world to be educated and open-minded about others and the narratives that they have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Throughout Bessie Heads novel, A Question of Power, we are able to see how she examines the responsibility that citizens should take in today’s world. Early on in the novel Head discuss how her main character, Elizabeth, experiences the massive suffering that people experience around the world: “It was then that she was able to link up that particular expression with thousands and thousands of other people who had died terrible and violent deaths” (Head, 39). Here, through Elizabeth’s complicated struggle to maintain her sanity, Head introduces the realization that many people are suffering around the world. As a living and active member of this world we need to take on responsibility to do our part, we need to “learn how to stand outside ourselves, literally seeing ourselves as a character in a novel” (Burton, 131). By taking a step back we will hopefully be able to see the affect that we have on others, and make conscious choices to improve our lives as well as others. By simply looking past oneself and offering help, “I’ll help you” (Head, 58), hopefully people will begin to break away from the isolation that they experience, “The man’s instinctive sympathy and offer of help was the nearest any human being had approached her isolation” (Head, 58). Through Elizabeth, Head states that, “People only function well when their inner lives are secure and peaceful” (49). So by helping others we are essentially helping ourselves and our ever changing world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        According to Rob Burton’s book, Artists of the Floating World, “Firstly to be a citizen of the floating world is to recognize and acknowledge the narratives that constitute our identity” (Burton, 131). We must first know who we are and how we got where we are today in order to identify ourselves as part of this world. Throughout Kazuo Ishiguro’s book, An Artist of the Floating World, we are able to see that, “this is neither easy nor painless” (Burton, 131). Ishiguro explores the hardships that the artist Masuji Ono faces throughout his life. It is through Ono’s life narrative that Ishiguro offers insight into what he considers the responsibilities of citizen’s within a floating world to be: “ ‘Artists, my father’s voice continued, ‘live in squalor and poverty. They inhabit a world which give them every temptation to become weak-willed and depraved” (Ishiguro, 46). This suggest that despite that fact that Ishiguro is using the narrative example of artists, he is attempting to say that we all live in a world that gives us, “temptation to become weak-willed and depraved”. Our duty as citizens within this world is to be aware of that, and despite the temptations that lay before us understand that it is part of our world and our narrative which essentially makes us who we are. Burton says that, “narratives are constantly in the process of being reshaped and rewritten” (Burton, 131), we are able to change and do frequently. We all come from different backgrounds and places and hold different religious and cultural beliefs but we need to all work together to understand and accept one another.

 

 

 

 

 

Ishiguro also explores another topic that is of extreme importance in today’s world: “Brave young men die for stupid causes” (Ishiguro, 58). Whether you are from Asia, Africa or the United States this is a real and prevalent issue in our world. There are senseless wars being fought where people are being killed for, “stupid causes”. Within Ishiguro’s novel he is referring to Ono’s son’s death, but everyday families are stripped of their own. By placing this event in his main characters narrative he is able to bring to light an issue that faces us today. How are we, as responsible citizens, going to stop these senseless deaths? We need to understand and respect each others differences. We all have our own narrative and it is, “important to recognize the importance of words as carriers of cultural meaning” (Burton, 132). Misunderstandings, anger and hate contribute to most of the senseless deaths that occur around the world. Burton says that, “One way to increase respect for language is to be open to foreign languages” (Burton, 132). By doing this not only will it help increase respect for others languages as Burton suggests, but also increase our respect for each others different cultures and backgrounds. Being educated about others and their narratives can help us learn to live together peacefully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So amid the narratives of hope and despair that surround us in our modern world, education and acceptance is essentially the key to understanding one another and being productive citizens of society and essentially our world. So the next time that you race past someone on the road, travel abroad, or encounter someone with different beliefs remember that in order to be a productive citizen of “the floating world”, we need to be open to others ideas and remember that we all have different narratives which contribute in different ways.