SoAn Dept. Distinction Paper
By Benjamin J. Swenson
April 18, 2008
“The Role of a Sociological/Anthropological Discipline
in the Movement towards Justice”
While attempting to begin this distinction paper and reflecting on my experience, I engaged in a discussion with my friend that I feel is very representative of how the discipline of sociology has affected my daily life, ideas, and future vocation. We were discussing what theoretical and practical actions should be taken in order to best solve violent conflicts in the world. While I was supporting a necessary address towards the academically determined root causes of the problem, my friend on the other hand essentially said that this would be futile and that it only justifies and takes away blame and responsibility from the people who are committing the acts of violence [as a result of the environment made possible by this theoretical root cause]. Influenced heavily by the theories of Liberation Sociology, I am constantly involved in these academic conversations that illuminate the reasons for the seemingly irrational and violent actions of the oppressed.
This conversation, like the daily conversations I have with professors, friends, and other students on campus, are aimed at the question of what are we to do in a world that is full of pain, misery, and injustice. As a freshman who had not been exposed to Sociology, I would never have thought to challenge the status quo. Schooled in sociology, and being exposed to the realities of suffering and injustice through academic research and discussion, abroad experiences, and meeting new friends from different areas of the world during college, I have realized that so much of the conditions that create the environments in which these problems exist are the direct result of human action.
Through my past and future actions I think it would be best to illuminate information that makes people understand that the deaths that occur in so many violent conflicts in the world, especially in Palestine, are preventable. It is important for people to accurately understand that “millions of Palestinians are dispossessed and living miserable lives as the direct result of what Israel has done and is doing.” (Said, On Orientalism) Liberation sociology explains that a debate and research need to occur in society in order to understand causes of oppression and impoverishment. This debate will produce ideas through democratic action to implement change in the direction for greater social justice. If an accurate and human-rights oriented understanding of these problems is a way for more humane action to combat the root causes of these conflicts, the question then becomes how an accurate understanding can become possible.
According to Edward Siad’s Orientalism, a history of media in the West has conditioned Westerners into thinking that the inhabitants of the Arab and Muslim World are by nature inferior, irrational, and more violent than inhabitants of the West. For example, Said said, “the idea that Hamas terrorists are solely interested in killing Jewish children is what you derive from looking at [mass media] and very little attention is paid to the fact that the Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza has been going on for 30 [now nearly 41 years]. It’s the longest military occupation of this century” (Said, On Orientalism). The selective mass media produces a situation where Westerners generally think that terrorism coming out of Palestine is the fundamental problem because very little attention is given to the fact that Illegal Israeli occupation and action is controlling the environment that leaves people miserable, poor, and hopeless.
In this light, someone with a more accurate perspective who tells a person conditioned by Orientalism that they are wrong and should change there actions will not always succeed in changing their actions and their perspective because the magnitude of this comment compared to the lifetime of conditioning that has told them otherwise. This action would be like trying to dye a swimming pool purple with only a single drop of purple food coloring. I often struggle with this issue because I became upset when people would use arguments in class to justify the occupation and oppression of Palestinians when my experience with this issue had been so different. I realized that my situation was much like theirs. They were upset with my comments because their experience (dominated by the mass media) was vastly different than what my comments and arguments would suggest.
This ‘war of information’ as I have addressed in past papers, seems to generally be between sources that wish to influence the masses’ understanding of a situation with a particular bias, whether it be in the name of changing or maintaining the status quo. Feagin illustrates that “human societies are controlled substantially by elites who take overt and covert actions to shape society in terms of their interests” (Feagin, 28). If the actions of individuals in society are determined by what they perceive to be the reality, then whoever controls the knowledge through the media, creates realities and shapes the actions for millions of people. Unfortunately, the “so-called independent media in a liberal society like [America] in effect are so lazy and are controlled by interests that are commercial and political… that it is just basically repeating the line of the government,” and a more academic understanding of the issue that criticizes the status quo is rarely represented (Said, On Orientalism). For example, in Covering Islam, Edward Said sites numerous examples in the Western media where Muslims and Islam are inaccurately portrayed as evil so often, that Islam became “synonymous with evil” in the minds of the viewers (Said, On Orientalism). In this environment we can understand why large populations conditioned by this western media would be inclined to support war on a Muslim country like Iraq and Iran.
One action that I took to play my role in this ‘war of information’ was to write an article in the Manitou Messenger entitled “Academics Ignore Looming Crisis.” This sought to dispel the inaccurate information about Iran that was and still is flowing out of the mass media similar to the lead up to the war in Iraq in 2002 and 2003. This article stressed the important role of academic institutions like St. Olaf College in researching and understanding major problems that face the world today. This effort of raising consciousness of different cultures and issues like the War on terror, and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is discernibly a necessary first action that needs to take place. Further bolstering this idea, Said explained that the “solution will require overcoming the racist legacy of Orientalism that stresses the separation of people from each other and that regards difference as a threat that must be contained or destroyed (Said, On Orientalism). My future actions will most likely be in the form of raising awareness and consciousness of the situation of the oppressed that is far too often ignored by the mass media. This will take the form of continuing the formal and informal discussion inside and outside of class, the material of my middle School summer class, continuing our actions in the Oles for Justice in Palestine organization, and continuing an ethic of life-long learning aimed to understand complex issues in an evolving world.
As a part of this life-long learning, I will be working in a foreign country like Egypt or Bangladesh after college to engage in worthwhile service with accredited organizations as well as to be exposed to new perspectives, ideas and lifestyles. It seems to me that I became drawn to sociology in the first place because I enjoyed seeing and experiencing how other people live. A sneaking suspicion seems to have been inside of me that our lifestyle in the United States is not perfect, and that our family, culture, and society can improve by learning from other cultures and lifestyles. As we have addressed earlier, an understanding of the other is also useful for determining and influencing right action in a world where the United States is heavily involved in other countries.
Reiterating what Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci theorized, Edward Said explained that to obtain a strong base for the question “what should I do,” the goal “is in fact to become someone else. To transform itself from a unitary identity to an identity that includes the other without suppressing the difference.” In a sociological sense, Said was explaining that it is necessary for competing parties in terrible conflicts like that of Israel/Palestine to understand their history in relation to the history of others. This is especially relevant to the case of Palestine where multiple groups of people are not able to coexist peacefully together. Many Palestinians believe that the Palestinians were forced to pay the price for the holocaust when Palestinians became dispossessed and expelled after the establishment of Israel. In this sense, they became the victims of the victims. Instead of saying the Israelis should be expelled from the land of Palestine, many Palestinians who have also experienced being expelled from their homes, and have this understanding of the other, have a different vision for right action and proper coexistence of all of these different groups based on shared values and creativity (Said, On Orientalism).
This principle of understanding the other and understanding how our actions are shaped is the greatest gift I will have taken from my studies in Sociology/Anthropology. I think Sociology is based on understanding the formation and function of society in order to improve society and propose proper action in the pursuit of justice and well being for everyone. These ethics and principles of sociology will provide a solid direction and toolbox to effectively play a role in situations of injustice and oppression whether it is discussing it on a college campus in the middle of the night or in a meeting of the United Nations.
Sources
Feagin, Joe R. Liberation Sociology. Westview Press, 2001.
“Edward Said On Orientalism.” Media Education Foundation: Northampton., 1997.
