Power & Privilege - Fashioning a plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Power & Privilege - Fashioning a plan - Essay ExampleThe paper Power & Privilege - Fashioning a plan is a personal expression of my own belief system along with a strategy for affecting change. I found the articles by these two writers, as well as those of Johnson, to be interesting but I find myself somewhat critical of their bias. I agree with Peters that systems and institutions that regulate class location be more than more powerful than individuals (Peters 1). There ar certainly individuals who work hard and try to improve their lives and situations and are prevented from achieving complete success due to the resistance of the powerful and social change efforts should be made to hollo those inequities. I cant accept, however, that everyone deserves what you have you just happen to have it or her idea that authorize people enrich themselves by leaving exploitative, dehumanizing work to others. This position implies too much intentionality to what often is hit-or-miss placem ent within the socio-economic spectrum or the result of individual choice. As James and Robinson point out, there are inescapably differences between people. We all perceive these differences and make judgments slightly others based on them... (xv), and this is exactly what Peters does she makes judgments about those employed in menial jobs from her perspective of upper-middle class privilege. She would never be happy bagging groceries ergo, no one else can be either. Thats just a little too simplistic. As for Alperovitz, pose his political partisanship aside.... As Schultz notes, social reformers and activists would be better served by reconsidering how much hope was pose upon working through the courts versus investing more time to win critical victories thorough the political attend to (9). The legal system certainly has its place in addressing the suppression of classes of individuals, but the political system is a better tool for social policy. It also has the benefit of b eing the voice of the people, rather than that of an activist workbench or single governmental branch.What I have learned. From this course, I have come to a sweet-smelling understanding of power and privilege generally, the impact of the misuse of those concepts on the radically disenfranchised, as well as my own place within the dynamic. I dont believe that the positions taken by authors on either intense are realistic. An individuals plight is not solely the result of his or her own choices, but neither is it necessarily the intentional infliction of harm by a bad system. Certainly, many individuals must shoulder the lading of their own choices and it is far too easy to blame the system for their condition. On the other hand, there genuinely are those people who are neither powerful nor privileged as a result of general oppression or neglect. As I look at my own standing in baseball club and the privileges I enjoy, I am aware of those who have more and those who have less. I think that everyone is some(prenominal) privileged and disenfranchised on some level. The distinction for me lies within the individual circumstances under consideration. The bourgeoisie college student has more inherited privilege than the impoverished gang member, naturally. I am