My Thoughts about Privilege, Power, and Difference

My Thoughts about Privilege, Power, and Difference
Privilege, Power, and Difference written by Allan F. Johnson is about exactly what the title says and how it affects our society. This book has motivated me to think about oppression in American society today. Johnson raises many issues and topics that amount to the idea that Americans are following an individualistic belief which undermines the importance of society and institutions. This ideology is inaccurate and promotes division between people. Human beings are social animals strongly influenced by the decisions of others and can influence change in society. These problems can be slowly overcome by taking paths of greater resistance. These paths can be as simple as not laughing at the expense of others.
Barry Goldwater; the author of “The Conscience of a Conservative" wrote “Every man, for his individual good and for the good of his society, is responsible for his own development” Johnson’s book suggests that Americans share a common ideology which is focused on individuals and neglects to recognize outside influences. Johnson wrote that this “is strongly rooted in the culture.”
Evidence provided by cognitive and neuroscientists as well as geneticists and psychologists collected over the past thirty years suggests what Johnson and I believe to be a common truth, and the problem with the republican belief which is that humans “are intensely social creatures, deeply interconnected with one another”(Brooks.) He goes on to say “[w]hat emerges is not a picture of self creating individuals gloriously free from one another, but of autonomous creatures deeply interconnected with one another” (Brooks.) Americans are all interconnected through society. We share roads, schools, work, and more.
American methodology is influenced by the economics that drive the country. Both underestimate “the importance of connections, relationships, institutions and social filaments that organize personal choices and make individuals what they are.” (Brooks). The individualistic idea Goldwater wrote about does not apply to modern American society. We need institutions and social programs.
Johnson suggests that in order to create change individuals will need to openly choose paths of greater resistance. By doing so other people can see that there are more options than the path of least resistance and that it is ok to stand out from the norm. He also writes that “we can’t use the human life span as a significant standard against which to measure progress.” (Johnson). To be part of the solution we need to accept that we may not be around to see the change we put into effect occur.
Americans are living in an age of constantly changing economic social networks but continue to follow the individualistic guidelines laid out by Barry Goldwater. Over the past thirty years cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, geneticists, and psychologists have provided evidence which shows humans to be intensely social creatures strongly influenced by the decisions of others. The solution is to take paths of greater resistance to act in accordance with what we value.