Tuesday, February 7, 2012
I'm Not Listening
When talking about how Aristotle was rather narrow minded when it came to slavery, women and "barbarians" the authors make a very interesting statement towards the reader. They write: "But this should not prejudice us against the rest of [Aristotle's] thinking" (97). This got me thinking about how often people tend to do that. You will learn that a person disagrees with you on idea like religion, women's rights or in this case slavery, and dismiss every other idea that they believe. We turn away and say "I'm not listening to another word," no matter how valid their other ideas may be. In a way it is a very childish thing to do and yet we see it happen everyday with adults, even country to country. For instance, there are many Middle Eastern countries that we disagree with on how a country should run, but if we looked past our discrepancies we may see that women have been appointed countless times as president or prime minister while back in the United States women are horribly represented in our government. So even though you and another person may not to see eye to eye on every issue there is no reason to discredit every single one of their ideas.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree that people do frequently dismiss the views of others with whom they disagree on some point or another, often when they would be better off listening to the rest of those views. I also think that this mode of thought can extend to literature. In Wednesday's class we spoke for a short while about the book Robinson Crusoe, which was published in the 1700s and contained a large number of ideas and views that most people today regard as backward and, in some cases, repellent. Yet the book also contains a great deal of insight about human nature, pleasant prose, and a story which some consider to be quite thrilling if they can get past the outdated views which permeate the text.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, a large portion of literature written long ago expresses views that offend many modern readers, and sadly, this can sometimes cause such readers to dismiss it out of hand as 'bad' and totally worthless - much as they might dismiss another person who supported some view they objected strongly to. I think that this is definitely a mistake. Old literature can, and often does, contain information which can be both fascinating and relevant even today.
P.S. I also posted this on my blog if you'd rather read it there.