Imagining Alternate Worlds
I realized during last week’s discussion of alternatives to our money system and alternatives to relying on things like bottled water that my approach to this issue has been shaped a great deal by the fiction I read. I enjoy and have read a lot of science fiction, especially post-apocalyptic and post-disaster science fiction, and those books focus on the destruction of and then (often) the rebuilding of society. Sometimes they focus on a small group of people struggling to survive; sometimes they focus on a social group attempting to redefine their roles. Regardless, use of resources and economic relationships to one another are central.
The novels I am thinking of do not provide a direct blueprint for what we should be doing now to solve the kinds of problems that McKibben lays out in Deep Economy. But they do provide a way to think about and envision alternatives. They provide a mental space in which we can imagine ourselves without money, without bottled water, without even a government, perhaps. And then we can imagine where that might take us. Even if that’s not where we are now, it is incredibly useful to be able to think through those possibilities and accept them as possibilities, even if they are far-fetched.
Just something to think about we continue to talk about alternatives. How do our reading (and viewing) choices affect the way we approach the questions raised by McKibben?
Daniel Beatty, “Duality Duel”
This isn’t directly related to any of the questions raised in class this week, but I’m always happy to find an opportunity to share this piece, a performance by Daniel Beatty from Def Poetry that is simply phenomenal. Check it out:
First, pay attention not only to the content of what he has to say but also to the way he says it. The dramatization of these two different personas is so effective because not only are their perspectives clearly voiced, but everything in his physical performance and in the recording of the performance enhances the distinction. One persona speaks softly and politely, shows that he has a good education, gestures accommodatingly with his hands, and sometimes seems afraid; the other persona speaks loudly and angrily, uses slang and profanity, swaggers as he gestures, and certainly never seems afraid. The camera angles make these distinctions even clearer as we see him first from one side and then the other, depending on which persona speaks, and also as we are shown him from below when he is meant to be angry so that he seems larger and physically menacing.
Second, think about what he is saying with these personas. I love Beatty’s poem because he has something important to say about the tension (akin to W. E. B. DuBois’ concept of double consciousness) that many racial and ethnic minorities feel between fitting in with the majority culture and holding on to a heritage that may not fit in with that culture or that may be looked down upon. Even better, he builds upon this idea by acknowledging the ethical debt he still owes to the people of his past, the people who might not have had the breaks he has had. Just because he has gotten an education and improved his life does not mean that he should look down on others who haven’t or that he should turn his back on the kids that need him, as someone with success, power, and education, to speak up for them.
Finally, to relate this more directly to the content of our discussion this week, I would say that Beatty’s poem is a good representation of some of the issues with race we are still dealing with today. DuBois (referenced above) wrote about double consciousness in 1903 and his concept is still relevant. Issues of poverty and drug addiction are still, unfortunately, more common among minorities than they are among white people, which would seem to indicate that something is still going on with race in our society and which, because of the statistically small variation in social class and status from one generation to the next, would further indicate the difficulties we may still have to face in our battle to even the playing field. Race is (as opposed to the sentence I gave you to respond to in class today) still a problem. The problems are less overt, harder to see, and, perhaps, less widespread, but they are still there.
