Monday, September 6, 2010
"The Danger of a Single Story"
Single stories can be very dangerous. If there is only one story regarding a certain subject then that becomes truth in the minds of that people that have read this story. If a person could control all the stories and narratives then he could choose what becomes fact and that alone is very dangerous. One could manipulate reality very easily if they could perfect this technique of a single sided story. This relates to our class discussions because it elaborates on the risks of having a story that only contains one view point. Narratives play a crucial role in a child's life. Young childrens' brains act as sponge to new information. If a child only reads one book or story on a single topic then that text that they read ultimately becomes truth. It is very important to introduce multiple ideas on the same subject because it allows for analyzing and deriving of an opinion from our minds rather than what is being forced into our brain. History is very biased when it comes to recording past events. The victor decides what goes into the history books. Many people do not realize how subjective history books are. If somebody different had won previous wars then the history books would most likely tell a different story. A lot of the things we read portray people of certain ethnic groups in only one light. We do not realize that all humans are more similar than we are different. These single stories do not tell the whole truth, but only a fraction of the facts if any at all. I found it amazing that the speaker in the video had a CD from Mariah Carey. I notice that I have been given a single story of Africans also. From my previous knowledge before this video I perceived all Africans as being poor and struggling to survive. This case may be true for some Africans, but just like us they have different social classes. It is quite possible that Africans see Americans as rich snobs when in fact there are a lot of homeless and poor people struggling to make ends meet and to keep food on the table. These single stories are distorting reality just like in 1984. Before these discussions I would have never thought of these issues to be relevant, but now I see things in a different way. I have learned not to believe everything in the media or in books because they could be feeding me lies to change my opinion to serve whatever purpose that they see fit.
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ReplyDeleteWell what a glorious entry, I must say. I totally forgot about the part of Adichi's speech when she talks about the vulnerability of children minds and was pleased to see you use that example in your writing. I think that much if not most biased or racist opinions that we have are taught to us at an early age; after all, as they say in South Pacific, "you've got to be taught to hate". Gosh I hate that show. Never go see it. I don't care who's in it. In fact I'm ashamed to have even quoted from it. Yuck. Any-who, I also agree with you on the subject on history books. It would be very interesting, for example, to see how the Japanese describe World War Two in their textbooks. Well, I've got about fifty more words to go, I don't know what to write, and I'm pretty sure no one is going to read this anyways so...I'm just going to ramble until...oh hey, I'm done. Cool.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very insightful blog post sir. I really enjoyed how you tied in George Orwell's 1984 into our current lives and sources of information. I agree with your opinion that history books cannot be completely trusted. The person who wins a war will always be the one who tells the story because no one wants to hear the other side. Whatever that single person says becomes the absolute truth and no one else can disprove it. I also had the same reaction the African having a Mariah Carey CD. National Geographic and other news sources have you believe that all Africans are tribal mask wearing, voodoo casting, hunter gatherer savages when that can’t be farther from the truth. If you really look at social classes in Africa, like you said, they are very similar to ours, with an upper, middle, and lower class. I think we can only trust our first hand experiences as absolute fact.
ReplyDeleteOverall great blog post Jason, I was really impressed. I personally like the simile used to compare how children's brain are like sponges and how you tied it all together with the importance of teaching children with different viewpoints, because if we don’t, these children may become prejudice and racist. I also shared the same reaction as you did that an African was holding a Mariah Carey CD and also thought that Africa was generally a poor place. It just goes to show that there are millions and billions of viewpoints in our world. I really think that we should open our eyes to this, and begin to teach others that what we may believe to be the truth may be right to some degree, but there may be other viewpoints that contradict our original belief. In addition, I thought you tied the discussion together very well with the distortion of reality in 1984. Looking forward to even more insightful postings Jason!
ReplyDeleteMMMMMMMMMM... Well Hulloooo Mr Stovall. You did a very good job of tying outside sources such as George Orwell's 1984 and the video about Adichi's story. You took the information and did a good job of using it to support your opinions. I agree with your idea that History can never be truly biased because of the fact that history is written by the winners; therefore the facts of what really happened will always be askewed. So, if i had to rate your response i would have to give it a MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM... Idk.
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