Bloom writes of relativism and ethnocentrism in the reading for this week. I was especially struck by his discussion on pages 34-37 about why he feels, "relativism has extinguished the real motive of education." (p.34), and why ethnocentrism is not the evil beast we as students are at times led to believe it is. I have an ongoing argument with my boss who is a young 76 years of age, and can not understand why people, such as terrorist, want to destroy us. She also can not believe that the cells of terrorists who have lived in this country for years before raising their little heads, would not embrace our ideals as their own after seeing how "wonderful" our way of life is. I try to tell her that one cannot impart their way of thinking on another culture. When people are raised to hate, it takes a great deal to change their minds. We saw that in our own country during the Civil Rights Movement. Israel and Palestine are prime examples that we really cannot seem to just get along with each other. Our ethnocentrism always seems to get the best of us. It does seem to make sense that ethnocentrism is almost a survival mechanism as Bloom somewhat refers to it. He states, "Men must be loyal to their families and their peoples in order to preserve them." (p.37) We have laws, a government, a judicial system, and a military force to ensure that our way of life is preserved both locally and globally.
I do not feel that Bloom views ethnocentrism as a bad thing. I think from the quote in the first paragraph, he might view it as innate and necessary to our very being. Perhaps his problem with people and the educational system is our willingness to settle for what we get, and not seek our own worldly education. When he says that the American mind is closed, I feel that his anger is that we seem to have chosen to close our minds to outside experiences because we already believe that what we have is good enough. Thus we have "The Cave!"
"There are no absolutes, freedom is absolute," is one of the many jewels of this book. (p.28) A contradiction in and of itself, yet it still has meaning. The limitlessness of our freedom being limited by our own doing perhaps. Freedom by definition is without limits, but I am not sure that there is such a thing. Therefore how can it be absolute? I really do not feel that Bloom sees us as a civilized people as he seems to see the Europeans, because he raves about their intellectualism. I feel that Bloom views us as being in what might be similar to the Dark Ages in Europe, and he is trying to push us toward Enlightenment.
2 comments:
Perhaps this post could be edited a bit to make it's point a little clearer. Is ethnocentrism good, bad, or simply unavoidable? What does Bloom conclude, or is he vague on this point?
Do we really accept other cultures as a way of expanding our knowledge or do we see them as inferior to our state of life? I am taking Africa Art History as well and I feel the class reaction to the spirit world that Africans actively believe. Understanding African culture is vital to comprehending their art, but do you feel that at times the class (the professor included) addresses the "absurdity" of some of their beliefs. To me, every religon has its mythological allegories. Are there any truths to these beliefs, or they just ways of cultivating mortality?
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