"When the world all around is calling for clear distinctions, loyalties to Self and hatred to others, and, most of all, belief in the public and legal discourses of single languages and single states... what greater threat exists than that voice whice rejects such easy orthodoxies with their readily understood rhetoric and urges, instead, the most difficult readings, those that embrace the painfully impossible in the human heart?"
I felt like I needed to copy this quote down first before I could begin to discuss my opinion and analyze it. Because honestly, this statement is a mouthful, but she exerts some strong and important opinions.
Her first claim seems to state that our world is calling for micro and macro levels of distinction; from individual selfishness to nationalism. America perfectly exemplifies her statement; it is a country that is indoctrinated with the idea of being loyal to only the Self. In our laissez-faire economy, it is a race to the top, “every man for himself”; we are a society that emphasizes distinction and individualism and we are spreading this idea around the world through westernization.
Although this may be the direction our world is heading, I think Menocal over generalizes the situation. Not all societies work this way. The European Union is a clear contradiction to her claim. Although Europe is composed almost entirely of distinct nation-states, the society as a whole is moving more towards unity and cooperation. Another example is China, along with many other Asian countries. Their societies reject the Self and focus more on collectivism and working to better the community as a whole.
Although I am a bit confused by the second portion of her claim, I think she is making a very important point: that we can use our own knowledge and understanding of the world to reject the norms and ideas that society imposes on us. This is true, and I do not think that it is painfully impossible either. It simply requires that we observe, analyze and understand the world in which we live in.
