| | In Loving Memory
I walked into Print Services in the basement of Columbia’s Journalism School to see my dad, as I usually do after classes and before going home. Instead of the usual cheerful dispositions, I was met with a melancholy so overwhelming that, without reason, my eyes watered. I asked what had happened. My dad replied: “He said he was stressed but no one listened. John died this morning.” | | | I definitely understand your analogy now. I think you make a really interesting distinction--there is a difference acknowledgement and feeling. I agree with you that people should realize that they are never really far from "the fear." However this realization does not necessarily have to come from their integration into the workforce. My acknowledgement of this fear came way before I had my first job. Yet, I agree that to feel this fear people do have to experience it for themselves. This is a problem in itself because we go back to this underlying theme in most (if not all) of our readings of getting involved even if it is of no consequence (or ill consequence) to our pockets. This would mean that for any real change or acknowledgement "the right" or the "right number" of people need to feel it. Since the majority of the wealth is held by a small number, which means that the power in this capitalistic society is held by a small number, I doubt that "the right" people will be feeling it soon.
The way you analyze fear is also very intriguing. I think if you highlight fear in this way--the "not about what you do but who you know" factor--the discussion becomes more relevant to law school students. I think that people were lying when they said they were immune to the fear. I saw the beginnings of that fear at the few law firm events I attended. I watched as students frantically and awkwardly tried to engage people they thought were the most important in the room--looking for that who they could drop during OCI. Now if we could only acknowledge that this fear is only a raindrop in an ocean of real fears, we would be getting somewhere. | |
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< | -- LisetteDuran? - 27 Mar 2012 | | | | |
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< | Lisette, thanks for telling that story. Lisette and Abiola, I don't really know much about how unions work, but it's disheartening to hear that even unionized employees in (what I would expect would be) a relatively progressive workplace are having their benefits cut and are weighed down by the uncertainty of their employment. Based both on what Tharaud had to say in the reading and the media discussion of Scott Walker's anti-union campaign in WI, I thought that unionization would be a more effective way to empower workers than it is in this context. | >
> | -- LissetteDuran - 27 Mar 2012
Lissette, thanks for telling that story. Lissette and Abiola, I don't really know much about how unions work, but it's disheartening to hear that even unionized employees in (what I would expect would be) a relatively progressive workplace are having their benefits cut and are weighed down by the uncertainty of their employment. Based both on what Tharaud had to say in the reading and the media discussion of Scott Walker's anti-union campaign in WI, I thought that unionization would be a more effective way to empower workers than it is in this context. | | | I agree that even if, as law students, we don't acknowledge feeling the fear of uncertainty regarding your future employment prospects in our own lives, it has an impact on the choices we make. I noticed the same same kind of fear and desperation at the law firm receptions I attended. I also think it manifests itself in some of the discussions we have in class with Eben, in the sense that it makes us reluctant to believe we can strike out on a path beyond the narrow path that starts with OCI. This is a bit more of a guess, but I think it might also be apparent in people's anxiety about the relative prestige about the firm jobs they will be able to get. In this line of reasoning, the more prestigious the first job, the more stable the firm, and the less likely you will be laid off. If you are laid off or choose to leave, a more prestigious firm will give you more numerous and more prestigious exit options, and the cycle will begin again. Rather than seeking a job that is the best fit or the most fulfilling, everyone has to think one or two steps ahead to make sure that they are not disadvantaging themselves for the next job they'll (inevitably) need to get. It seems like this kind of fear is a pretty powerful method of social control. | |
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< | Lisette, I want to return to your point that to feel this fear people have to experience it for themselves. I think by suggesting this, you are letting people off the hook a little bit. Even if someone believes that they are personally free from this kind of fear, it's not asking too much of that individual to empathize with other people who are not. Bill Clinton spoke at my college graduation, and the main point of his speech was that he is always shocked at how fixated human beings are on our differences, when we share the vast majority of our DNA and want mostly the same things for ourselves and our families. If we approach it from that perspective, empathizing with other people should not be too hard, but we don't do it, and we don't expect other people to be able to do it either. | >
> | Lissette, I want to return to your point that to feel this fear people have to experience it for themselves. I think by suggesting this, you are letting people off the hook a little bit. Even if someone believes that they are personally free from this kind of fear, it's not asking too much of that individual to empathize with other people who are not. Bill Clinton spoke at my college graduation, and the main point of his speech was that he is always shocked at how fixated human beings are on our differences, when we share the vast majority of our DNA and want mostly the same things for ourselves and our families. If we approach it from that perspective, empathizing with other people should not be too hard, but we don't do it, and we don't expect other people to be able to do it either. | | | I wonder if this failure of empathy is mostly a failure of imagination and if it can be linked to the decline of reading interest and ability that we have discussed in class. I think one of the best and most important things about reading is that it can help people to get inside the consciousness of other people, understand them, and possibly even sympathize with them. A good novel (and good nonfiction) can immerse a reader in the consciousness of another, in my opinion, more effectively than movies or TV shows can, because in many books the perception of someone else's consciousness is the main event. When we stop reading books, or read them less carefully, we lose this kind of insight. We stop being interested in trying to understand what is going on in other people's brains, and get too wrapped up in our own.
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> | -- By KatherineMackey - 27 Mar 2012 | | | | |
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< | Lisette, Abiola, and Katherine: Thank you for sharing your thoughts and being so transparent. I share your feelings of indignation, but I find it difficult to pinpoint exactly why I felt indignant. Here are a couple reasons. | >
> | Lissette, Abiola, and Katherine: Thank you for sharing your thoughts and being so transparent. I share your feelings of indignation, but I find it difficult to pinpoint exactly why I felt indignant. Here are a couple reasons. | | | When I first read the title to this thread, my first thought was to the photography exhibit I visited this weekend about the Loving family, of Loving v. Virginia. This Supreme Court case found Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. The photographs feature a happy, stable, integrated family. Their only fear was their state's statutes, criminalizing their unity. Reflecting on the family photographs, I was struck by my ability to forget. I needed this exhibit to remind me of past injustices, current injustices, and what the heck I am supposed to be doing with my legal career. The exhibit was also a slap in the face--a re-consciousness that I am not male, white, or able to marry my significant other in many states outside of New York. It was a reminder that many Loving moments in our legal history are still to be had. | | | At the intersection of our faltering memory is the type of professional legal prestige we are sold. Hooked to their "smart phones" law students and thousands of BigLawyers? , is today's lawyer enabled by the profession to forget what matters beyond a billable hour? | |
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< | To be more practical, Lisette, I would only suggest that you take advantage of the resources at CLS. I think this challenge is your moment to force one these erudite professors to teach you the skills to be an advocate. They might even learn something about what it means to be an actual lawyer too. | >
> | To be more practical, Lissette, I would only suggest that you take advantage of the resources at CLS. I think this challenge is your moment to force one these erudite professors to teach you the skills to be an advocate. They might even learn something about what it means to be an actual lawyer too.
| | | -- ArleneOrtizLeytte - 28 Mar 2012 |
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