Monday, October 20, 2008
Week 9, post 2
Democratic pluralism is the myth that society is held together by common norms such as equal opportunity, respect for diversity, one person-one vote, individual rights, and rule of law. The ideal of American society is obviously that. If you were going to be selling America has a packaged product, that is how you would sell the product. However, that is exactly a myth. America is often held together by a lack of other options. For example, we often hear about the dissatisfaction of citizens regarding our politics, and the claim they will move to another country, but never do. America is all about the individual, and excitement, making a deal that will lead to either riches or rags, and that is how America was founded. Other countries may have been okay with being a colony, but America put it all on the line, and won their Independence.
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I totally agree with you in that democratic pluralism is a myth or an ideal held by American society. We are in dreamland if we think that we ALL have equal opportunity or respect for diversity. This is what a lot of people looking in from other countries believe what we have and it's what we strive to have as a country. However, we know that equal opportunity does not always exist - we are a nation driven by economic success, and those that have more money seem to have more opportunity than those who do not have as much money. One may argue that there is an equal opportunity to get rich, but if you start off in a situation where you do not have the resources then it will be hard to get rich and have the opportunities that someone who did not come from a poor background has because they started off ahead.
In some areas there is respect for diversity but in other areas it seems that no matter what the law is, people still discriminate. I was in rural Kentucky recently and felt that everyone was looking at me differently then others because I am of Indian descent. I believe that you are often stereotyped when you are different. Because of the diversity in the Bay Area, it does not seem to happen as much here, but in the other states, racial diversity is not as widely accepted as people value it to be.
I am from Canada and its funny how many times I hear people (even on tv) say if it really gets bad, they are going to head up north! However, like you mentioned, it never does.
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