Word: argument
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...wrong framework. Both sides, those who espouse "earned apathy" and those who express righteous indignation at them, have it wrong--the former because they think we should only be concerned about ourselves and the latter because they foolishly wish they had something tragic to fight about. The argument between the activists and the apathetics, if you will, is over the principle of action, and not action itself...
Beyond this, however, campus activists have their argument in a tangle. They call for activism for the sake of activism without taking the time to realize that for the time being, the world is free of cataclysm. Perhaps the best proof that there are no world-changing issues to fight for or against is that would-be activists spend their time attacking the apathetics and not acting...
...surface, this argument has a lot of appeal. People generally like Harvard Square, and do not want to see it razed to build a strip mall. However, within guidelines, franchise operations have the right to exist in the Square. Letting chain stores operate does not have to mean letting in huge McDonald's arches; such signs can be prohibited by the city, as can other ornamentation the community deems offensive...
...Harvard was often isolated from a world where the least-skilled Americans continue to live in inner-city and rural poverty." Having attended and listened eagerly and intently to West's speech, I do not think that statement accurately reflects West's "concerns," but in fact contradicts West's argument. West emphasized the need to create a "public space" in which political and social discourse can take place. And that "public space," created by the "prophetic minority," should encompass all people. West recognized all people as "irreproducable, irreducible individuals," none being "least-skilled" or even less-skilled...
...Trail of Tears behind us is testament to the violence our process produces. The era of the integrated electronic network before us will be most beautiful and humanly satisfying if we build on principles of openness and feedback, and faith in our capacity to judge the merits of an argument after exchange and deliberation with our peers...