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WinningTheLottery 11 - 08 Feb 2009 - Main.MichaelDreibelbis
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Today, in the midst of the broader discussion of the Arnold reading, Professor Moglen talked about “winning the lottery”. I’ve thought about this frequently – that the place where I am today, and indeed most of the places I’ve gone in my life, were predetermined by the time and place where I was born. Obviously there have been choices made along the way, but I’m not interested in addressing how frequently these choices were actually conscious decisions or to what extent a conscious decision can even be reached. Rather, I’d like to address the issues that arise for me when I presume that my privileged position in life is largely due to random chance. | | | But is that really possible in a classroom? Doesn't it have to be like a religious experience, where one has a revelation that gives him faith, because it can't be derived by logic? In the real world, people rarely change their minds by being argued with. They do it because their gut decides for them. That would be your visit to Poland. So how can we be for "justice" if we haven't had the same type of epiphany?
-- GavinSnyder - 07 Feb 2009 | |
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> | - For what it's worth, I thought this little anecdote might help us think about epiphanies:
I finally met Mirzad on Thursday, after seeing him every day for months. As I came back to my apartment, the next-door building's Super was out on the street taking out the garbage, as usual. We exchanged our usual nods and hellos, but this time I stopped and asked his name on a whim--Mirzad. He proceeded to tell me about how he had been a lawyer in Bosnia before being forced to take refuge in Germany, and now the United States, during the Bosnian civil war in the 90's. He was separated from his family for years, and will never go back to his country. We went on to have an intelligent, frank conversation about the relative merits of the US, and then said goodbye. I went in to my apartment to attend to my $150,000 education, while he continued to take out my trash.
-- MichaelDreibelbis - 08 Feb 2009 | | | | |
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