Contributing Member of Society

-- By LissetteDuran - 16 Feb 2012

Introduction

My family has always urged me to get an education so that I can be a contributing member of society. Growing up, I watched those in my community drop out of school and resort to less legal alternatives to provide for the community. I have also watched the few that have completed their studies, leave and never look back. They both contribute to a society but one is chastised while one is revered. Thus, if we are a one-society state, how do we contribute to it?

Do we live in a society or societies?

It is hard to believe that we all belong to one great club where admission is free and exclusion is based on the sentiments of the whole. Yet, we often refer to one large society. I take it that this society is very much like Robinson’s civilization. It is some type of “idealized sense of what makes us human.” What are these ideal factors that make us one society? Are they shared beliefs, goals, understandings? If we look to our political discourse today, it would be difficult to pinpoint which one of these we agree on to makes us one society.

I think we have tricked ourselves into thinking that there are actually factors that join us as one absolute society. But, to concede that as a people we are fragmented and can have irreconcilable differences would be to undermine our idealized notion of how we progress as a people. We believe that we progress as a "people", or as "Americans", or as any other extremely large grouping. In reality, we progress as individuals and as small societies. Our progression and success is measured in relation to someone else's. We determine who contributes and who does not by comparing the different members. Thus, saying that we progress as one society goes against how we measure progress.

Multiple Societies

If we are just various different societies in proximity, then for students/young people, the question becomes to which society do we contribute?

I believe that we are all born into one society. As we mature and create relationships, we become members of others. As you become a member of more societies it becomes more difficult to maintain your membership in your previous ones.

Can we be simultaneous members? Do we lose membership to one society by becoming a member of another? Can you be both part of the Columbia society and the Harlem society? Tensions --unions boycotting while I am trying to study

Since we are very different societies in proximity, how can we contribute? Do you have to choose between them?

I think that our educational systems force us to choose. They are institutions that overlook these distinctions and stray away from our fragmented realities. Thus, I believe that they do not equip its students to traverse seamlessly through the different societies of which they might be a member.

Schools create their own societies. They are their own bubbles shielded from the realities of the outside. For the most part, the rules you learn within them can only be only applied within that society. Schools make it difficult to be members of different societies simultaneously. You are taught one thing, one certain way, and are allowed very little wiggle room to bring in your own experiences from your various memberships.

Let’s take Columbia. Columbia sits in the middle of Harlem. These are two separate societies, in proximity, but with very little overlap. I find that when Columbia’s world and Harlem’s world interact, it is usually through an Anthony Pallone email. The differences between these societies are seen as negative. Columbia’s society is always seen as helping, not coexisting with, that of Harlem’s. Those emails are a constant reminder that “they” are not part of “this society.”

Thus, for a student who is a member of both, how can you contribute to both?

As both a Columbia student and a member of Harlem, it can be very difficult to reconcile the two. Particularly, as a law school student, I have been stressed with the decision between corporate and nonprofit—the choice indicating which membership will be relinquished. I am not convinced that memberships in societies are mutually exclusive. However, I do believe that your contribution to one will inherently be a detriment to another. Schools do not prepare you for the existence in many societies. They create uniform students who, if they can contribute, contribute to a mystical society. It makes sense when you think about the graduates who move out of their neighborhoods into ones that have memberships similar to those at their schools.

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