Political Science

Alexis de Toqueville introduces history as an intended and well-thought-out project in Democracy in America. Tocqueville claims that the European invasion and rule of Indian land was determined by Providence. Tocqueville asserts that though America has the most democratic characteristics of any nation, it is not a perfect democracy because of the racism towards “Negroes” and “Indians.” Tocqueville explains the two-fold result of the expansion of civilization, which both decreased Indian economic subsistence, while deepening their interest in the commodities offered by civilization.

I. 

We had a great conversation reflecting on the past seven days: Tocqueville, research proposals, our work in the prison, the Mural Arts Tour, Eastern State, etc. I was struck by a few themes:

1. Which bodies deserve humanization and on whose terms? Here we were thinking about the potential for a #blacklivesmatter mural or the 9/11 Memorial.

2. More generally: Who is deemed deserving of art and by whom? How do these structures of deserving come into being and how can they be changed? Here we talked about the separation between "art" and "graffiti" presented on the Mural Arts Tour and questions of community, property, ownership, and legitimacy.

Experimental Essay Discussion: Freedom of Speech and its Limits 

This was my free write from Joel's class this week.

Prelude: I have posted the writing in the serendip format, but I posted the actual document, colored the way it is supposed to be read, as an attatchment. I have synthesia (which means I see words and letters and and numbers in color) so I wrote this piece, which speaks to 'you', from my point of view. So you can see at least in part, how I see writing. (Although I don't see writing in chunks of color, I see individual words and letters in different colors). The purple is Rankine's voice because 'Rankine' is purple, and my voice is in red, because 'Joie' is red. The questions are green because I wanted a color that was unrelated to purple and red and it seemed calming after the tumultuous red and purple.

I have included my experimental essay in an attachment because of formatting purposes. Apologies for the inconvenience!

I've had a question circling around in my head since our tour guide asked it at Eastern State Penitentiary yesterday: "To what extent are we using prisons to control the rest of the population?" The idea of eliciting fear in a population by constructing a monstrous and daunting prison and making it visible to the entire city of Philadelphia has made me think. It seems to be something of a shaming tactic as well--as we keep mentioning, Tocqueville described the experience of breaking the law in the United States vs. Europe, explaining that because a criminal in the U.S. has broken a law established and agreed upon "by the people," he is automatically alienated and labeled an enemy of the community.

I.

Just to remind you where we were last week, here are my notes from that conversation: Post-class notes from Monday Sept. 14.

I'd like to start with writing again, but this time not limiting ourselves to de Tocqueville. So write about where you've been -- both materially as well as emotionally and intellectually -- since the last time we gathered in Dalton together.

And rather than sharing our writing directly, after our ten minutes I'd like to talk about your research projects and the connections you have discovered reading these different proposals. What themes emerged? What collaborative ideas occurred to you? How do you want to continue your research?

I apologize ahead of time; most of this is personal notes, questions, and unformed thoughts. There isn’t much (if any) flow to it.

Tocqueville seems to believe that some of what makes the US great is equality, freedom, and the democratic way the system has potential to operate. Tocqueville seems to appreciate how there is a structure of government in which the federal power is supposed to counterbalance rather than command. I disagree somewhat, but anyway.

This equality is not necessarily of power or money as much as “conditions” (3), including art (which are briefly mentioned).

I.

On Monday night (9/14), we raised a number of important questions that I hope we can continue investigating on our second class devoted to Tocqueville's Democracy in America. We noted and some of us admired the following:

1. The "arts of freedom" Tocqueville locates in localism, political equality, public education, and having a hand on the laws.

2. Tocqueville's attempt to educate democracy through the work of his book and its vision (perhaps utopian) of what democracy could or should look like.

We also pointed to some silences and gaps in Tocqueville's account: