Barnlund on Individualism
Barnlund on Individualism
Barnlund states,
Access to the world view and the communicative style of other cultures may not only enlarge our own way of experiencing the world but enable us to maintain constructive relationships with societies that operate a according to a different logic than our own. (66)
Barnlund believes that if people learn aspects of other cultures, people will be able to maintain associations and communications between different cultures within a society. The meaning of appreciation of other cultures is what Barnlund specifies as the survival of a global village. Barnlund would say that Baldwin’s process of renewal might work, because comprehension of other cultures will bring people together and revitalize the differences between people. This would help explain a solution for discrimination and communication complications between Blacks and Whites in Baldwin’s essay. I believe that acceptance and knowledge of cultures are essential in order for people to understand and respect each other.
Barnlund states,
What seems most critical is to find ways of gaining entrance into the assumptive world of another culture, to identify the norms that govern face-to-face relations, and to equip people to function within social systems that is foreign but no longer incomprehensible. Without this kind of insight people are condemned to remain outsiders. (63-64)
This passage from Barnlund’s essay reestablishes the fact that learning and understanding other people relieves the tension amongst how others cope. Baldwin would say that the path when whites begin to learn and understand Blacks, will eventually relieve the problems and intolerances between Blacks and Whites. I believe that if White or Blacks do not want to try to respect or learn from each other, then each race will become isolated and ignorant towards each other.
Bellah describes how people tend to isolate themselves by trying to separate their private and public lives. Bellah suggests that people should realize that their public and private lives interrelate with each other. Bellah writes about how each person eventually found a “renewal of their own lives” by correspondence of their public and private life in his essay. In the case of Les Newman, his life became renewed when he found his place in church. Bellah states, “His church community has helped Les Newman find a language and a set of practices that...