Discourse Communities 2.1

P.2 Co-creating a better world together

This post includes the third in a series of introductory lectures on Discourse communities as well as some homework for further reflection.

Find the rest of the posts in this series here if you missed them!

In my previous posts on Discourse communities, I focused on what Discourse communities are and how we recognize them in our lives. In part two of this series, I want to show ways in which the Discourse communities we belong to are places where we can enact social change once we have done the individual work of reflecting on our values and the ways we do and don’t stand up for those values in our day to day lives.

This means we must first become clear on what we value and how we prioritize those values. In my class, I do this by having my students watch the videos below and then answer some questions during discussion based on what they learned (I’m a fan of The Good Place and I think it can serve as a great starting point for learning about philosophy, but you don’t need to have seen the show for the clips to make sense).

Click the arrow for questions you might reflect on after you have watched the videos. The goal is to help you clarify what is important to you.

• After listening to Schur (2022) discuss Kant’s “categorical imperative” (4:56), write your own maxim and describe what the world would look like if everyone followed this rule. 
• Schur (2022) says that, “Understanding ethical theories is how we increase our chances of success at simply being human beings who have to negotiate with other human beings. And to me, there is nothing more important than that” (11:06). How would you respond to this using an example of an ethical dilemma you’ve faced in your own life?
• May (2018) says that, “The psychological egoist is the person who believes everybody acts only for their own interest” (0:22). He then contrasts that with philosopher David Hume, saying, “…for Hume, the fundamental moral motivation was sympathy with other people” (1:44). What do you think about these two differing theories? 
• In “The Integral Role of Integrity”, Jessica Koehler (2023) writes that having integrity has an effect on our self-esteem and life satisfaction, our mental health and emotional stability, our social health and relationship quality, our workplace, and even the community and society we live in. She also provides advice on how to live with integrity which includes self-reflection, accountability, consistency, honesty and transparency, and ethical decision-making. Free-write a response to either Koehler’s claims about the effects integrity has on our lives or the ways she tells us we can live with more integrity in our lives. 
• Create a list of core values that you feel are important to you to uphold and free write about what experiences in your life have made these values important to you.
• Can you think of situations where you have had to uphold your values even against opposition? Can you think of situations where you have been too afraid to uphold your values? Can you think of moments where you had to make a choice about which value was more important to uphold?

Values are defined as “a person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgement of what is important in life” (Oxford Languages). In other words, values are the guiding principles by which we live our life. They are how we decide what is right and what is wrong. However, just because we say that we value something, doesn’t mean we necessarily hold ourselves accountable to that value in every instance. For example, we may say that we value “fairness”, but then a situation arises that is unfair and we are the ones benefitting from that unfairness, so we don’t speak out against it. We may say that we value “integrity”, but then a deadline comes for an assignment and we are afraid of failing so we use AI to do our work for us. In these examples, we may believe that being fair or having integrity are the right thing to do, but if we do not uphold those values in our lives, can we really say that fairness or integrity are important to us? Do we really value something if we are only willing to uphold that value when it’s easy or convenient?

How can we use our Discourse communities to enact social change?

During times of crisis, political upheaval, or social unrest, we may find ourselves unsure of what to do. We know something is wrong, that things are not normal, but how do we find a path forward? How do we know what actions to take? How can we best utilize our talents? How can we become the helpers? The problems of the world are complex and overwhelming and not possible for a single person to solve on their own.

This is why we must look to our communities. We must stop waiting for a superhero to save the day. We must let go of the narrative that there is an individual who will swoop in and solve the problems of the world without our help. That the right politician or political party will fix everything for us. We must be the ones we have been waiting for. A tidal wave of resistance is made up of so many single droplets of water coming together that they form something powerful, something capable of drowning tyranny.

We are (to paraphrase my partner) like many different tribes with our own traumas, needs, histories, etc., coming together for the common goal of creating a just and good world for all. To do this, we must acknowledge the paradoxical idea that our many unique struggles are also the same struggle, that we are in this together.

We must also acknowledge that our struggles are different — our social contexts are not the same — and have empathy for each other’s individual perspectives and experiences (both as humans and communities). All BIPOC are oppressed in a white supremacist state, all women and LGBTQIA+ are oppressed in a male supremacist state, all houseless, poor, working class, and middle class people are oppressed in a capitalist state but we are all oppressed differently. Some of us are afforded more advantages in these systems than others, usually in exchange for our silence and complicity about the violence happening to others.

Essentially, we all agree to “look the other way” when certain kinds of injustice happen because we are rewarded for it, and punished if we choose to speak out against it. There are thousands of micro examples of this that happen every day. Little ethical dilemmas that we face where we have a choice: do the right thing and face expulsion from the community or punishment of some kind, or do the wrong thing and you can maintain your membership in the community and potentially even be rewarded for it.

Think of all the people who knew about Harvey Weinstein, Dan Schneider, Sean Combs, Louis C.K., Donald Trump, Roger Ailes, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Cosby, etc. but said nothing to keep their job, make a connection, do a deal, avoid blacklisting, or even to save their own life. Think of people who know of OSHA violations, wage theft, or employee harassment happening at their workplace who say nothing because they know company culture means speaking out will lose them a promotion and they need the money. Think about going home to your conservative family every Thanksgiving and saying nothing about their vote for Donald Trump because even though you have queer friends, and barely-making-ends-meet friends, and immigrant friends, you really want to keep the peace and it makes you nervous when there’s family conflict.

The point of this discussion isn’t to judge or shame anyone who has ever made an unethical decision in their life; I have certainly not always lived up to my values and have made mistakes and done things I’ve regretted. Every day, I feel guilt for not doing more. I am writing this because I am afraid. But guilt and fear will not spur us to the actions that we need to take to see the light at the end of this tunnel; only radical love (both for ourselves and one another) and hope will.

I worry that because these hierarchical systems of race, gender, and capital have pitted us against each other in a zero sum game where there can be only winners and losers, we have lost sight of our values. I worry that some of us are willing to sell out our own communities for a paycheck. I worry that phrases like “there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism” have become a way of excusing ourselves from thinking ethically about our purchases at all. I worry that as we have become more isolated and burnt out and afraid, our relationships to our communities have become more fractured. I worry that in a society that rewards greed and dishonesty and unethical behavior, we have become afraid to do the right thing, and we have become too comfortable justifying the behaviors that hurt one another.

We must prioritize our communities as equal to ourselves. Our individuality and our needs are important! You are important! But in a functioning society, we must take care of one another as well. Because there will be moments when the community has a need that outweighs our individual needs or desires. Where we must stand up for others, even when we don’t stand to benefit. Even when there may be negative consequences.

I would never suggest that someone put themselves at personal risk¹ — I believe that each individual must determine for themselves what their values are, how they are living up to those values, and how to prioritize values when they are in conflict with one another (e.g. “safety” vs “solidarity”). I will suggest that we must all be honest about about our values and our choices, especially with ourselves. Our every action or lack thereof does not necessarily define us, but the consistent pattern of our actions will.

The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality. Or, I am saying, in other words, that we, the elders, are the only models children have. What we see in the children is what they have seen in us–or, more accurately perhaps, what they see in us.

James Baldwin

So when it comes to values like “personal safety” (which is something that most if not all of us value), there may be times where another value we cherish will take precedence. There are obvious situations where this occurs: a mother who prioritizes her own personal safety might, in the event of her child being in danger, sacrifice her own physical safety to protect her child.

These decisions are not always made consciously or with intention; they can be a gut instinct that overrides everything else in the moment of crisis. And often, when we are reacting to an urgent situation (whether it be a personal confrontation or something political), we are not using our critical thinking skills. That’s why we’re always told to prepare and practice in case of emergency — because in an actual emergency we may act on instinct, rather than with rationality.

This is why, when we’re talking about Discourse communities, it’s important to have a clear understanding of our personal values first. Because there may come a time when you have to make an ethical decision that goes against the norms of your community, and if you don’t know what moral lines you must courageously stand firm on, the bridges that you’ll burn rather than cross, you may find yourself looking back at the bridge burning behind you instead.

There will be liberty and justice for none unless there is liberty and justice for all. If your neighbor can be taken today then you can be taken a week from now. You must imagine, if it were your child, if it were your grandmother, if it were your husband . . . what would you hope others would do? What would you be willing to do?

What answers will allow you to sleep at night?

1. We all have varying levels of personal risk, which is why this must be a personal evaluation. There are not always easy, clear answers about what you should do or how to weigh your needs against the needs of the community. But doing the emotional and intellectual work of weighing those choices is the first step and should be done. ↩︎