Nicholas Sirota, Period 1, 5/26/2022

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?                       

problem with systems of inequity and oppression, including authoritarian governments, is that not only are those systems immoral, it is ultimately ineffective. Systems of authoritarianism often fail to view people as intellectual individuals, and only determine people based on their outside traits. In today’s society, successful governments last as a result of a mutual connection between individuals and government leaders. On the contrary, oppressive systems of government do not rely on collaboration but rather subordination. Instead of maintaining a connection with individuals, oppressive systems of government isolate groups of people based on their differences and fail to have them become educated so that they do not recognize the immorality of those systems’ actions. The reason why authoritarian governments do not last is that eventually, these individuals will become educated. Education is a powerful tool because it creates unity among the oppressed individuals through a shared idea, which is why historically many oppressed groups of people, including the American colonies and the Haitian slaves, have successfully rebelled against oppressive regimes.

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

As I mentioned earlier, I believe that education is a powerful tool and can be used to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues, including inequity and oppression, by creating collaboration among individuals. In order to solve oppression, educating others about the problems of oppression is always the first step. Looking back, one of the aspects of the Modern Mythology course that has really surprised me was the large extent of how the stories we read connected to the real world. From the story of Juleidah and her struggles with a patriarchal society to Grendel and his struggles with isolation from human society, many of the stories we read in class dwelled on issues of oppression as well. Just like in real world trends, oppression failed to work in these stories, as Juleidah ended up rebelling and Grendel was made into a monster that caused terror towards Hrothgar’s people. These stories have a huge influence on our society, and they will help us be better prepared to tackle real life issues of oppression through the lessons these stories teach