Oscar Chen Pd 7 11/22/22

 Socio-political Consciousness

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

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

Injustice has always lingered throughout history, in one form or another. Recently with the development of the age of technology, these injustices have been put on full display. The advent of social media and other new forms of communication makes it trivially easy for everyday people to understand what is happening. One recent development that exemplifies this phenomenon is the incompetent takeover of Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk, exposing the volatility of the stock market. 

The story goes that after Musk bought Twitter, one of the first policies he enacted was to allow users to buy verification. This led to “trolls” buying verification on accounts impersonating big corporations, one of these being Eli Lilly and Co. With a single sentence claiming insulin is now free, Eli Lilly stocks dropped heavily. 

It’s not as if people didn’t know about the exploitation of suffering people for the profits of the big pharmaceutical company, but this debacle has taken another step against them. The power they have over the lives of people, especially those who aren’t well off financially, is something that I find unjust and morally corrupt. This is hardly the only way those who have poor financial backgrounds are discriminated against for trying to live their lives. From healthcare to job opportunities to living status, it is more common for people in power to stay in power than for someone to climb the ranks. 

From a young age, my mother would always remind me to think of the people that are worse off than me. And I would, I would try to eat everything on my plate, wear exclusively hand-me-downs, and use everything I was given until it was no longer usable. But growing up and learning about the lavish lifestyles of people with more money than me, I questioned my actions. I came to the conclusion that my actions resembled those at the top. “Hoarding” to only benefit me and my immediate surroundings. Trying to do better, I hope to bring up those below me. Now, I try to do volunteer and non-profit work and donate whenever I have the opportunity.