Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Reaction to Wenche's Lecture

I really enjoyed Wenche's lecture last week as well. After reading all of the previous posts, it seems she touched on a lot of issues that left people thinking after class. Drawing contrasts between Denmark and America definitely highlighted the inequality that we face in our country, on multiple levels. As she got into the discussion about gender equality, and other "taboos" that exist in our society, it was obvious that these topics tend to make people uncomfortable - most of us were kind of avoiding eye contact and twirling in our chairs if I remember correctly. I know that Wenche's enthusiasm was sort of unexpected, but regardless I thought that we could have engaged in a much better discussion had we given her more feedback. These are real issues that exist in our society, but we can't really address them if no one is willing to argue about them. If you look at our bipartisan system, and how candidates right now are focusing their platforms on merely opposing Obamas, it definitely narrows the window of important issues that will actually ever be discussed in the political setting. You don't hear any discussion about gender inequality (which is still clearly an underlying problem for women in politics), education, or class inequality. These could provide some reasons as to why our government has such a low approval rating - I definitely dont have much confidence in my governments ability to make progress on any of these issues in the near future. Denmark's striking contrast in approval rating, and their ability to talk to one another (even over serious topics) with respect, may be some reasons as to why they are generally a happier nation. They have a system that provides so much more for all their citizens, and a functioning government that can adjust when new issues are acknowledged.

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