Denley: The Burden Of Indifferences

Overall, citizens understand government does not provide much

Perhaps it is safe to say that most everyone in the deranged world that we live in today aims for happiness. Some would even say we are simply slaves to our primal passions, shackled in our endless pursuit of fulfillments and shaping our existence around them. Gravitating towards the things in life that bring us pleasure, and recoiling away from those that could cause us pain. A lot of individuals think of happiness as an overall end goal, while others consider happiness the starting point of being great. Nevertheless, happiness is drawn from different things based off the individual.

For this week’s assignment, I decided to analyze “The Perils of Indifference” by Elie Wiesel, and “The Children’s Era” by Margaret Sanger.

The United States fell into a dark pit of hardship and despair during the mid-1800’s. The two sections of the country split off into two factions in a mixture of blood and tears. Economic and moral issues were shoved in front of the two factions that plunged them into a civil war.

There is a plethora of criticisms about the effectiveness of the Bureaucracy. Even during the 19th century, as Wilson writes, the Post Office “was an organization marred by inefficiency and corruption”. With an appointment standard such as the “spoils system”, where individuals or groups are granted high level positions based on political favors alone, corruption is almost a certainty. The political aspect of the Bureaucracy was prevalent in the military for over 100 years, as Wilson states “the size and deployment of the military establishment in this country was governed entirely by decisions made by political leaders on political grounds”. Political favors and factors plague our government, including the Bureaucracy. A by-product of these political favors and corruptions are stagnancy and mediocrity. An example of this, as

Distinguished Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, discusses the effects indifference has on one’s humanity in both? societal and individual terms. Wiesel’s purpose is to illustrate the plight of those who suffer because of indifference and to appeal to the audience's consciences. He adopts a sympathetic, haunting, and accusatory tone in order to convey to audiences that society had not learned and many victims have and will continue to suffer injustices because of indifference. Ultimately, through the means of syntax devices such as juxtaposition, anaphora, diction, and rhetorical questioning, Weisel bolsters the supporting logic of his claim that indifference is a grave malady of humanity and to amend such an ailment one must look no further than the self. Wiesel’s comprehensive speech, “The Perils of Indifference” can be divided into three definitive sections: the contextualization of the suffering that occurs both past and present, an explication of “indifference”, and lastly Wiesel's earnest undertaking and rhetorical questioning of why we practice indifference.

Indifference “elicits no response.” Indifference “is not a response.” Famous author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in his speech, “The Perils of Indifference” informs the audience about the dangers of indifference. He supports his claim by first giving a dictionary definition of indifference, then talking about his personal experiences and then about examples in history when we were indifference. Wiesel's purpose is to illustrate the dangers of indifference using his own personal experiences and historical examples in order to explain how terrible it is and to persuade us to do something about it. He establishes a serious, somber, and critical tone for the politicians in attendance of the Millennium Lecture Series, which is a series of cultural showcases that highlight the creativity and inventiveness of the ideas, art, and scientific discoveries.

Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in his speech, "The Perils of Indifference," argues that indifference can destroy mankind as it can obliterate a person's humanity. He supports his claim by first expressing his gratitude for his audience for their fight against insouciance to gain their trust, then uses logical reasoning to convey that the United States has committed acts of indifference to showcase the severity of the situation, and evokes emotion by proclaiming how children endure indifference. Wiesel's purpose is to expose the harsh reality that apathy imposes on its victims to bring awareness of the issue in hope that the audience acts upon it. He adopts an empathetic tone for government officials and politicians who influence society.

Our government gets a grade of C. The layers of bureaucratic waste were front in center with each week’s lesson. The founding fathers had good intentions but our leaders today seemed to have lost direction and proper focus. The negativity and division even, within their own parties of government officials is disconcerting. The system would work better if THEY learned how to be civil, respectful and more understanding of each other and realize that ever opinion matters and that working together they can archive more.

Writer, Elie Wiesel in his metaphorical speech “The perils of Indifference” argues that the future will never know the agony of the Holocaust and they will never understand the tragedy of the horrific terror in Germany. Wiesel wants people to not let this happen but at the time many modern genocides that are occurring and people shouldn’t be focused on just the Holocaust, they should focus on making this world a better place; moreover, Wiesel expresses his thoughts about all the genocides that has happen throughout the years. He develops his message through in an horrifying event that took place 54 years ago the day “ The perils of Indifference” was published. Wiesel illustrates the indifferences of good vs evil. He develops this message

Many people believe there is not a dividing line between ignorance and indifference, but they are more similar/connected to each other than people think and are the opposite of moral responsibility. In both the story “Night” and Elie Wiesel’s “The Perils of Indifference” the Americans(President) and the Germans both showed indifference toward the Jew during the Holocaust and World War II, which proves people are willing to sacrifice others to keep themselves safe and not get involved with anything that has nothing to do with them. Everyone on the Earth has a moral obligation to right the wrongs in our world to the extent where indifference can be justified.

Harmeen Jones, a former Fox Technician, was fired after filing a complaint to Human Resources of the unfair treatment he was receiving by his colleagues at Fox for being African-American. Jones claims ‘he was subjected to a steady stream of "racist, sexist, and extremely offensive comments,’ against blacks, Muslims, Jews, women and Hispanics” (Shifrel). Unfortunately, not only does the network available to 87 million households make flippant remarks in it’s work environment, but it also promotes racist stereotypes on air. During an episode of The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly made an insulting remark when telling an African-American guest, “Say you 're a cocaine dealer—and you kind of look like one a little bit” (Hall). Stereotyping minority races has existed since the creation of the United States, and continues to be a problem. The privileged social group in society often oppresses minorities, and advertises false statements of the other races. Media, a big contributor to the spread of racial stereotyping that occurs in the United States, often provides viewers with stereotypes that continue to promote racism, and the discouragement of success in a minority group. The media portrays the dominant race in a positive way, while minority groups are depicted in ways that provide people with an invalid reason to feel hatred toward minority groups.

“I just don't think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was virtue.” Morgan Freeman speaks these words in the movie Se7en after declaring that he is going to quit his job as a detective. His character sees crimes of hate, aggression and murder every day, and he also observes the public’s reaction to them. People turn a blind eye; they no longer care. What has happened to society? Why has what used to be considered incredibly shocking dissolved into what is considered an everyday and usual activity? Apathy has become the common response of American society towards what should be considered shocking because these activities have become unshocking and “everyday”.

Wilson does an excellent job to dispel the public's perception of bureaucracy as a largely impersonal, poorly managed entity that employs unqualified staff who are buried in red tape. He explains, that to better understand why bureaucracies do what they do, you must recognize that public government agencies do not have the same goals as private independent businesses. The two operate with different sets of rules, goals, incentives, and constraints. In short, private companies are goal oriented, where bureaucracies are driven by constraints. Wilson demonstrates this by using Government

‘Why do we, so easily, accept our fate as directed by bureaucrats seated upon their fat asses from comfortably furnished leather lounge