Journal entry 3

 Sierra Morris

Journal 3

The articles that I read were similar in the sense of politics. The first article I read was How to Be an Intellectual, by Jeffery J. Williams. This article talked discussed the on going discourse between Richard Rorty and Andrew Ross. Rorty and Ross are both left wing liberals. Although they are from the same party they do not have the same views. Rorty believes that it is the public intellectual’s job to inform the common man of what it is going on in politics. It seems that Rorty makes this argument so the common man can vote in favor of his views. Ross does not agree with this kind of politics. Ross believes if you serve someone politics then they will not get the full picture. He believes that giving someone bits and pieces of what you want a person to know about politics leaves them just as lost as they were to begin with. Jeffery summarized these two arguments and showed both sides of them. At the end of the article Jeffery makes the case that there are flaws in both Rorty and Ross’s arguments. The issue with Rorty’s argument being that even though he went into finite depth about his ideas he did not have any “practical proposals”. Ross seemed to have had the same issue in Jeffery’s eyes.  He did not have any practical proposals although he had concrete labor. The second article I read was Occupy Colleges Now: Students and the New Public Intellectuals, by Henry A Giroux. Giroux wrote of the new public intellectual college students. College students are the new public intellectual, because they inform the world on a daily biases with “ their bodies, social media, new digital technologies, and any other viable educational tools to raise new questions. The college students now want reform, change and an increase what is taught about politics in school. Giroux pleas that the campuses of universities are the best lace for students to protest for politics, because the students cannot be kicked off campus because the universities promote learning and education.

Rorty believes that the public intellectual is someone that is well versed and seen in the public eye as important (Williams 73). Giroux on the other hand does not think that a public intellectual has to be any of those things. Giroux qualifies the average college student as a public intellectual (Giroux 75). Rorty would not agree with the idea of whatever being taught not being monitored. Giroux on the other hand believes in the freedom of speech and the idea of equal knowledge for all. This is something that Ross would agree with because he thinks,“ intellectuals should learn form the discourse of the popular,” (Williams 74) Rorty would agree that public intellectuals do not inform the common man about everything (Williams 73). This goes along with Giroux idea that the educational system does not shed light on all the aspects of subjects (Giroux 73)

This second article by Giroux effected my thinking positively. I liked what he had to say about the public intellectuals. I like the idea that anyone that was wiling to inform people about current situations in the world could be viewed as a public intellectual. This gave me the idea of independence in the new era of people. The idea that one no longer has to wait for an official public official or intellectual to tell them about current events. That they themselves cannot only go out and learn about things but teach others. In a way this article made what Ross was arguing clearer to me. I understood what he was saying about the pieces of information Rorty wanted to provide people. It seemed that the school systems worked in Rorty’s favor in the sense that they only teach what they want the students to know. Schools do not teach the whole truth about history or politics sometimes.  Acknowledging that notion that education systems fail to educate is startling and makes one start to question what they have been taught.  

The new point of view I have is that one should not always believe what it is told. That they must take the route of Ross in the sense of going out to find information themselves and if a “public intellectual” fails to make light of something you must take matters into your own hands and teach your fellow man.  I would follow up with by looking over school curriculums and seeing how much they actually do teach the students and what is left out. I would then analyze what is left out and find out what reasons it might not be taught in an educational setting.