In a perfect line, the ants carry their small pebbles. The rain has washed away their home. So they busily rebuild their empire: only focussing on their objective. Survival is their goal, solidarity is their method. Their solidarity is instinctual, it's natural. So why is it that humans fight that? Stepping away from the ants we gain perspective as to how small they are in contrast to the entire yard, and how great their feat is when they complete their elaborate home.
Like the ants, solidarity is the only way that we will be able to both reveal the problems that Capital creates as well as, potentially, amend them. While we may seem small and insignificant, as the ants appear, like the ants we are capable of adaptation and rebuilding. Rebuilding a society based on awareness of the invisible and making it visible.The topics that stood out most to me in our class were: the communist discussions, the various methods of dehumanization, and the series of laws that were directed to those of Asiatic descent.
While Communism is responsible for many of the worker's rights we have today; and actually forced the oppressive class into looking into the void that capital creates, Communism is now demonized. This demonization aids in the justification of Capitalism and once again under-mines the working class. Any association to the Communism constitutes an attitude of "anti-America". By demonizing Communism, Capitalism is able to reassert itself.
Dehumanization is the tool that the white class uses to justify brutality. It allows them to re-establish their dominance "in good conscience". When a human being is seen to be "weak", animal-like, threatening, or expendable it's much more simple to see them as a commodity rather than a person. This was evident in each racial group that we studied.
Within our very laws, racism was embedded. Those who were of Asiatic descent had to refrain from reproduction, they were de-gendered, expendable, and thought of as "threatening". These Exclusionary Laws prohibited these subjects from basic rights. They oppressive laws lasted until the seventies. The Chinese helped to connect our entire country by creating the railroads, yet Americans still saw them as "others" and potentially disloyal to the U.S.
These oppressive acts divide our country. In this division, we can truly keep our "individuality" mind-set that we hold so dear. However, in gaining off of the back of the oppressed we weaken our country as a whole. The chasm between classes and values deepen creating more of a lack of solidarity. In order for solidarity to become a reality, classes withholding more power would have to give up some of that power. Our problems would have to be understood as a consequence to Capitalism and our ideologies; opposed to our typical individualistic thinking in: "Well they must deserve it" or "It's their own fault". This mentality is over-simplistic and assigns the blame towards individuals who simply exist in a society that completed aided in the creation of their situation.
We should look towards the ants. Their solidarity creates change in region and they are unable to distinguish "who is more important". It lies within nature, yet we have a divide that is self-created on so many different levels. I enjoyed this class. I feel as though most individuals look through a peep hole for a majority of their lives, only seeing fragments of an entire picture. However, when the wall is removed, there is much more to what we were viewing and were under the notion that we "understood".
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