Society Case

Unfortunately in society today, as well as in the past, humans have allowed race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, and sexuality to determine the identity of a person, and as a result, people become subject to prejudice. In this presentation, professors from a number of backgrounds; political science, religious studies, history, and English explored the idea of “the other.”

The political science portion of the presentation looked at diversity and civic participation. In a study done by Robert Putnam, it was found that when diversity is high, civic participation is lowered. Lowered civic participation results for several reasons: a distrust of neighbors occurs and withdrawal from friends and proximity causes greater tensions. In the history portion of the presentation, civilizations were examined. Civilizations are defined by commonalities, and as a result, conflicts among civilizations or within civilizations occur. Who we are, how we relate to one another, and to what extent we would go to protect ourselves against threats all feed the exploitation of “the other.”

Although view the person or group of people most different from ourselves as “the other”, God, and entity many people have a close relationship with can also be considered an “other”. God insists on being unseen and completely different, yet he is accepted. Yahweh, similarly is described as “that which is, was, and always will be, not much clarity about name “Holy Other”.” Jesus was an excellent example for people in today’s society. God incarnated in human form, Jesus was entirely an “other”. Although he was the divine son of God, he chose to live his life constantly in the presence of “the other”.

The satirical writer, Jonathan Swift, also dealt with the idea of the other in his writings. On a personal level, he took on a different persona when he wrote to upper class people about beggars. He also made peasants the other by dehumanizing