Reflection week 6

In class this Thursday, our discussion based off of Enloe’s article was really interesting to me. The tie-in with empowering the silent, by giving myself and Julie light sabers and the authority associated with them led me to think about Enloe’s argument from a new perspective. Although it is not my personal belief, I was struck by an idea in opposition to Enloe. What if, instead of advocating for the power of the marginalized, we instead focus on why the marginalized actually need to stay on the outside? The point can be made that, in order for society to remain stable and functioning, the disenfranchised people should remain on the fringes of society.

If you think about recent arguments being made by pro-immigration camps, they make points in refutation to those that believe immigrants steal jobs away from deserving and eager Americans. To counteract this, immigrants only take the low-paying jobs that are not in fact being filled by Americans. Many Americans do not want to take these jobs, and if immigrants and those willing to work for less did not occupy the positions, the jobs would not get done at all. This relates directly to marginalized people. Perhaps it is necessary to have inequality in society to ensure that a country’s infrastructure continues to function smoothly. As callous as this stance may sound, it makes sense.

In class Thursday, someone made the point that no matter how empowered the disenfranchised become, a new “lower class” will always take their place. For example, if the current group of marginalized people rise up and take power, whomever was overthrown will become the new marginalized group. In essence, looking at a the world from a realist standpoint, all that matters is how powerful an individual company is, how they treats their populace is in effect irrelevant to how they survive in the global world. Without this distinction in society, we have communism, and no matter how equal the population of a communist country may profess to be, communism is not a sufficient solution.