Comments on: Closing the Gap http://fatvegan.com/2009/03/03/closing-the-gap/ Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:51:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Ryan http://fatvegan.com/2009/03/03/closing-the-gap/comment-page-1/#comment-4026 Ryan Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:48:42 +0000 http://fatvegan.com/?p=4472#comment-4026 <p>It's not so much intervention that I have an issue with as much as it is this white imperative to "close the gap". Obviously, disregarding people's preferences can go both ways - you don't want to dominate them or completely ignore them.</p> <p>If I thought that "closing the gap" was a big issue within the black community and there were people willing to push it, then I would feel totally differently. But I suspect that dramatic social change rarely comes from within, and perhaps there is a good reason for that.</p> <p>Part of the problem is with the decision-making process. It's impossible to get consensus or even feel like you can get a good range of views. But instead of letting that be a stumbling block, I feel like the government just heads on with whatever it feels like. I also don't think that people should be "consulted" about the dramatic social change we're pulling them into. There needs to be way more involvement than that from the people that it is going to affect.</p> It’s not so much intervention that I have an issue with as much as it is this white imperative to “close the gap”. Obviously, disregarding people’s preferences can go both ways – you don’t want to dominate them or completely ignore them.

If I thought that “closing the gap” was a big issue within the black community and there were people willing to push it, then I would feel totally differently. But I suspect that dramatic social change rarely comes from within, and perhaps there is a good reason for that.

Part of the problem is with the decision-making process. It’s impossible to get consensus or even feel like you can get a good range of views. But instead of letting that be a stumbling block, I feel like the government just heads on with whatever it feels like. I also don’t think that people should be “consulted” about the dramatic social change we’re pulling them into. There needs to be way more involvement than that from the people that it is going to affect.

]]> By: Laurence http://fatvegan.com/2009/03/03/closing-the-gap/comment-page-1/#comment-4025 Laurence Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:52:46 +0000 http://fatvegan.com/?p=4472#comment-4025 <p>Once again you've opened my eyes on things I've never really considered before. It does sound a bit rich to use terms like 'gap', because it kind of assumes a linear measure of everything about a person or group of people, where health, wealth, moral/spiritual fulfillment and happiness lie all on the same line. It's "The Gap" not "a gap in such and such". Although I am concerned about the point you've made on dramatic social change. Hypothetically, if the way people are living and interacting causes them to be in a state they themselves don't want to be in (or their children to be in), is there a problem with there being dramatic changes in the societies in which they live? This would lead to the need to ask these people if they want changes and if they feel these changes would improve things, which probably isn't an accurate way to gauge whether change should happen, but probably the only socially responsible one. Of course, that's purely hypothetical, and in practice probably very expensive and time consuming, not to mention not immediately satisfying.</p> Once again you’ve opened my eyes on things I’ve never really considered before.
It does sound a bit rich to use terms like ‘gap’, because it kind of assumes a linear measure of everything about a person or group of people, where health, wealth, moral/spiritual fulfillment and happiness lie all on the same line. It’s “The Gap” not “a gap in such and such”.
Although I am concerned about the point you’ve made on dramatic social change. Hypothetically, if the way people are living and interacting causes them to be in a state they themselves don’t want to be in (or their children to be in), is there a problem with there being dramatic changes in the societies in which they live? This would lead to the need to ask these people if they want changes and if they feel these changes would improve things, which probably isn’t an accurate way to gauge whether change should happen, but probably the only socially responsible one.
Of course, that’s purely hypothetical, and in practice probably very expensive and time consuming, not to mention not immediately satisfying.

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