Habermas

Dense, dense prose! Another month with the text would be nice; but even then, I doubt I would walk away with complete comprehension. I can't believe Habermas wrote this when he was only 25! Incredible...

Reading about the liberal public sphere in England ignited issues underlying my entire first year of study. Clearly, no society ever benefited from the perfect public sphere. Taking it further, perhaps its highly unlikely we will ever have a perfect public sphere. Even Habermas admits his sphere excluded many people, including slaves, minorities and women. So, what to do with seemingly dismal hope for change?

In the midst of these arguments, I am attempting to ground myself in what I believe and how I should academically proceed. Do I accept the imperfect public sphere, assume no possible change and work with said reality? Or do I press on toward the Dewian ideal, recognizing that humans can change and grow? I realize this isn't a choice of one or the other; it's finding the action in the former and using it to inform the latter. I am not willing to settle for the status quo. I believe we can do better. We can take care of each other better. We can become involved, discuss and act on political issues better. We can care for our environment better. We can use technology better. We can educate our children better.  Believe it or not, I am becoming quite fond of Dewey.