The Badger Herald: News: Professor: It’s a ‘fundamentally unjust’ society

News

Professor: It’s a ‘fundamentally unjust’ society

Texas teacher tells UW crowd world not fair to humans as part of 2-day summit

Looking for a print version?
Simply use your browser’s ‘Print’ command and a printer-friendly document will be generated automatically.

Also by Jenny Englert:

Sublet scams increasing in Madison area (April 21, 2009)
Mistele reveals safety agenda (March 27, 2009)
U.S.-European relations strong (March 11, 2009)
Polar bear safely reaches Buffalo to get groove on (February 26, 2009)
Dancing marathon to start next week (February 20, 2009)

By Jenny Englert
Monday, April 27, 2009 10:19 p.m.

2 Vote 0 Votes

A University of Texas journalism professor told a crowd at the University of Wisconsin Friday the world is a fundamentally unjust and unsustainable place for humans.

Professor Robert Jensen gave his keynote speech as a part of the “Our Campus, Our World: Collectively Creating a Better and More Just Society” conference held Friday and Saturday across campus.

Jensen started his talk with a unique description of hope.

“I think hope and any successful politics has to start with an honest description of where we are in the world,” Jensen said.

Jensen examined what he believes to be three major revolutions in our history: the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution and the delusional revolution.

According to Jensen, the problems of the world began when humans started to move from the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution. Problems furthered when the world moved into the “delusional revolution” and with the development of sophisticated propaganda began in the 20th century.

Jensen said people must step back and see the world’s issues are far worse than acknowledged by the majority.

“Until we recognize the terrain on which we are working, I don’t think we can plan much in the way of solutions,” Jensen said.

Jensen said the fundamentally unjust and fundamentally unsustainable nature of the world leaves humans to live in a world of grief.

“6.7 billion people are on this planet, and [are] functionally the same as you and me, yet not all of us live with the same level of comfort in this world,” Jensen said.

Jensen said he thinks grief and joy are a package deal, adding if you work too hard to avoid grief, you will essentially be deprived of joy.

Liza Meredith, an employee in the Letters & Sciences office, said she was surprised at Jensen’s approach to talking about hope.

In comparison to President Barack Obama’s style of approaching the idea of hope, Meredith said she thinks Jensen has a completely different tone.

“I thought it was going to be more about science and hope for the future, I didn’t expect it to be critical of where we are,” Meredith said. “I found it to be thought provoking. It’s inspiring to think that there are a lot of problems, and we need to fundamentally change.”

Letters & Science Honor Students have been working to develop this conference since the summer of 2008. UW junior Katrina Brown came up with the idea for the conference after taking an experiential learning class that discussed issues regarding diversity and justice.

“The class was an emotionally disrupting to experience, we had all these ideas we were talking about, and I left thinking ‘What’s next?’” Brown said. “As undergrads, we need space to talk about our opinions in a safe place.”

2 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | April 27, 2009 9:20 AM | Reply

Life’s not fair, it just is.

That’s the “blind just is” you hear about.

Anonymous | April 27, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply

“As undergrads, we need space to talk about our opinions in a safe place.”

In this era of hyper political correctness, there is no safe place for dissenting opinions, facts, or science. If you dare to point out that the “King has no clothes” and provide the evidence to make your case, you are castigated as a racist, bigot, right wing extremist, homophobe, global warming denier, facist, hate mongering, sexist, baby killing religious nut. If you proceed in goose stepping synchrony with Our Dear Leader, you also can receive the “A” grade given to the main stream media by Robert Gibbs, Obama’s press secretary.

All Hail Our Dear Leader! Hope! Change!