An idea from my life that I can connect to the reading is the idea of generational influence and how it has has affected my thought process. I can relate to the statement: "Immigrants to the united states typically change their thinking according to the generation they are..." (110). I find myself feeling as though I live an Americanized homogenized life. A lot of the traditions from my heritage have fallen by the wayside and I find myself in a season of rediscovery as I have a real desire to impart these traditions unto my children. Another idea that I can connect to from the reading is the idea that position changes your way of thinking. This is so often the case but we find over and over that people achieve a certain position or level of success but do not have the character and/or integrity to keep the position. I've heard it said that we live life on levels and the we arrive in stages. Each level that we arrive to requires a higher level of responsibility. That is why at times a person's education, gifts, talents, and abilities open doors to positions that their character, or lack there of, cannot sustain.
What I learned about human freedom from the reading was that while we have the ability to make choices that control curtain aspects of our lives to a degree, "most people have a highly exaggerated view of how much freedom they actually have" (94).
I think that the way class functions to keep those at the bottom in their place and keep others out is despicable. One example is the way that slaves were kept from having a education. Charon writes: "It is critical to recognize that a great deal of what we call freedom involves thinking" (98) and "What we know makes a difference to our ability to think freely" (111). When we keep people uneducated and limit their access to knowledge, it is easier to control them. To further make my point, Charon writes: "Poor knowledge limits free thought" (112).
