[nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..
Chris Nusbaum
dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
Tue May 3 20:13:25 UTC 2011
Quite the philosopher, Mike. You remind me of Dr. Jernigan,
smile. I completely understand that worldview.
Chris Nusbaum
"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 2 May 2011 20:19:02 -0700
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..
Chris:
I agree with you. I did not, in fact, say that diversity could
be negative
although I dare say that quite a number of high school kids
trying to "fit
in" might think so. In fact, to my way of thinking, physical
diversity is
neutral. Intellectual diversity is certainly an advantage. As
for negative
diversity -- let's see -- how about the presence of diseases such
as
sickle-cell anemia? After all, the genes that code for this
disease also
confer some immunity to malaria. Yet few would disagree with
those who seek
to cure or eliminate this disease.
Now I'm not saying blindness is a disease. It is a physical
condition
resulting from the lack of one sense -- vision. That's far from
being a
disease in my book. But I don't believe blindness confers any
advantages,
either.
Perhaps a sentence or two about my view of life might help you to
understand
where I'm coming from -- it's a view that Jedi does not subscribe
to. Long
live diversity, eh? Anyway, I am agnostic. Therefore, I do not
believe
there is any meaning in life apart from the meaning we give it by
our own
actions. Nor do I believe there is an ultimate purpose to
existence except
insofar as we overlay it with a gloss of meaning of our own
making.
Therefore, questions such as "why am I here? Why was I blind?
What purpose
does my blindness serve in the larger scheme of things?" have no
answers
and, in fact, make no sense to even ask. It's sort of like in
quantum
mechanics where it makes no sense to ask whether an electron is a
wave or a
particle.
Anyway, with that world view in mind and bearing in mind that I
subscribe to
the NFB notion that with training and opportunity, blindness can
be reduced
to the level of a physical inconvenience and that we, the blind,
are simply
normal people who cannot see, I do not see that having blind
people around
confers some special blessing on society. Blindness is just that
-- the
lack of sight. I do not believe that it renders us privy to
special
insights, miraculous talents or capacities or special cultural
predilections. I am therefore not committed to its preservation.
Neither,
on the other hand, am I committed to its eradication. If it
happens, so be
it. If it does not, so be it. I'm not going to worry
overly-much about it
since it won't happen in my lifetime and there will be
innumerable
circumstances I cannot foresee so cannot make a binding judgment
upon.
Bottom line: I don't see how we can say that blindness is just
the lack of
eyesight while at the same time believing it confers special
virtues or
valuable traits for society. I truly do not believe blindness to
be all
that much of a muchness. Sometimes it's a pain; sometimes it's
just there.
In my experience, it's never the catalyst for wisdom or
enlightenment.
Now that I've written this to death, on to the next issue!
(smile)
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Chris Nusbaum
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2011 12:55 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..
Being Devil's advocate, what negativity does diversity have?
Diversity, by definition, isn't good nor bad, but just different.
So, what is the negative impact of diversity on... who, society?
Chris Nusbaum
"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com
To: "'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 1 May 2011 21:25:10 -0700
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..
That presumes that diversity always equals benefit. You and I
are going to
have to differ on this one.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jedi
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2011 6:45 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] If the World Went Sighted..
I say that disability is a form of diversity, so I wouldn't want
to erase
it.
Respectfully,
Jedi
Original message:
Hello all,
This is an interesting discussion, so I thought I'd pop in for a
minute.
This question goes, at the root of it, to how you view
disability. If you
view it as an aspect that creates diversity, then erasing it
would be like
erasing races or different languages. If you view disability as
a disease,
then logically the first response would be to want to cure it.
What do you guys think?
Briley
On Apr 27, 2011, at 7:55 AM, Jorge Paez wrote:
Arielle:
I think blindness does play a roll--in that it is just one of
many things
that make up an individual, and in a world where genetics would
be
preprogramed, it just be too perfect.
It'd just bee too flawless--too artificial.
I'm sure some people would want it--but a world in which
blindness and
other disabilities are completely eradicated would just be too
artificial,
almost like we literally managed to create our own world in a
way.
Worse, it would make it a whole lot worse for any blind who were
born
cause then everyone would consider them a scientific failure so
to speak.
Of course,
I'm hypothetically talking about a very cold world in which
science would
create people which I hope would never happen but its a good
talking point
anyway.
Jorge
On Apr 27, 2011, at 12:08 AM, Arielle Silverman wrote:
Hi all,
We recently had a discussion about how we would react if some of
our blind
friends could become sighted, and we asked whether it would be
reasonable
for a sighted person to want to go blind. This made me think of
an
interesting, although a bit painful, question:
Would the world be better off, worse off, or about the same if
blindness
were completely eradicated, through genetic engineering and/or
mandatory
treatment of all causes of blindness?
The question may sound silly, but for many vision researchers,
eradication
of blindness is a real goal. But does the presence of blind
people in our
society have any benefit to the society or the world as a whole?
Certainly there are costs of having a small group of people in
society who
read and travel using different techniques than the rest. These
specialized techniques have to be taught, technology has to be
adapted to
their use and negative public attitudes prevent this minority of
people who
do things differently from having full access to societal goods
and
opportunities. So would it be cheaper and less
resource-demanding if
everybody could use the same visual techniques to accomplish
life tasks?
On the other hand, you could perhaps argue that having people
who use
different senses to do things in society is advantageous.
Technology is forced to innovate to become usable by those who
don't have
vision as well as those who do. And conceivably, if a darkness
plague
struck the planet, it would be better for the species if some of
its
members could fully function without light.
What do you think? Should we as a society make an effort to get
rid of
blindness? Or does blindness serve any kind of social function?
There obviously isn't a right answer here, but it's something
that, for
better or for worse, could become relevant to us someday.
Arielle
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