Thursday, December 18, 2008

concentric spheres of social groups from local to global

I was thinking about how my life is fairly well laid out before me and I like what I see. It seems to be just maintaining and improving what I already have at this point, to a large extent. I was reviewing a workbook on citizenship completed by one of my students and began to reflect on the inclusion of this value in most ethical systems. Off the top of my head the definition of citizenship that comes quickly to my mind is a quote from Spock in The Wrath of Khan: the needs of the many usually outweigh the needs of the few. You're right, usually wasn't part of the original quote, but I don't think it is an absolutely true statement anyway. So what does it mean to be a citizen? A lot of social service organizations are built around this ideal, and I think Thomas Paine along with many other early writers had a lot to say about this subject. Incidentally, recently a civics class has become a requirement in the UK educational system. Is citizenship the same as patriotism or nationalism? No. Further explorations may be forthcoming...

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