Thinking Dialectically

In response to, “Nothing is More Important than Thinking Dialectically”

When reading this short article, I found the relationship between Dialectical Thinking and social movements interesting because I faintly remember learning about Dialectical Thinking in ASA3. Last quarter in ASA 3 we were taught that the idea behind Dialectical Thinking was realizing contradictions in both sides of a situation and choosing to make sense of both. When reading the article with this in mind, the author's main idea that; what was successful to build the past will not also be successful in the future made a lot more sense than I expected. Partially because I think the ideas clicked and made sense to me, and the other part is because I have the critical reading skills of a bunny. The article shows that the opinions of those oppressed and those of the oppressor are constantly changing and when both are taken into account, the minority group is able to see what needs to be changed in themselves and structure of their oppression as well. This idea leads me to wonder what could possibly happen if dialectical thinking were to occur more often and how effective it would actually be. Would those oppressed truly be able to change the values of their oppressors? 

Aaron Handa

Section A02