I believe that we are due for more great things from the future generations. This will happen as we continue to improve education which will in turn eliminate most of the ignorance out there that is the root of all racism, sexism, and oppression.Economically this country offers the greatest opportunity and wealth. This is a country that relies on a truly blind system of fairness and equality. This is the apparatus of any capitalistic society, the free market. Under ideal situations this system people will work more productively and longer in direct relation to their perception of possible reward. This last part is the only problem that this has. This is because race, class, cultural, and gender distinctions cause certain groups of people to not utilize their full possible work potential (effort) and therefore not realize their true opportunities and wealth. This situation is similar to the classic psychological experiment in which a salmon is put in a fish tank that is divided into two separate tanks. The salmon is on one side and the types of little fish that it eats are put on the other side. At first the salmon furiously bashes his head against the glass partition tying to get the tiny fish. After a while though this salmon learns that it cannot eat those fish. Then the scientist removes the glass partition and the little fish swim all around the tank. The salmon does not strike at them. In fact the salmon will die of starvation before it will eat any of the fish that are in the tank with it. This is known as learned helplessness. This to me is what a lot of minorities suffered from in the early part of this century. Racism abounded but the partition was slowly being removed. But once it was fully removed these people had already learned that their opportunities were less than their white male peers. Although this is obscene and horrible it reduced there will to work as hard as they could have. Today this is slowl...
