Pericles and the Perils of Perception

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Pericles’ famous funeral oration honoring fallen soldiers in The Pelopponesian War is an ode to Athens. He proclaims the glories of the state in great depth and detail, and calls on the families of the dead to remain steadfast in their patriotism. One of the Athenian virtues he praises is that of the informed democratic citizen:

The very men who take care of public affairs look after their own at the same time; and even those who are devoted to their own businesses know enough about the city’s affairs…for we believe that what spoils action is not speeches, but going into action without first being instructed through speeches.

Being properly instructed before taking action is widely agreed to be wiser than charging into situations blindly. However, in Pericles’ time as well as today, it is at least equally as important to ask who is doing the instructing, and what informed citizenship really means. The US ranked second to last out of 14 countries who took part in the Ipsos Perils of Perception Quiz, a survey gauging the public’s awareness about basic domestic socio-political issues. This widespread ignorance about the basic state of affairs in our country is terrifying in its implications, especially in light of recent tragedies like the deaths of Michael BrownTamir RiceTrayvon MartinOscar Grant, and countless other unarmed young black men.

A 1990 study reported that while African Americans made up only 12% of the population, 41% of one week’s worth of news programs featuring African Americans were about crime, and that “while African Americans were over-represented as perpetrators of crime in comparison to arrest records, whites were under-represented as perpetrators but were over-represented as victims.” When these realities of media bias and social bias continue on to their logical conclusions, we see heightened stereotyping of young black men and African Americans in general, heightened juror bias against African American defendants, and a deeply racially biased criminal justice system with terrifying and unacceptable outcomes for a significant portion of America’s people.

Pericles called on the people of Athens to be informed about public affairs under the assumption that citizens are political actors with the power to enact change. We have not only the power but the responsibility to accurately inform ourselves, challenge misconceptions, and challenge social and political systems predicated on those misconceptions.

Want to find out where you stand? Take the quiz here.

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