Maxine Greene: The Dialectic of Freedom:.
In The Dialect of Freedom Maxine Greene argues that freedom can only be obtained through the processes of resistance to oppression and all the forces that limit true expression of the person. She draws from the varied fields of philosophy, the arts, and history in order to accurately portray the actual struggles of women, immigrants, and minority groups. She provides a historical perspective on American concepts of freedom from the time of Jefferson to the present, integrating these ideas with what is needed in education to preserve freedom for individuals and groups in America. It is the thesis of this critical analysis that Greene believes that the primary ways to freedom are through resistance to oppression and expression through the arts.
The thesis of freedom through resistance to oppression appears in Greene's thoughts concerning inundation by the media and the relentless pressures of a consumer society. Because the airwaves are constantly filled with all kinds of messages and directives, the individual tends to withdraw and retreat in silence (Greene, 1988, p.2). The news is so negative and alarmist that people tend to tune out and just do the best they can with daily existence. No one can deal on a daily basis with mad cow disease, the war in Iraq, school shootings, and global warming. The average person quietly retreats, when the opposite action would be an act of freedom, to protest media conglomerates and sensationalized tabloid news.
In like manner, the strong emphasis to buy goods persuades people to have more, as if that is more important than being more (Greene, 1988, p.7). So much buying becomes unreflective, and the society as a whole becomes passive, thinking merely about the next meal to consume or the next movie to consume. America enjoys economic comfort, but it seems that the price is a sort of gluttony of the mind and the senses. Greene would advocate ...