Contact Zone and Communities

INTRODUCTION

Over the years many philosophers, sociologists, economists, and political scientists have been undertaking research with an aim of understanding what an ideal society should be. This group of scholars has taken into consideration various aspects of man’s life that are crucial to his/her survival. They have considered issues, such as social systems, political systems, and legal systems with a sole purpose of identifying what should be done in these areas of man’s life in order to achieve some form of utopia in them. The objective of having the utopian society is a need to promote peace and stability that are vital to the progress of any given society. Therefore, it is up to the intellectuals/scholars to come up with ways of achieving utopia in the society for the purpose of reducing conflicts that arise from inequality, social injustices, among other factors, that result in instability in the society.

Many people have tried to define what an ideal society should be like. This paper intends to analyze what an ideal society or community should be in terms of social, political, and legal systems. The two scenarios have been taken into consideration; an ideal society and a society which is not ideal. Two important terms have been used in the essay to describe the two types of the society. The contact zone represents a community that is undergoing the process of changes in order to create an ideal system of the utopian society.

The main aim of this essay is to describe the process that should be followed by the contact zone community in order to build the utopian society. The society has to undergo some intellectual process in order to achieve equality, social justice, build good education system, and finally a desirable social-political system. This paper will describe the ways, in which the society can achieve the dream of being utopian in the long run through using its existing resources. This essay will give more emphasis to the process of achieving idealism in the community, as described in the book Ways of Reading.

DISCUSSION

The contact zone community is characterized by many things that are undesirable in any man’s life. In this society the justice system tends to discriminate some groups of people, to distinguish between the rich and the poor; for instance, there is no justice at all for those who are very poor in the society. This creates inequality in the justice system making the majority of the members of this society unhappy with their justice system. Secondly, the distribution of the resources in this community is very unfair where majority of the members end up being poor, uneducated, and unemployed. The political class tends to be very rich because it has an ability to enrich itself through grabbing the public resources. This has resulted to a very large gap between the rich and the poor, which is growing each and every day.

Thirdly, the political system of the contact zone community is one that does not know what democracy is, the ruling class have avoided any attempts to bring democracy in this community for years. The elections in this society are characterized by rigging, unfairness; and this in turn results in usage of violence during the elections, as many of the political competitors do not have confidence in the body that is mandated by the constitution to run the electoral process in this community.

Therefore, based on the situation that is in this community there is an urgent need to ensure that utopia is realized in order to bring stability and long-lasting peace in this society. The intellectuals in the society have to come up with various ways of achieving idealism in this society. The first step toward idealism is achieved through ensuring that the masses in this community are educated on their rights through all the channels that are available. This awareness of their rights will result into full participation of every member in the process of transforming the contact zone into an ideal society (Bartholomae and Petrosky 13).

The justice system needs reforms for the sole purpose of bringing sanity in the system. Both legal and social reforms are needed in this system to ensure that equality and fairness is ensured. The authorities of the contact zone society have to come up with measures to increase the number of those entitled to administer justice in order to improve the efficiency of justice delivered.

The issues of corruption need to be addressed through parliament acts that stipulate penalties for those who will take part in the corrupt and criminal activities. This will go a long way in discouraging economic crimes and protecting public goods and resources. However, it is up to the authority of the contact zone to ensure that these laws are adhered to the sorts of crimes that should be dealt with in the long run.

Finally, in order to overcome economic crimes and political evils, constitutional reforms are needed to be taken urgently. It will ensure that there is democracy, and all kinds of crimes do not go unpunished. This process requires participation of each and every member of the society in pushing for political reforms that will play a major role in transforming the society into an ideal one.

CONCLUSION

The process of building an ideal society is crucial in any given society. The process involves intellectual awareness, education of the masses, and fighting for reforms. Equality and social justice cannot be achieved without full participation of all members of the society in the process of reforms. The utopian society brings economic, social, and political prosperity in a given society. Everyone has a major role to play in ensuring that his/her society can be termed as an ideal one. Intellectuals play a major role in this process; they can do this by inciting their students to fight for reforms in their lectures and writing various articles on the issues that touche on the society. These articles should act as a form of eye opener so that people can see the need to fight for reforms that are vital for their development.

In conclusion, achieving an ideal society where there is equality, fairness, as well as sound economic policies, is a process that requires involvement and soberness of every member of this society. The scholars have to ensure that every student understands that what is learnt in class is integrated in the real-life situations. This will play a key role in transforming any given society into the utopian one.