{"id":4187,"date":"2003-04-28T11:37:05","date_gmt":"2003-04-28T11:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=4187"},"modified":"2003-04-28T11:37:05","modified_gmt":"2003-04-28T11:37:05","slug":"the-point-of-civics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=4187","title":{"rendered":"the point of civics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was interviewed over the weekend by a group called Civic Honors<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The interview is posted here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was an opportunity to say why I personally believe in civic engagement.<\/p>\n

I said:<\/p>\n

\n

My philosophical position would be something like this: (1) Volunteerism<\/p>\n

is an inadequate form of civic engagement, because it replaces political<\/p>\n

action with service, which does not address the root cause of problems<\/p>\n

or tap the political capacities of the volunteers. (2) Civic engagement<\/p>\n

should be cultivated for two reasons. First, if we don’t deliberately<\/p>\n

teach it, the least advantaged among us will be the first to disengage,<\/p>\n

leading to political inequality later on. Second, civic participation<\/p>\n

is a good human activity. It is not the only or highest good activity:<\/p>\n

theoretical reflection, spiritual contemplation, appreciation of nature,<\/p>\n

creation of art, and care for family members are some of the other activities<\/p>\n

that are inherently good. All of these ends or projects are preferable<\/p>\n

to the forms of life that are more frequently advertised to young people:<\/p>\n

consumerism, athletics, and sexual gratification. Moreover, in public<\/p>\n

schools, we cannot teach activities connected to spirituality or care<\/p>\n

for family. Therefore, we ought to teach civic engagement (along with<\/p>\n

art and science) so that it is an option available to young people.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was interviewed over the weekend by a group called Civic Honors. The interview is posted here. It was an opportunity to say why I personally believe in civic engagement. I said: My philosophical position would be something like this: (1) Volunteerism is an inadequate form of civic engagement, because it replaces political action with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocating-civic-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}