Readings ( read these two readings before writing the essay, they are uploaded as PDFs):
– Anand Giridharadas, “The Critic and the Thought Leader,” from Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018)
– Naomi Klein, “Hot Money: How Free Market Fundamentalism Helped Overheat the Planet,” from This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (2014)
In “Hot Money,” Naomi Klein writes that, to some, “changing the earth’s climate in ways that will be chaotic and disastrous is easier to accept than the prospect of changing the fundamental, growth-based, profit-seeking logic of capitalism” (224).
In “The Critic and the Thought Leader,” Anand Giridharadas examines one of the reasons why the “profit-seeking logic of capitalism” is so difficult to change. He argues that market logic is perpetuated by “thought-leaders,” who offer “watered-down theories of change that are personal, individual, depoliticized […] and not in the least bit disruptive” (120).
At the same time, he also notes that thought leaders like Amy Cuddy believe that there is a way to bridge the personal, “zoomed-in” solutions they offer with efforts for societal change – the kind of efforts that Naomi Klein points towards as potential ways to address the climate crisis.
For essay #1, utilize ideas, terms, and quotes from both Klein’s and Giridharadas’s essays to address the following question:
Is it possible for individuals to accomplish societal change within a world governed by “profit-seeking logic”? If so, how? If not, why not?
Questions to get you started:
What is “societal change”? How do you define it? How would the authors define it?
What is “profit-seeking logic”? How do you define it? How would the authors define it?
What kind of changes will you be considering?
Use these questions to focus your thoughts and generate ideas as you work to answer the central question of the prompt.
