Allyson+Wallace

**A Network of Moral Infrastructures** Everyday an individual must decide the ways he/she will confront the injustices presented to themselves and to their society. Although all injustices have unique solutions, all solutions have underlying similarities. A sense of right and wrong based on what one has learned throughout one’s life, willingness to let go of unwanted resources to create a better infrastructure and the joining with others to create a strong powerful network of infrastructures are the necessary steps to confronting injustices in society. Only when these are completed can any injustice truly be solved.

When a person in our society encounters a problem, they label it an injustice based on their knowledge of right and wrong. It is often wondered where these concepts of what is “Right” and what is “Wrong” come from. Many people mold their concepts of right and wrong based on the amount of compassion they have. When an individual is filled with compassion they can correctly brand something as right or wrong. When an individual is born they do not have this knowledge or compassion. In her essay “On Compassion,” Barbara Lazear Ascher argues this point. “I don’t believe that one is born compassionate. Compassion is not a character trait like a sunny disposition.” The only way to attain compassion, and, in turn, a sense of right and wrong, is to learn it in one’s everyday life. “It must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our windows, coming through the gates of our yards, the walls of our towns, adversity that becomes so familiar that we begin to identify and empathize with it.” (Ascher) Ascher argues that as an individual lives their life they are confronted with the problems of others and when they see it they learn to sympathize and grow compassionate. As individuals grow compassionate they are able to recognize the injustices of their society and have a better chancing of confronting them.

Compassion is not always what creates a sense of right and wrong in an individual. Some people base what they believe to be moral by what their society accepts as moral. This may often create a corrupt society filled with injustices and people unable to see them. Society often shows its citizens that whatever helps an individual survive is what is “Right.” In chapter five of his novel //Grapes of Wrath//, John Steinbeck shows the problems this can create. The son of a farmer seeks a job working for the banks, running over old family-owned farms for three dollars a day. The man often has to run over farms of old family friends. The farmers recognize the man and asks him why his is “doing [that] kind of work for- against [his] own people.” (Steinbeck) The farmers see this as an act of betrayal and consider it to be “wrong.” However the man replies with: “Three dollars a day. I got damn sick of creeping for my dinner-and not getting it. I got a wife and kids. We got to eat.” (Steinbeck) Because this job allows the man and his family to survive he does not see it as wrong. Whatever is right for him is what he considers to be “right.” This kind of “moral thinking” is often what creates an unjust society and prevents people from realizing that injustice must be confronted. If an individual can learn to be compassionate and choose for themselves what is right and wrong, they will have an easier time confronting the injustices they find in society.

Once an individual is able to correctly identify an injustice based on true knowledge of right and wrong are they able to embark on the journey to confronting the injustice. When an individual is faced with an injustice in their society they must have the correct resources if they wish to confront this injustice. The resources that an individual has are built in as part of their individual infrastructure. This infrastructure may exist on an individual level or a group level. Either way, this infrastructure is what allows a person or group to be the way it is meat to be. It contains personality, strengths, weaknesses, and beliefs, along with many other things. These all combine together to create the resources an individual or group has that allows it to survive and succeed. One of the many injustices of our society is that an individual or group may not have the correct resources to confront injustice. This problem is shown quite well in chapter 7 of //Grapes of Wrath//. A farmer is trying to buy a jalopy in order to take his family across America and escape the hard times of the Dust Bowl. However, he does not have the correct resources to bargain. When he offers two fine mules for a car the salesman laughs in his face. “Mules! Hey, Joe, hear this? This guy wants to trade mules. Didn’t nobody tell you this is the machine age? They don’t use mules for nothing but glue no more.” (Steinbeck) This is an excellent example of an individual’s lack of resources preventing him/her from making progress in their everyday lives. Because the farmer is still stuck in the agricultural age he cannot buy a car in order to help his family and leave the corruption of the area. If this man had been able to adapt with society he may have had the correct resources to confront this injustice. In Chapter 11 this theme continues to be portrayed. The tractors are becoming dominant in the fields instead of the horse. This represents the farmers losing their lands to the powerful machine age. Because the farmers did not have the knowledge of how to run tractors or the money to buy one, they are not able to confront the injustice of the changing society. Many problems could be solved if more people found ways to better themselves and their chances of confronting injustice by working to improve their infrastructure and the resources it includes. One of the ways an individual may create a better infrastructure for themselves is to look at themselves and figure out which parts they need to get rid of in order to create a better, more well-rounded self. People do this in many different ways. In Chapter 9 of //Grapes of Wrath// the farmers are forced to sell many of their possessions for money to get to California. The men go to local stock brokers and get rid of many things for a very low price. The farmers are upset at the low prices because they place such high value o these items. “You’re not only buying junk, you’re buying junked lives… you’re buying bitterness.” (Steinbeck) This supports the fact that these items were large parts of the men’s lives and things that held them back. The low prices symbolize how little meaning these items have and how they are not very useful. The men claim that the buyers are “buying a plow to plow [their] own children under.” (Steinbeck) The men realize that part of the reason they lost their farms was their dependence on these items. This reliance is a part of their infrastructure that hindered their survival. Later in the chapter the women are going through the family’s belongings, deciding what to keep and what to throw away. The only keep items they deem necessary for their trip west. They then burn all the items of their past. This symbolizes the purging process one must go through if they wish for a successful life. One must let go of all the things that are weighing them down and keep only the good resources. When a person is able to get rid of their useless qualities they are able to take part in the next step in confronting injustice.

It has always been told that a group of people working together can accomplish more than one individual. Phrases like “Two heads are better than one,” and “The more the merrier,” are examples of this. Henry Ford, a well-known entrepreneur of the 1920s, once said “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a process. Working together is success.” All of these quotes support the argument that a group of people can succeed at confronting an injustice better than an individual can. In his work //Civil Disobedience,// Henry Thoreau argues that a group of people is much stronger than on individual. "When the power is once in the hands of the people…they are most likely to be in the right, not because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest." (Thoreau) The theme of joining together to create a stronger unit can be found in chapter three of //The Grapes of Wrath//. This chapter is centered on a turtle trying to travel west. A truck driver tries to disrupt its plight by running it over. “His front wheel struck the edge of the shell, flipped the turtle… its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over and flopped upright.” (Steinbeck) In this, the turtle is able to take a blow by the truck because it has its shell to protect it. A turtle’s shell is made of many plates held together to make one large unit. When a shell is it does not shatter because the force is spread out between all the sections. When a group of people come together they can put their best resources together and create a stronger unit. The best way to overcome an injustice is to find people that have a common interest, who are willing to combine all of their best resources and stand against the injustice together. In order to form a group, a set of standards must be set. These standards are often unsaid, but understood by all members of the group. These standards are what make up the groups infrastructure. When many people combine into a group, all of their infrastructures combine to create a much stronger one. A common sense of what is considered “Right” and what is considered “Wrong” must be established. There must also be trust between all members of the group. If not, the group will not be able to succeed. In her essay “The Ways We Lie” Stephanie Ericsson makes this argument. “[An] acceptance of lies becomes a cultural cancer that eventually shrouds and reorders reality until moral garbage becomes as invisible to [members] as water is to a fish.” (Ericsson) Ericsson points out that lying in society creates a type of injustice that is not easy to overcome. When a group is trying to overcome an injustice, having injustice in their midst does not allow them to reach their ultimate goal. Individuals must make sure to purge themselves of all the negative aspects of their infrastructure in order to prevent this internal injustice from occurring. When all the individual and group infrastructures are in the best condition the members can then use their sense of right and wrong and all their best resources to confront the injustices of their society.

One must go through many steps in order to confront the injustices they find in society. An individual sense of right and wrong, application of this right and wrong to create an infrastructure built of good resources and the combination of many infrastructures to create a large, powerful group infrastructure are all things that must be achieved in order to confront injustice effectively. Only when all of these steps are completed can the people of earth hope to live in a society fair to people of all walks of life.

**Works Cited!** Ascher, Barbara L. "On compassion." 10 Mar. 2009 <[]

Ericsson, Stephanie. "The Ways We Lie." 29 Mar. 2009 <[]>.

Steinbeck, John. __Grapes of Wrath__. New York, N.Y: Penguin, 1992.

Thoreau, Henry D. "Civil Disobedience." __The Thoreau Reader__. 29 Mar. 2009 <[]>.

"Working together quote." __Find the famous quotes you need, ThinkExist.com Quotations.__ 29 Mar. 2009 [].