Role Of The Enlightenment In American Society

When we think of challenging institutions we first think of the Enlightenment and the role the movement played in completely changing the course of human reason and thinking. Religion is and has been a central part of people’s lives throughout history, it dominated how many people thought and felt about the world around them. Before the Enlightenment, the Christian Church was an absolute power and domineering institution that persecuted people as heretics if they attempted to discredit or disprove the teachings of the Church or of God. This conduct by the Church only allowed for a select set of ideals and thought, with no incentive to deviate from everyone else’s collective beliefs. Enlightenment thinkers began to question the power and influence
More modern thinkers like Foucault highlight the need to continue the fight towards Enlightenment and free thinking in both the public and private spheres. There have been many institutions of power over the course of history that have affected/ limited the views of the masses including the Christian Church and slavery in the Americas. An institution that is now playing a large role in current American society is the police. The police are sworn to protect America and its citizens and yet they have been brutalizing and suppressing certain groups of Americans. We have been taught that police are combatants of danger and defenders of justice and we are intended to accept this as fact. As information arises that is contrary to this belief, many are not willing to veer from the traditional opinion or willing to question whether or not they actually agree and instead rely on what is known and familiar. The evidence of police brutality challenges the institution of the police and urges the people of this country to form their own opinion on whether the institution is right or wrong and whether or not it needs reform. There is the question of if people are going to construct their own view as the Enlightenment encourages or just agree with the common
When discussing the merciless beating of Rodney King in 1991, Darlene Ricker writes, “Minorities, and particularly blacks, have complained for years about police abuse in their communities. So long as it remained in those communities, out of the public eye, it was unofficially tolerated as the price we pay for maintaining law and order,” As we have begun to investigate police brutality is has become more apparent that incidents like the bashing of Rodney King had been happening in marginalized communities for many decades before we had the technology to show evidence of these attacks. These incidents had never been addressed because the public outside of these communities was unaware that it was even occurring. It wasn’t until these issues began to be broadcast on TV’s across America that people took notice and the division of opinions began. Many believed that the police were just doing their job and they were justified to use excessive force while others began to wonder where the line between force and brutality