Telling an Audience but Not Calling on Them

Before I start, I wanted to note that this is a late submission, given that I completely forgot about this part of the assignment. Regardless of whether or not this gets credit, I want it done.

I covered the essay “Purity and Extremism: An Examination of Identity Politics” by Kyle Lacey for my critique and generally speaking, Lacey made some solid points to explain why the American political climate is the way it is. For a topic so convoluted and touchy, it was gratifying to see a dissection of what makes this ticking time bomb function and how people continue to feed into it.

That being said, Lacey fails to effectively communicate any way that one might help to curb these causes and symptoms of our circumstances, merely listing the issues off one after the other. This makes the essay feel especially incomplete, as he does bring the audience into his headspace and try to relate to us, saying things like “…being engaged in politics is not only everyone’s right, but their responsibility as citizens; surely, it does not have to be so overwhelming” (12). He pulls us into the depths but gives us no way to see our way out, leaving us aware but no more prepared to help than when we came in.

If we want to grow as a society, it will take more from us than to just complain, and likewise it will mean that we have to take things one step at a time. Lacey creates a large scope for us to view our issues through which helps us to understand the scale, but we need to be willing to home in and deal with one issue at a time, setting practical goals for ourselves as individuals and as a society. The sooner one can target a single problem and work to solve it, the sooner we can solve more problems that plague us.