Mosley in-class summary

Summary

In chapter two of Walter Mosley’s Workin on the Chain Gang  he discusses the many chains of American life that prevents people from knowing themselves and their country. By chains he means those constraints that we put on ourselves, that others put on us, and those that we have no control over, such as death or environmental factors. He distrusts the media and both political parties, and he feels that science has potential that we don’t use. For example, he says that science can create miracles, such as extending life and youth. It can also make bombs; we can use it against ourselves and others. Mosley criticizes the limits we place on science because we don’t allow all of our innovations to actually heal others. We let people starve and die of AIDS, he argues, because it’s simply not worth it to us to keep them alive. He is especially critical of “spectacle” and “illusion” (Mosley 25). He considers sports, commercial sexuality, movies, and stories about disposable bodies (such as women killed by an ever-present supply of serial killers). These spectacles and illusions aren’t brainwashing by media companies or power-hungry politicians, but are in fact tools that we ourselves use to avoid sustained reflection about the meaning of our lives. People choose their chains, Mosley implies. None of us could last even 15 minutes with ourselves, he says; we need all that stimulation to avoid the blank silence that might inhabit our minds. We’re afraid of our freedom. Mosley mourns for what is still left to accomplish on humanity birthday, such as starvation. Mosley also calls attention to the chains of love: the thinking of the slave is either, I will not submit to injustice¸ or, I love my master. Mosley feels that real freedom is breaking all these chains.