Veil of Ignorance

 

Close your eyes.

 

Imagine you are in the womb, waiting to be born. You’re coming into a world without knowing what particular abilities, talents, or positions you will hold. You don’t know if you’re going to be born rich or poor, with privilege or without. Able-bodied, or not abled. Male or female, or somewhere on the spectrum. You don’t know where you would fit into the social order. You don’t know what race or religion you will be placed into. Would that even matter? What kind of society would you create? Do you imagine the patriarchy? Or a matriarchy? Or something in between? How would you divide the resources? What would social welfare look like?  How do you image this world? What would your proposed society look like knowing that you cannot choose where you will end up?

 

I know what I would create.

 

I imagine a world with gender equality, a world with income equality, a world where access and opportunities are granted to everyone. In this world, everyone gets the same respect, the same privilege, and the same abilities. Of course, I do realize that this is all a dream. How is it possible for us to achieve equality when the basis of capitalism is built on the idea of competition—that we need someone to be at the bottom in order for someone to be on top. It is absurd that we spend our time debating about raising the minimum wage to $15/hour when there is someone out there that earns $15,000/hours. The system is rigged so that we fight ourselves and forget about the people thriving on our misery.

 

For a long time, women, minorities, the poor, and the underprivileged have been oppressed. It is time for them to rise up and for us to give them a voice. I seek to explore these ideas of inequality through my work—to provoke and engage my viewers in conversation and to induce actions.