Appiah How The Future Will Judge Us Analysis

“How The Future Will Judge Us.” Is an article written by Kwame Anthony Appiah, published by the McGraw Hill Education in 2015. Appiah wrote this article for a book called Read, Write, Reason (Selyer 525). This article was written to bring attention to some of the horrendous practices that society has, and is helpful in brining insight to practices in society that people avoid, or pay little attention to.

In “How the Future Will Judge Us” Appiah starts out by giving demonstrations of events that happened in the past that left us, the current generations, in bewilderment and awe of how our ancestors participated in certain practices such as slavery, domestic abuse, and inequality. He then points out that society today has practices that will

He then goes on to say that our prison systems are keeping a quarter of the population behind bars. No other nation, such as China, has as many people incarcerated than the United States. He mentions that a majority of these prisoners are non-violent, and are in jail due to nothing more than a drug charge. Not only that, but the punishment of being behind bars is far worse than just a sentence. A lot of the inmates experience sexual abuse while they are serving their time, and contract HIV because of it. Finally, he points out that a quarter of inmates are kept in supermax facilities where conditions amount to

The controversy about the cruelty of factory farming has been around for a long time. A man named Jeremy Bentham in the 1800s saw that the key question about the cruelty of animals is whether or not they are able to endure suffering. Many people can’t give a good reason as to why they eat industrialized meat products, and instead try not to think about the horrible treatment going on in the factories that supply our meat. Appiah sees as cause for worry in our meat industry when he gives a large number of how many animals are shoved into feeding lots, where there is overcrowding. To counter the inevitable disease due to overcrowding, the cattle are given daily antibiotics. The cattle are poorly cared for, being made to stand in their own urine and feces. He points out that no other nation allows this kind of treatment to cattle, or if they do, it will be illegal soon. Appiah also sees a problem with the way we treat our institutionalized and isolated elderly. He says that there are nearly 2 million elderly people who are either in a nursing home or, if they live independently, they are isolated from their family. He finds this appalling, as he goes on to ask if society has come to the point where they feel no obligation to care for their elderly. He gives an example of his home life in Ghana where his mother, in her final years, was surrounded by family who visited her every day, and therefore had an advantage