“You know, doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right.”
- Lyndon B. Johnson
In his first state of the union address, on January 8, 1964, Lyndon Johnson waged the War on Poverty as part of his strategy for actualizing a “Great Society.” This body of work is a meditation on these poverty policies and the noble intentions that have fueled them. I do not question the goodness of these intentions or the benevolence of these efforts, but I do question the effects that even the best of intentions have brought about. I consider this issue to be important in itself (since the effects shape the lives of real people), but I consider it to provide a valuable paradigm for discussing the landscape of contemporary American politics in general. It brings to a head the ongoing debate about the nature of personal freedom and social responsibility. While I presuppose that we each have a moral obligation toward fellow citizens who are in need, the driving question in this body of work is whether a federalized effort (well-intentioned as it may be) is appropriate for fulfilling this role, or whether it only further displaces and disables our sense of responsibility toward each other.
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