Dependency Dilemmas
Last Friday, I found myself sitting on a Vermont Transit bus headed home to Massachusetts and talking to one of Hanover's summer conference visitors about a lecture given the previous day by a sociologist and economist on the topic of dependency. As the aspiring neurosurgeon sitting next to me on the bus recounted the highlights of the lecture, questions about the American obsession with the elusive concept of "independence" filled my head. Our culture continually pummels us with both overt and subliminal messages of "independence" as one of the highest goods to be attained. From the time we are very young, we are raised to prize independence. One of the highest compliments a college student, particularly a young women, may receive is that she is "independent." Conversely, as we have seen from the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, one of the harshest criticisms that can be leveled at someone is that she is "dependent." Rarely, however, does anyone question what is meant by independence and dependence.