September 18, 2015 - 13:47
Slippage describes the act of a gaffe in the context of cultural and/or social unawareness. Unawareness could stem from true lack of understanding or just gaps in one’s knowledge or social skills. However, unawareness is no excuse for the act and no one is immune from making this kind of error. The most important part of slipping is actually the actions that occur after it has happened. Recognizing our own mistakes and working to correct them is vital. Only until we can be aware of ourselves can we be truly aware of others’ and their histories. In the reverse situations, we cannot leave each other to figure out their slips on their own; we must speak up and educate them before it is too late.
In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula LeGuin, several people in titular city choose to walk away from the dilemma that looms over the community rather than attempt to show the majority of the population a new perspective. However, the situation from which they escape is not a slip because there is no public acknowledgement of the unintentionally exclusive actions; everyone in the city goes on with their lives in their own ways, without creating a dialogue.
While the recognition of slips provides room to grow one’s understanding of the larger world, individuals perceive slips in the structure of Omelas on their own and do not share them with each other. In Chapter Eight of "Slipping into Something More (Un)Comfortable,” Anne Dalke wrote “the structures with which we surround ourselves are slipping, too.” The people who choose to leave Omelas recognize that the structures of the city are slipping and may unintentionally influence several others to follow suit but if there is no dialogue, they cannot learn from each other and help the larger population. These people individually perceive the city to be a certain way, that it has a giant, colorful and whimsical mask over its face to avoid empathy, however not everyone can see that the structures of the city are slipping. The people who are left behind in Omelas carry on with their lives and do not pay much attention to those who leave. The people who leave may be empathetic regarding their feelings for the child’s situation, they are just as much part of the problem and lack empathy for each other because they do not care enough about the situation to inform everyone and produce some change.
The bright and whimsical nature of the city did not take into account those people who became uncomfortable enough with the situation that they walked away. Like Nkechi who put up the Christmas lights that unintentionally excluded other students’ religious beliefs, the other members of city believed that it was in the better interest of the community to uphold the standards of happiness rather than let one person create a ripple in otherwise still waters. In Chapter Eight, Dalke remarked “that one student’s pain outweighs the slight loss of pleasure experienced by the others.” This statement was true for the younger people, since they felt empathy for the child but is not applicable to the rest of the community.
In Dalke's story in class, her “slip” originated from the wedding behaviors she was taught in her upbringing. We all have a potential to slip, which stems from our backgrounds, which in turn were shaped by our childhood environments. We are so ingrained in the behaviors that we observed and learned as children that as much as we try to change them as we grow older and hopefully have more mind-opening experiences, we can easily fall back into old habits. Since the young Omelians did not witness the correction of any slips by their elders, so they could not apologize for slips made by themselves and others.
Slipping can also happen when information is relayed from an authority figure to a child or student. Sometimes the “gap between intention and uptake can be huge” and the meaning is misconstrued on either end. The intent of the Omelians was to explain to their children who have come of age, that it is necessary for the child in the closet to be in so much pain so the rest of them can be happy and free. However, the uptake cannot be predicted, as some of the children struggled so much with the information presented to them that they could not handle it and had to leave it all behind. They did not truly leave Omelas, they just ran away from the problem instead of attempting to find a solution.
The lack of dialogue in the city of Omelas destroys the possible stronger sense of community that can arise from correcting a slip. The situation with the Confederate flag at Bryn Mawr brought the larger discussion of racial issues/sensitivity in America to the student body, and as people shared their opinions, they stood together. They chose to participate in events concerning Black Lives Matter, and were able to strength the Bryn Mawr’s reputation of producing forward-thinking students. If the Omelians had open discussions about the paradox of the city and the child, then perhaps they could become more than a superficial community based on the appearance of happiness. They only internalize the situation presented to them and make individual choices, rather than work to find solutions with one another and for the true greater good of the population.
LeGuin, Ursula The Ones Who Walk Away from Ormelas. The Wind's Twelve Quarters. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Dalke, Anne. “Slipping into Something More (Un)comfortable: Untangling Identity, Unsettling Community”