Villages Apart Aristotle presumed a certain sameness among the villages that made up the Athenian polis. Our towns are increasingly divided by economic and educational disparity and by deep differences in language and culture. In both impoverished and wealthy areas, civic initiative and the capacity for individual intellectual growth have been blunted by decreasing literacy, rising consumerism, the media monopoly on public debate, and a systemic deadening of political culture. Without these fundamental skills, no life at all, let alone the good life, can be maintained in comfort and stability. Yet skills must be developed on challenging and significant content if they are to be effectively internalized for a lifetime of learning, economic independence and civic participation.
Cultural literacy comprises the major texts and documents of Western civilization.
Yet Western civilization studied apart from its contact and conflict with minority voices and alternative modes of life can quickly turn into sloganism. Hence our workshops also emphasize multicultural literacy, which studies minority, non-Western, and oppositional cultures and movements both apart from and in competition with Western texts and ideas. Taken as a dynamic unity, the literacy triangle may help us define a new common good that would acknowledge all that is uncommon between us. Out There H.O.T. encourages individual self-expression as a means towards economic freedom, intellectual independence, and a public sphere that reflects the ethnic diversity of the region. In our work, Aristotle's polis remains a foundation and a goal, but within the current reality of ethnic, economic, and educational fragmentation.