Small Change By Janet Flammang Summary

Humanity as a whole has some pretty weird rituals. For example, when taken out of context, the idea of putting one’s hands together rapidly in order to make a noise as a way to show approval is very strange. Yet as far as historians know, clapping has been around for as long as humans have been around. It is one of the oldest known human traditions that is still around today. Yet these rituals aren’t always a good thing. In her essay “The Taste for Civilization: Food, Politics, and Civil Society,” Janet Flammang discusses how some of the civil rituals humans have had for so long aren’t a good thing, and make society worse as a whole. Other authors disagree though. In the essays “Alone Together” and “Small Change, Why the revolution will not be tweeted”, Sherry Turkle and Malcolm Gladwell wrongly assert that authenticity in interpersonal relationships are strengthened by the civil
The best way to build strong ties in interpersonal relationships is to disregard civil rituals. The mentality of doing things as they have “always been done” is not only a dangerous mindset because it causes people to have weaker bonds with each other and be less authentic towards people, but also because it makes hierarchies stagnant and less likely to change.

The only way to get absolute authenticity is with a complete disregard for tradition. To some extent Sherry Turkle says just this “Sociable robots and online life both suggest the possibility of relationships the way we want them." (Turkle 273) In the context of this quote Turkle is trying to assert that the things people do online are not “authentic” and that true authenticity is achieved only face to face, as tradition has always been. But of course the opposite is true. Civil rituals are a giant hinderance on authenticity. Authenticity is essentially a person acting how they really feel and being true to their own beliefs. Often though, tradition, or the idea of “what’s right” stands in the way of this.