5 Things I Would Change About the World

1.  Disarmament of nuclear weapons.  (Yes, even the USA)

2. Equal access to life saving drugs (People in Africa shouldn't be dying from infections/diseases that we have immunizations and cures for in the US)

3. Greater funding for education worldwide/Universal education

4.  Universal healthcare

5.  Discover alternative energy source that doesn't negatively impact the environment. 

Identity, Identification & the Subject

This chapter was all about whether or not the self is a given or if it is influenced by outside forces and factors.  I think that the obvious answer to this question is that it is a little bit of both.  It has to do with the classic argument of nurture vs. nature, which by the way, most professionals now agree that both nature and nurture play an equally important role in the development of self and identity. 

I think that there are definitely factors which are a given and are inherent and don’t usually change due to outside forces.  For example, growing up I was painfully shy.  I mean PAINFULLY shy.  If I didn’t know you I probably wouldn’t talk to you much.  Even some of my teachers expressed concern about how shy I was around them.  Despite my shyness, I had a lot of great (and outgoing) friends.  My family members wouldn’t normally be classified as “shy” or “quiet” types either.  I was shy just because I was shy.  External forces didn’t make me that way, or bring out the opposite side of me either.  To this day I am still shy; if I don’t know you I probably won’t say much to you.  It just is what it is, I am who I am.  You could put me around 100 of the most outgoing people, and I would still be shy.  Similarly, I have friends who are gay and they just are who they are.  All of the pressure in the world to be straight doesn’t change the fact that they’re gay.  Certain characteristics of the self are inherent, innate, a given.

A more serious example is that of sexual offenders.  It has pretty much been proven that sexual offenders cannot be rehabilitated.  My mom helped create the sex offender database for the FBI which required all convicted sex offenders to register on the database and provide information about where they are living, what car they are driving, etc.  Needless to say, I know more about sex offenders than I’ll probably ever need to know.  Anyway, recently my mother had to have a meeting with some FBI officials to go over the effectiveness of the database and any changes that could/should be made.  My mom met these officials at a compound in Northern Minnesota that essentially is a jail for sex offenders (but not actually a jail).   The sex offenders are “detained,” if you will, because the government knows that they will offend again.  I told my mom I thought this was kind of unconstitutional, holding them for a crime they have not yet committed.  She said that the sex offenders appeal all of the time to be released, and the only offender they actually did release in the 8ish years the facility has been open reoffended within 3 months of being released.  He would up right back behind bars.  The point of this is, sexual offenders are who they are.  Experts agree that they cannot be rehabilitated.  Their tendencies and preferences are innate and unchanged by external factors.     

Conversely, there are characteristics that are shaped entirely by external forces. For example, socially I am liberal.  I identify with these views based on experiences I have had, people I have met, and literature that I have read.  My liberal views are based almost completely on external forces.  Had I not had some of the experiences that I have had, I may not believe in certain things the way I do now.  My views make up a large part of my identity, my self, and they are definitely externally influenced. 

Therefore, it kind of annoys me that the book even questions this topic like it does.  It sort of pits the two viewpoints against each other as though only one can be right, when I think most people would agree that the construction of identity and self is a combination of both internal and external factors.

Finally, I think that the book raised a good question when it asked if a group necessarily needed something essentially shared in order to identify with one another.  I’ve put a lot of thought into it and I think that the answer is yes.  Otherwise, how would a group be classified?  Groups are classified given that they have certain characteristics in common.  Without these commonalities, there would be no way to distinguish a group of people from anyone or anything.          

Love--A literary creation?

I have found myself thinking a lot of the part of the Literary Theory book that talks about “no one would ever have thought of being in love if they hadn’t read about it in books, and the notion of romantic love is arguably a massive literary creation.”  My first, natural response to this statement was that this is absolutely not true!  But once I gave it more thought, I have come to realilze that the idea of romantic love as we know it is a direct result of not only the literature we have read but movies and other forms of media as well.

Obviously love is a natural human emotion but it is the way we act upon this emotion and what we expect from this emotion that has roots in the literature we have read.  I think the classic fairy tales have influenced romantic love greatly—there’s this expectation of perfect cohabitation and happily ever after. 

This may be a stretch but I can’t help but wonder if this is the reason there are so many failed marriages in America.  Many people enter into a whirl-wind relationship and get married really soon/young.  I think people want and expect some fairy tale relationship to simply happen without putting much effort into making the relationship work. 

I think it is common in fairy tales and other forms of literature for the characters to fall in love rather quickly and live some charmed life while putting very little effort into really getting to know each other and develop a meaningful relationship based on deep and true feelings of love.

With literature idealizing this type of surface-level relationship it is no wonder that today’s society is characterized by an excessive number of divorced and failed marriages/relationships.  I realize I have a fairly cynical viewpoint when it comes to love but I think generally speaking, my observations are true/correct.  Most, if not all, aspects of our lives are influenced by literature and other media forms and our notion of love and relationships is no exception.    

Culture

I found the chapter on culture in The Theory Toolbox to be particularly interesting.  The first thing that I read that really got me thinking was the idea that the term ‘contemporary culture’ is so diverse that it almost doesn’t mean anything due to the fact that it could include everything.  Let me explain.  Everyone’s idea of contemporary culture is different due to context.  I grew up in a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, so my idea of culture is very different from someone who grew up in Texas, or from someone who just immigrated to the United States. 

This point actually made me think of an experience I had recently at Fort Worth’s International Newcomer’s Academy.  It is a middle and high school for students who have just come to the United States and are learning English as a second language.  The students attend INA for 1 to 2 years (depending on their level of literacy) and are then integrated into the Fort Worth public school system.  During one of my first visits there I was observing a 9^th grade entry level classroom, meaning the students ranged from ages 12-15 and their ability to speak and understand English was extremely limited.  There were 9 students in the classroom and they all introduce themselves to me and said where they were from.  The nine students came from 6 different countries including Mexico, the Congo, Somalia, and Thailand.  Talk about diverse.

 Anyway, about halfway through the class the school counselor came in to speak with the students about sexual harassment and personal hygiene.  This was a difficult task for her because of the students’ limited English skills, so she had to act out much of what she was saying.  She told them of the importance of wearing tennis shoes once the colder weather hits and that if they couldn’t afford them they should go to her and she would provide a pair for the student.  She told them about shampoo, soap, and razors and how it was necessary to bathe on a daily basis.  It hit me that bathing daily might not be such an obvious idea to the student from the Congo who had to walk several miles to get water every day.  And it might night be second-nature to the kids from Mexico who lived in the poorer cities where the water was turned off by the government whenever it was deemed necessary.  It was a pretty wide opening experience and quickly made me realize:  contemporary culture for these students is COMPLETELY different from your or my idea of contemporary culture.      

I also found the section on popular culture and the argument that high culture offers ‘timeless’ values that are not tied to a specific time or place or set of cultural values and popular culture is essentially garbage—and dangerous.  I thought Bloom made a good point when he said that the importance of studying popular culture lies not within what we can learn from it, but rather in the examination of how it teaches us certain things.  The book goes on to say that popular culture teaches us how to have fun, be sad, be in love, the kind of body we should have, and what should bore us.

I happen to agree with that statement: popular culture absolutely shapes who we are and how we think.  The media is hugely influential in how we live, how we behave, how we speak/the language we use, etc.  In fact, I think that you could take anything and explain how it was influenced by popular culture.  For example, take a girl off the street and you can see that the way she dresses, wears her hear, and talks are characteristics embedded in popular culture.  Choose a random TV commercial and they probably used some sort of influential characteristic from popular culture to help sell their product, like a famous person or a popular song.  Popular culture is inescapable and I think that we are more influenced by it than it is influenced by us. 

Finally, I thought the section on media culture raised a really good question, “What is it like to grow up in today’s complex world?  Are we witnessing the death of childhood innocence?”  I think the answer to this is absolutely yes.  I think of the kids that I nanny for, ages 6 and 8, and what they do in their free time.  When I was young I spent every second that I could playing outside with neighborhood friends or riding my bike or playing soccer.  The kids that I nanny for play video and computer games, Pokemon and other card games, and have little desire to ever be outside.  I think that their constant need for stimulation makes it hard for them to just go outside and throw around a ball.  Instead they spend time in their game room which is jammed pack from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with toys, toys, and more toys.  I think that it is really unfortunate but is not uncommon and is an effect of our media culture on today’s kids.