This post is open for anyone to ask a question relating to tutorial conversations or any of our course readings.
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Just out of curiosity, I completed my questions and posted them up but I'm wondering if matters that the topic I was given is in the answer rather than the question...
After today's tutorial, I got to thinking further about what Neil said about 'social capital' in the cafeteria scenario of the book, in the sense that by having social capital (social group) is like choosing what car to rent (from Neil)
With that said, I thought, Why must there be a need to justify these social grouos and have these groups being cosntantly bombarded by what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'? What were to happen if these labeled groups did not exist? Would it fall apart, or would children explore their individuality and their diversity that they may offer?,(making the "cafeteria politics" more scattered and spread out). Would losing this sense of power in the unity of these social capital be considered a good or bad thing? OR would gaining this new sense of power in discovering their individuality be more or less powerful than the previous social capital? This, then, questions, What is really important for these children? Should children reform to these norms that are presented and pressed upon them in scenarios like the cafeteria, or shold they rebel, empowering their individual status?
interesting agustina. it's tough to predict what would happen if we lost the labels, and youths were suddenly expected to "create their own culture". it's hard to envision ourselves outside the scope of ideology. i think it would be easy to assume a kind of anarchy, but too easy..
i think: eventually if youths (or any human being) were left to create their own culture it might actually begin to reflect what really is good for humanity. in other words i believe that we innately have the good mind to create what is best for us. i hardly understand the paranoia that follows the thought of anarchy, or the loss of control. for too long it seems power relations have limited human potential. i find it incredibly difficult to imagine a society (or a cafeteria scenario in this case) that exists outside of power relations. but if it were to happen, i would not be surprised if out of it came a dominant ideology that just happened to encompass the best interests of humanity. i don't know why people are so suspect of each other, perhaps it is because we don't see the underlying similarities we all share. our differences quite frankly make for some fascinating cultural diversity that i can only interpret as being the most overwhelmingly beautiful characteristic of our human experience.
the "norms" that youths are abiding by today, the ones we see in high school relationships, on television dramas etc.. well damn right i think youths should rebel against them. there is more to fight for now than ever: "the world is now far too dangerous for anything less than Utopia" -Buckminster Fuller. there are too many atheists and pessimists, too many "realists".. not enough dreamers, not enough poets or artists. we should encourage everyone to create their own culture. culture is like play-dough. culture is play-dough. youths have a serious responsibility in exploring this. "If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do... HOW WOULD I BE? WHAT WOULD I DO?" -Buckminster Fuller. we all have a part.
i'm reminded of the following quote from Albert Camus (thrown in "our stories, our songs"), as a statement against the nihilism that so plagues our society: "...bear witness in favour of those plague-stricken people, so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done them might endure, and state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in people than to despise."
i don't like taking social capital too seriously, i think it's a bunch of baloney. i'm also guilty of being way too optimistic, right?
trisha: The specific format of the question isn't a big deal. This exercise is aimed at helping us study, rather than helping us figure out how to write an exam.
5 comments:
Just out of curiosity, I completed my questions and posted them up but I'm wondering if matters that the topic I was given is in the answer rather than the question...
After today's tutorial, I got to thinking further about what Neil said about 'social capital' in the cafeteria scenario of the book, in the sense that by having social capital (social group) is like choosing what car to rent (from Neil)
With that said, I thought, Why must there be a need to justify these social grouos and have these groups being cosntantly bombarded by what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'? What were to happen if these labeled groups did not exist? Would it fall apart, or would children explore their individuality and their diversity that they may offer?,(making the "cafeteria politics" more scattered and spread out). Would losing this sense of power in the unity of these social capital be considered a good or bad thing? OR would gaining this new sense of power in discovering their individuality be more or less powerful than the previous social capital? This, then, questions, What is really important for these children? Should children reform to these norms that are presented and pressed upon them in scenarios like the cafeteria, or shold they rebel, empowering their individual status?
interesting agustina. it's tough to predict what would happen if we lost the labels, and youths were suddenly expected to "create their own culture". it's hard to envision ourselves outside the scope of ideology. i think it would be easy to assume a kind of anarchy, but too easy..
i think: eventually if youths (or any human being) were left to create their own culture it might actually begin to reflect what really is good for humanity. in other words i believe that we innately have the good mind to create what is best for us. i hardly understand the paranoia that follows the thought of anarchy, or the loss of control. for too long it seems power relations have limited human potential. i find it incredibly difficult to imagine a society (or a cafeteria scenario in this case) that exists outside of power relations. but if it were to happen, i would not be surprised if out of it came a dominant ideology that just happened to encompass the best interests of humanity. i don't know why people are so suspect of each other, perhaps it is because we don't see the underlying similarities we all share. our differences quite frankly make for some fascinating cultural diversity that i can only interpret as being the most overwhelmingly beautiful characteristic of our human experience.
the "norms" that youths are abiding by today, the ones we see in high school relationships, on television dramas etc.. well damn right i think youths should rebel against them. there is more to fight for now than ever: "the world is now far too dangerous for anything less than Utopia" -Buckminster Fuller. there are too many atheists and pessimists, too many "realists".. not enough dreamers, not enough poets or artists. we should encourage everyone to create their own culture. culture is like play-dough. culture is play-dough. youths have a serious responsibility in exploring this. "If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do... HOW WOULD I BE? WHAT WOULD I DO?" -Buckminster Fuller. we all have a part.
i'm reminded of the following quote from Albert Camus (thrown in "our stories, our songs"), as a statement against the nihilism that so plagues our society: "...bear witness in favour of those plague-stricken people, so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done them might endure, and state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in people than to despise."
i don't like taking social capital too seriously, i think it's a bunch of baloney. i'm also guilty of being way too optimistic, right?
trisha: The specific format of the question isn't a big deal. This exercise is aimed at helping us study, rather than helping us figure out how to write an exam.
What did everyone think about the Three Wishes novel? How authentic is it? Is it more authentic than Our stories, Our songs?
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