en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2455895 Comments by jumpstrees http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/21/if-prison-has-taken-anything-away-from-me/#IDComment145283912 The entire time that Sam has been talking about getting life I’m surprised that i never considered the how much the lack of love could really effect someone. It seems so hard for any one to truly find that feeling but it’s so hard to imagine basically having the option of love completely from you. I really could never imagine the thinking that ok I’ll never get to feel love again, it’s harder for me to imagine not having that then not having my freedom. In a way though love can be the ultimately freedom and an escape from your own reality. it seems that is what he is really craving so much right not, an escape from his reality where now not only does he realize his freedom is being taken but also the possibly that he’ll even get the chance to feel the escapism the love brings with it. It makes you think of how crucial feeling close to another person is beyond friendships and family and how precious the connection can really be to us. It’s funny to realize that I think I really could live the possibly of not having the freedoms, It would be hard but I could endure it, but the thought of liking without the possibly of finding someone to share that life with would probably make me insane. It’s an aspect of person that I’ve really never consider before. Going into jail for life with no one to begin with and having to continue on knowing that is most liking you’re definitely going to be spending the rest of your life alone as well. When we’re not in jail and alone it’s easy to imagine that one day we won’t be but once you go in I can’t imagine what it would be to actually know that you’ll always be alone. It’s easy to say you’d become a better person because you have chance to really reflect on yourself but it really gives you a deeper understanding of way it takes so long for people to coop with getting life and move on with life afterward. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 03:32:56 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/21/if-prison-has-taken-anything-away-from-me/#IDComment145283912 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/would-you-help-someone-illegal-immigrate-into-the-country-why-or-why-not-119-blog/#IDComment145279163 I honestly couldn't say if I would definitely help someone cross into the country illegally. it seems that most people them because it is against the law that it is morally wrong however I find that many laws really aren’t directly tired to morality. I honestly don’t know if I would help because I’m not sure I would want to take that much of a personal risk to myself and family but i don’t necessarily think illegal immigration is wrong just because it is against the law. I could picture myself risking this however if I was extremely personally connected to someone that either was is a situation in another country that they couldn’t get themselves out of or was of personal danger to them. The truth is I’ve never really cared about illegal immigration. the argument that when people come here illegally and take jobs maybe true to a degree but what people don’t realize is that illegal immigrants mostly that the jobs that no american would and for much less pay. So they take jobs that no one wants for less and live in areas and situations in american that much americans would deem as poverty. However to them our poverty is better then their situation in their native country. They can’t get a job in their country and sometimes they have what couldn’t even be recognized as a home. So the question is if Americans who are unemployed would be willing to work those jobs that no one would want and is possibly very dangerous, for less money and no health benefits or hope of promotion to just live in a tiny one bedroom apartment that barely have the basic needs we take for granted with all your family. The truth is that most americans, even some who ae unemployed, live a better life then an employed immigrant in the United States would ever get the chance to obtain. But for them it’s better then their situation at home, it’s better then death and the eventual death of their children in a country where there’s nothing but that. So I don’t think illegal immigration is wrong. I don’t think it’s wrong for people to come here to survive and survive merely on the what’s left that no one really wants in our country. Illegal immigrants don’t live some glamorous life when they come to the United States even if they’re employed but they don’t get to hope that maybe they’re kids could live a better life. I really don’t understand the harm of letting these people stay when all they are doing to taking the jobs that no one would ever take because it pays below what we think we can live just for the hope that their children might have a better chance by being born in the United States, which still isn’t a sure shot to a good life. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 03:01:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/would-you-help-someone-illegal-immigrate-into-the-country-why-or-why-not-119-blog/#IDComment145279163 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/the-cost-of-empire-soc-001-blog/#IDComment143291733 I think that you take a certain risk when you elect any leader to office. I’m not really surprised by the fact that Obama has been expanding the military because he is still a politician. Before he was elected and came to take at Penn State I did like the way he spoke and the views he stated so I supported him. The truth is however we can never fully know exactly how he or anyone is going to be once he is in office. Unfortunately to get into office many people we tell you one thing when they know that it’s impossible or that they truly have no intention of doing that. I really don’t know the true extent of what Obama is really planning military wise and it’s hard to say considering how often things things shift however I’m never truly surprised by politicians because when they take office they ultimately are forced to overlook being a Democrat or a Republican to get anything done. I think it can also be said that many people hear that we have the best military in the world but they don’t understand what it takes financially to keep the army and how we much we continually spend to keep it up. The army and it’s quality is something that most of us just take for granted and don’t understand that the reason our army is so great is because we spend such a gigantic amount of our budget on our military, whether we can say we need it or not. I often can’t help but think how strange it is that the reason we spend so much on our military isn’t at it’s core about our protection or our soldiers protection but really to give us a sense of security. On one hand I can’t appreciate that security because I don’t know what it’s like to live without however when you hear how countries with less developed countries don’t have that security it’s hard to not feel a gratitude for our military. I often think however how much of our military is really necessary to have for our complete safety and what we could do with the extra money we through into the military that we don’t need to. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:37:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/the-cost-of-empire-soc-001-blog/#IDComment143291733 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143286895 Firstly I think it’s hard to anyone to truly understand the motivation of not feeling they belong in their own body. It’s something that most takes a certain amount of imagination to truly wrap you head around what that would feel like. I think that’s why so many people discriminate or feel uncomfortable talking about transgender issues and because they don’t feel comfortable they don’t try to educate themselves on what it means to be transgender. Most view being transgender has being male and female and can’t see that mentally they are simply just another gender and when they make the transition they are simply making their body match what they feel mentally. It’s hard to imagine because most of us have never and will never be able to feel that. When I released I was gay I remember always thinking how of it was that people who are transgender are for some reason grouped with people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual because most people who are transgender are straight. It seems to be reflective of how unwilling people are to understand what it means to be transgender that all people who are transgender are grouped into being related to being gay, lesbian or bisexual. if you look at it being transgender is really just a genetic mistake and most people who are transgender are just straight men and women who have been forced to live to life as the wrong gender. The only people who are transgender who should be grouped with being gay, lesbian or bisexual should be the people that actually are not straight yet we see that as a majority this is not true. So basically because people can’t wrap what transgender means we have straight men and women being related sexuality that are not theirs. It’s so easy to just consider transgender people as gay, lesbian or bisexual instead of truly having to understand the situation they’re in. IT’s also strange that it matters to most people whether or not someone has actually had an operation to become male or female when they can clearly see that the people looks, acts and clearly is that gender. For some reason we place so much importance of our genitals being the key determining factor in judging what it means to be male and female. It’s not about understanding what it means to be male or female because most of us even people who are gay, lesbian or bisexual have never had to question what it truly means to be male and female. We understand what it means to understand our sexuality but not our gender but because we know what it’s like to have to question a fundamental part of ourselves that most people never have to examine it becomes easier for us to understand where people who are transgender are coming from. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:03:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/transgendered-complications/#IDComment143286895 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/do-you-agree-with-foreign-aids-use-of-pictures-of-children-119-blog/#IDComment141119574 I was actually really glad that Ernso mentioned this after the video we watched in class yesterday. I was honestly thinking the same them as well. Honestly I do see the value of putting the children in the videos to get support for Haiti and for any other country in need but it just seems to be very ethically troubling. On one hand these are children that could be helped by the audience watching the video however it still is using children as a device in some way. It’s hard to not cringe when you think of how the children are just used almost as a simple way device to receive money. I think that’s when charitable organizations go from asking people for help to emotionally blackmailing them in a way. Showing the damage down to Haiti and when can be you can do personally seems like a much more important aspect to focus on in the videos. Personally I much preferred the parts that actually showcased the people that Ernso is helping and who you could help then the nameless faces of children that people put in to make you feel bad. Even though they’re supposed to stir some emotion in you I often find that most of the time that it detracted from the actual message because to you these children are nameless and without actually giving them a name or identity they can become just a face that doesn’t mean much. The part of the video that actual is heartfelt were the portions where got to know these women that are working hard, what they do and what you can do to help them, there needed to be more of that actual connection with a person to really get peoples emotionally involved in Haiti. So on top of the fact that the children are being used as tools like an advertise they’re also in a way not doing the job they are intended to be doing in the video. People are going to look at these children and see them as people because they’re not given any sort of connection to them and are consequently going to watch the video and think it’s sad but not feel any sort of motivation to do anything themselves. It would simply be another video on poverty that almost all of us see every do and do nothing about. People need to feel for “a person” not for “a people” because when we see a person we’re much more likely to help or feel like you could help. Focusing on just a few select people gives people a chance actually see something they can do that obtainable. When they see videos we just children all we think is that the problem is too big for just us to handle. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 23:55:32 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/do-you-agree-with-foreign-aids-use-of-pictures-of-children-119-blog/#IDComment141119574 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/30/so-what-your-take-on-those-inequality-classes/#IDComment141116572 it’s hard to find out to what level people can get in life with the forces outside of their control. Also the fact that with people we gain power unfairly and then give more power to others unfairly. In the United States it seems like we are told time and time again that we can be and do anything we want if we work hard enough which I’m finding at a more increasing level is completely untrue. iI watched a children's show the other day and one of the songs said that you could be president in a list of ideal careers including doctor and lawyers etc. I remember laughing at that part of the song because I realized how very untrue that was. most of us have the an almost impossible unlikely hood of being president an in fact have a large unlikely hood of achieve many of the dreams that are promised to us are fully possible when we are children. In school I remember being bombarded with you can do anything you want to do but as I’ve gown you can actually do anything you want to do within your own social confinements which is really truly saddening. And increasingly it seems to be mostly true that working hard just isn’t going to be enough. Inspiration stories of people raising up against there social limitations are inspirational because they are rare. That’s not to say that they’re are not many many people working to better their situation but there really aren’t as many stories of success are there are failures. In fact failure does not even seem to be the right way to describe it because the limitations place on people are so confining that it is like having a huge road block in the middle of any path to success one could have. Then when looking at the flip side of the perspective of people who have success and earned it seem to be the minority of the people who are success. And even those that are success seem to be limited in their continued success because they are not willing to go to the lengths others will stoop to get success. It seems that most of the time the people you hear about who have power are most likely abusing it in some way and giving power to those that will misuse it as well. The aspect of that I can say about that fact is that another aspect we are very silently taught is that you have to step over others often to get the the place you want and once you’re there the best way to stay there is to put people you trust around you. Everyone wants security in their lives and within reason it’s hard to not understand when people who understand how unfair the united States is to not follow the system when any other way is nearly impossible. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 23:37:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/30/so-what-your-take-on-those-inequality-classes/#IDComment141116572 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment139283234 I’ve always found religion to be a strange idea for me to wrap my head around. When I was younger I mostly found myself disliking anyone was really religious. I through my phrase very young where I experimented with religions to find what was right for me. I thought a religion was something you picked when you were young kind of like a category. But I soon realized that none of these categories were for me and I had not attached instilled in me by my family in any direction in particular. I had family members that were Christian but none that pushed me in any way to be. My household was very opened minded to any ideas on religion and I think because of that I ended up choosing not to have one and I didn’t understand how people came to the conclusion to be one religion when there was clearly contradiction to most of them. More and more I hear people, especially at Penn State, say that they’re not religious and even if they say they are one religion they also say that they’re not really “religious”. I think that people take not being religious in a different way then I imagine though. it’s not that I don’t particularly believe in a creator or that I think that people we believe in God or any other deity is wrong. I just think of when we strip it all down that most religions are at their core the same and that the rituals of religion are less about god and more about culture now. In the future I don’t see the disappearance of religion ever truly happening however I do see that many religious ideology will disappear but another we always take it’s place. However I don’t ever in any realm of conciseness I can see that the idea of god or the creator will ever disappear. We we always wonder how we came to be. I think many people who hear me say I don’t have a religion think I’m devaluing the idea of god but all I feel is that humans as they are can never really know god and that for me personally it’s not as important to find out the meaning of my existence in religious context. Sat, 2 Apr 2011 03:26:05 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment139283234 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/31/what-was-more-enlightening-the-information-on-your-own-sex-or-the-opposite-sex-and-why-119-blog/#IDComment139277916 I would say the information of the opposite sex was not necessarily more enlightening but put something else in a larger context for me. Being gay I’ve never really had to consider the sexuality of women since I and any sexual partner I could have would be male. It’s hard when hearing Sam and Lori talking about male and female sexuality to not imagination that they were making a general assumption of all men and women, However when I realized that the aspects of female and male relationships are also mirrored sometimes in gay relationships I realized when they meant by it not being exclusive to every man and women. It’s almost as if you have to remove the individual as aspect and look at it as just feminine and masculine sexuality and they all of us (men and women) have both these aspects in varying degrees. I was able to finally wrap my head around they aspect when I realized that in my relations both my partner and I have had both characteristics of masculine and feminine sexuality, and yet we’re both still men. Like sam was saying it’s easier for men physically in general to be immediately ready for sex while it can take women a little bit longer to get in the mood for that contact. However I’e found that’s mostly true for me as well, even I I’m aroused I’m not necessarily in the mood for sex immediately without some sort of feel of connection. I think the one thing that made this confusing is that Sam and Lori exclusively gave heterosexual examples that it became harder to separate being male from masculinity and femininity from being female. So by result the two became intertwined and hard to separate from each other and realize that there is such a varying degree of masculinity and femininity instilled in all of us. I think it’d be interesting to find how many men and women who find themselves very tied to being masculine and feminine in personality are more the opposite when it coming to sex and their relationships. I think the reason the feminine sexuality was more surprising in my case is that such a value is placed on the masculine aspect that the feminine sexuality is largely ignored because it can’t be applied to us. I myself am most often considered masculine both most people that I’eve looked at myself and picked out the parts of me that are more feminine when it comes to relationships as opposed to my masculine side I normally see more often. I think what I’ve gotten the most it that both sexualities apply to everyone in very complex ways that we don’t see because we perceive being male and female as being exclusively connected to masculinity or femininity. Sat, 2 Apr 2011 03:04:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/31/what-was-more-enlightening-the-information-on-your-own-sex-or-the-opposite-sex-and-why-119-blog/#IDComment139277916 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/what-stage-are-you-in-119-blog/#IDComment135965987 I think I flip between humanitarian and reversal stage. I’m most often in the humanitarian stage I think mostly because I’m bi-racial. Because I’m half black and half white my race was something I was forced to face at an extremely young age. I couldn’t be white and I couldn’t really be black either. On one hand other white people never considered me white but they couldn’t figure out what race I was so I was often asked “what race are you?” since before I can even remember. I still am asked daily. When I was younger often times I’d just say black because I didn’t want to be associated with the white racism that was characterized to me by my black relatives. However when I entered elementary school in a mostly white distinct I was forced to challenge that white people weren’t always racist in some form and that not just white people are racist. Before this It never occurred to me that black people could be racist but the more I interacted with both I realized how racism exists on both sides. I think that was my awakening early in elementary school. I was in the reversion stage for most of elementary but it was in middle school in high school when I finally developed my own idea of what I actually considered my race that I entered the pseudo communication and humanitarian stage. i started challenging both races when I was exposed to double standards betweens races and I realized that I myself couldn’t truly be either race. I was born in between and I never needed to choose a side because I would never just relate to just one. I’ve never truly felt what it’s like to be white and I’ve never felt what it’s like to be truly black either. I’ve been given the opportunity to be both and in some ways racially anonymous. It’s because of this I’eve never felt what it’s like to be one race that I think I often find myself in the humanitarian stage . That and also that I began dealing with my own race and race issues since before I can remember. It’s because of this I can be in this place of peace when it comes to race relations, not having to truly associate yourself purely on one side it like experiencing a conflict from the outside. You see it and can understand it but most of the time it doesn’t effect as deeply as it would if you were actually in that conflict. However that being said the reason I say I something flip to reversal is because being in the middle often gives more anger to both sides. The constant back and forth between the two sometimes does get to me and I often revert to feeling anger towards white and black people for the way they’re so often at each others throats. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 03:03:20 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/what-stage-are-you-in-119-blog/#IDComment135965987 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment135963143 This issue is something that hits very close to home with me personally. I myself am gay and also wish to marry and one day adopt children. Through the process of coming out I’ve never once questioned that I wanted to raise children. I realized I was gay from a very young age, an age that I didn’t even realize that homosexuals couldn’t legally marry and we often stopped from adopting children. I remember when I first learned how discriminated against gays were in america and being truly shocked at first. In my house hold being gay was taught to me as being normal. My mother worked in a restaurant and many of her friends from work were gay. She taught me from a very young age what it was and how normal it was to be gay. Of course me mother didn’t realize that I was in fact gay when she told me this(neither did I at that point). So when I grew older and began to wrap my own head around my own sexuality it also came with an idea that was foreign to me. That to many people gay wasn’t as normal as my mother described. It seemed completely nonsensical that being gay wasn’t normal that i wasn’t fit to marry or raise children of me own and for years afterward it was hard for me to even comprehend the idea because I was raised so defiantly in the opposite belief. Even if I had not been gay myself in my household I still would have had confusion on why being gay was such a big deal. Even today I often have trouble just wrapping my head around something that’s so simple in my mind, we’re not really that different from one another and even in the areas where we are different these differences aren’t negative things. Maybe it’s true that it’s good for a child to have a male and female figure in their life but there’s more then one way to raise a children. Every parent will tell you that there’s not formula to raising children and no one does it right all the time. Just because gay parents don’t have have another aspect that could be just as influential in the development of their children. It’s hard not to see the value in a gay household when hearing this man defend her family so passionately and eloquently. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 02:42:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment135963143 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130753782 I honestly would like to say that I would tell my children to talk to strangers if they needed help. When looking at how much studies tell us that nearly a hundred percent of the time the stranger will help it’s hard to argue that it’s the best action. However as a parent I honestly can’t say with all honestly that would be what i said. Because I’m not a parent it’s hard to imagine what you would do. When there a possible threat to your child you almost never react rationally, your only interest is protecting your child as much as you can. The problem is that there’s only so much that you as a parent can do on your own. Trusting other people with your child, even friends, is extremely difficult with most people. Then imagining how hard it would be for parents to trust a stranger when they can barely trust a close friend it’s not hard to understand how “don’t talk to strangers” came about. That being said It’s amazing how paranoid parents have been getting over the years. Sam often talks about how much more lax people where just with walking to school a decades ago. It seems every year parents seem to think the world becomes more dangerous for their children with the bombardment of shows and news about abducted children. It’s not hard to imagine that parents were less cautious when they didn’t have this imagery thrown in their face every day. The problem is that I think my parents actually already know this. They know that they’re being overly cautious with their children. They know that they don’t need to drive their children down the block to school. They know that the stranger walking down the street has as much chance of abducting their children as lightning hitting them. They know that they’re surrounded by a media that force feeds them these dangers as more then they are. Parents see this but as a parent wouldn’t you feel more comfortable knowing that you’ve even covered that point zero one of a chance that it could be your child? It’s hard to say that’s wrong. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:20:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130753782 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/how-conscious-are-you-of-your-seat-in-class-before-and-after-todays-lecture-119-blog/#IDComment130749817 Honestly I rarely ever look at the people next to me in class except when I ask “Is anyone sitting here”. My preference to sitting somewhere closer to the back and one the end of the rows. I’ve never liked sitting in the middle of a row in class because I don’t like to be crowded by anyone, especially people I don’t know. I’ve never given any thought of what race or class the people are I just prefer to have a good deal of my own personal space. I think part of the reason I don’t think I see this is because of something Sam said in class. He said who most often sit next to people that are either most like us or are non threatening. I’ve always had an outside view on race because I’m half black and half white so race indifferences have always taken on a different view. Because I couldn’t really pass as either race and also that my family didn’t raise me to identify with either race I never developed an sort of racial identity. I’ve always been proud of being white and black but I’ve never felt that feeling of belonging to either race. Without this feeling I think I developed my own view of how different races react to one another. To me because I have experience with having white and black relatives I’ve seen all my life how similar we all are and how little skin color means. On one hand I do think it’s a beautiful thing to embrace your own racial identity I think part of the reason I’m able to be so disconnected to racial prejudice is because I never developed my own racial identity. I’ve always just been mixed race which I think has helped me blind to some much about race. The one problem with this is that because I don’t have this identity I have a hard to feeling really related to heavily with any particular race. I understand both sides of white and black perspectives but because I’m partly removed from it I often feel as though I’m not as sensitive to either as I could or should be. I often times find myself feeling as if many of it is just ridiculous. Which to a degree it is but I feel that it also makes me think that maybe I’m not taking it as seriously as I should. Many people in class get so caught up so heavily in racial differences that I feel as if I’m not as sensitive to how serious people feel about it. I’m just a person that enjoys their space but because I can’t identify as easily as any particular race I feel like I often have too much space from people. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:50:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/how-conscious-are-you-of-your-seat-in-class-before-and-after-todays-lecture-119-blog/#IDComment130749817 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-much-government-do-we-need/#IDComment129023536 It’s strange how both the left and right take any opportunity to start a fire fight between one other. This in particular seems pointless. Regardless if breast feeing is more healthy for the children in the long run it seems the rule focus is that Michelle Obama is supposedly telling people how to raise their children. While I was reading this I couldn’t help but think “Why are people bothering to talk about this?”. You can tell that the person is more interested in targeting Michelle Obama as a person then addressing whether breast feeding is better for children. Michele Bachmann evens says that she herself has breast feed all her children so she obviously supports breast feeding. So what other reason other then talking a chance to make accusations about Michelle Obama since she obviously does support breast feeding. It shows how much politics ends up not being about actual issues but just childish fights between sides that are only interested in bad mouthing each other. It’s true on both sides of the political spectrum. For example here we have a politician that obviously does agree with the stand point of their opposing political party using an issue to accuse the other side of supporting the take over of the government. On one hand it is a valid issue in the United States today however what in the world does it really have to do her. Michelle Obama isn’t a politician, she’s only the first lady and she is using the position and publicity she does have to promote a positive cause. So why is she the target of this fire? Simply because unlike any actual issue that relates more closely to big government Michelle Obama’s promotion of breast feeding is an easy target. It’s very consistent with all politics that it’s much easier to use insults and mud slinging then facts that the either don’t exist or that the public would not supposedly understand. You see after reading this story a few times how silly their argument really is and how loosely related the topics truly are in comparison. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 03:51:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-much-government-do-we-need/#IDComment129023536 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-much-can-a-person-use-the-ignorance-card-119-blog/#IDComment129012203 I’ve always found the an excuse of ignorance to any sort of topic to be a bit of a joke. On one hand I do understand that no one can truly understand every part of every culture or ideology or concept. However that being said it seems strange to me that knowing that people still speak as if they do have that knowledge. That is until they’re called out on the it being incorrect. I most often hear the excuse ignorance when the person has been called out of the ignorance of their statement. It’s always used as a defense mechanism to paint of picture of ignorance instead of simple negligence of their words. It’s simple to just say “Don’t blame me, I didn’t really know.” however this is usually used after something that was blatantly ignorant. The question should be asked if you truly don’t know the what you’re talking about then why would you feel the need to add your input at all. Most people can just ramble on and on about information they simple assume to be true and spread it to others as the truth as well. Many people can never be called out on how creditable their knowledge is or if it’s based on any facts at all. That’s why most information about different cultures is simply based on random assumptions that are made out of ignorance. But it’s ok because they really didn’t know right? As long as you can say “I didn’t know” then you’re just blissfully ignorance in our society. The thing that concussed me that most about ignorance is that once people are called out on it they’re quick to claim that they knew they were ignorant to begin with. Having known that so many people are aware that they’re being ignorant it’s strange to think how many people are choosing to stay put in their ignorance. If they truly know that they’re ignorant then why wouldn’t they choose to break free from their ignorance? Does this mean that as a society we choose our ignorance? Is ignorance preferable to the truth in our society simple because it’s easier. As opposed to seeking an understanding of one another we all in our own way choose day to day to accept our ignorance of the world. I never would expect anyone to be able to completely free of ignorance however looking at how often we use ignorance as an excuse for our words. It’s hard to argue that our society is not only ignorant but also how much we embrace that ignorance in our culture. After all isn’t it easier to just say “I didn’t know” then seek out what you don’t know? Sat, 19 Feb 2011 03:22:45 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-much-can-a-person-use-the-ignorance-card-119-blog/#IDComment129012203 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/do-you-identify-as-a-conservative-119-blog/#IDComment127468068 It becomes really hard for me between decide whether I’m conservative based on Sam Richards definitions of it. In the terms that we use liberal and conservative politically I’ve always considered myself a liberal. However this definition of conservatism is something I’ve never heard of before and find myself wanting to believe in conservatism because it oddly enough to me as more hopeful. It tells us that we are able to escape the hands that are given to us before we’re capable of making choices. That we can shape what our life can becomes. However even though I want to believe it I find that maybe I’m not facing the reality of the enormous effect society has on everything that I try to accomplish. One one any I come from an extremely poor household. The reason i can go to Penn State is because I worked hard in school to make sure I did not end up in the same situation that my mother ended up in. Another contributing factor that I could go to Penn State is because my mother decided to move to in with my grandparents in State College when I was ten so I had the opportunity to go to State College Area School. While I wasn’t necessarily a fan of State High It did afford me many more opportunities that I would have been dealt from where I lived in Pittsburgh. From a very young age my teachers from school helped me focus my interests and helped me apply for my major at Penn State. At State High you’re basically step up with Penn State as a easy option and many of the students end up going to Penn State. My point in this is that what if my mother had never moved to Penn State? What If I had been working just as hard but in a school district that was much less funded and active in their students? Would I still have been as likely to get Into Penn State even if I had been working just as hard as I did in State High? Would I even be college if I wasn’t in a school that actually aimed for also it’s students to go to college? It’s a strange thing to consider because I believably very firmly that I got where I am today because I worked very hard to get there. Looking at all the people from my old school district that aren’t in college even though I know they’re extremely hard workers it’s hard not to wonder if society’s restrictions don’t make all that work amount to nothing. Maybe even though I did work hard I was just the lucky one that managed to get to a place where that hard work would matter. Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:48:05 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/10/do-you-identify-as-a-conservative-119-blog/#IDComment127468068 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment127465026 I would personally take any opportunity to travel outside of the United States. In fact most of the time I think how much better off I might be if I hadn’t been born in the United States at all. It’s a strange way to think considering that many of our citizens consider this to be the greatest country in world. However when you look at what issues the United States face it’s hard to see why sometimes. Considering that the United States is supposed to be one of the most well off nations it’s hard to understand why we’re still a nation that faces the same issues as supposed “lesser nations”. Inequality between from race, sexuality and class are still so prevalent in all parts off our society. And still we rationalize this to ourselves just by telling ourselves over and over that the United States is superior. It’s seems almost like one large game we all play with each other to blind ourselves to our countries flaws. And ultimately if you live in the perfect country, such a great melting pot of free opportunity, why would you ever want to leave? It’s almost as if from a very young age we are deterred from ever wanting to explore past our own culture. If we grow up truly believing and being told from all angles that the United States is so superior it’s hard to wrap your head around why anything would be better. It’s hard to understand why everything around you would be creating a false image of the world to you but ultimately for many of us it does. It’s especially a shame considering that so many of us who do want to travel simply can’t afford to do it. So many people that can see that there are flaws in the United States and want to explore different cultures can’t do it because of the financial standing they;re born into. In a way it’s end up being almost a trap for us. The people that can afford to travel are blinded by what they’re told and the people we aren’t blinded simply can’t afford the luxury of travel. Sat, 12 Feb 2011 03:25:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment127465026 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/why-dont-we-like-positive-news-119-blog/#IDComment126075167 I think the issue with the news in the United State is complicated and dense for may reasons. To begin with most news is shit to be honest. The news that could be classified as good news is usually not news at all. For instance lately the emphasis placed on the weather lately has dominated most of the board casting. It’s winter, the season that is directly related with bad weather and snow however the news does countless stories as if this should be a surprise to everyone. The weather does case problems in other situations and even can be the cause of tragic accidents however this is the weather channel exclusively devoted to the weather. The fact that most of the stories on many major news networks is simply people repeating over and over that the weather is bad is an example of how much of the news each day is simply fluff to fill a time slot. The news spends all it’s time putting in stories to full space between their bad news stories. The simple fact is that one of the contributing factors that people in the United State love bad news is that good news isn’t really good. The networks know what sells and they stick to it while putting as little effort as possible effort in what doesn’t. It’s a cycle that’s extremely hard to break from because with the minimum effort being put into positive news stories it’s extremely unlikely that anyone will find interest in and watch these stories. Then consequently without the positive ratings for these stories networks will never put the effort into making these stories better. I would actually go as far to say that there is more “positive news” but the problem is that no one wants to watch it. People only stop on the news channel when that see the bad news because they know the coverage and story will be handled better by the station. There are many reasons why people prefer bad news but it’s amazing when you think about it how often you skip past the positive news because they now that it’s just going to be a half effort by the news team. I think it would be surprising to watch the news for an extended period and how we don’t even count some stories as good news simply because of how poorly they’re done. It seems to everyone that there is only bad news on the networks because it’s the only time we stop to watch the news. How much of us really have watched the news for an extended period of the day to really notice the distribution of good and bad news? Sat, 5 Feb 2011 04:41:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/why-dont-we-like-positive-news-119-blog/#IDComment126075167 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment126066209 I always find it strange how much different we react in response to each other. In every interaction whether it include out friends, family, partners or complete strangers I think that our personality shifts slightly to interrupt that reaction. When I was younger I thought that this was a sort of “fake” existent in all of us however as I’ve developed more relationships in my life I’ve found that this is simply the art of communication. When I noticed the difference in the way I interacted with people I found that it wasn’t me pretended to be any one else but simply speaking and conveying myself to another person in a way that we could communicate and understand each other on a common ground. While I do think there’s a unnerving sense of an inability for use to act as an individual I also find it a positive that to a certain degree because of that we are able to interact better with one another. That being said it’s also unnerving to see the level that socialization can change us to such extreme points. It’s strange to see how simple things like this videos can illustrate how willing we are to follow one another with no particular reason then to save face. It’s something we’re all guilty of and often times when in these awkward situations of choosing to conform I find myself not to just to prove to myself I could resistant. However that being said it still always leaves that strangely awkward feeling in the pit of my stomach that I’m standing out too much from others. It’s amazingly freeing however that need for to conform still rings through your body. It’s strange to think of all the things that I don’t notice that i’m doing day to day as well. Are still day to day activities something that I want to do or something I’m doing to conform to a norm? Or is it an odd combination of both? In the end does it really matter how much of this is choice or conformity, would it change my choices day to day at all. Sat, 5 Feb 2011 03:55:51 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment126066209 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/blog-1-freedom-and-toddlers-in-tiaras/#IDComment124463594 I’ve always been confused on how children end up getting involved in beauty competitions to begin with. Without the aid and interest of their parents it seems unlikely that any child would get involved in these contests. This is why When parents claim that their children chose to do these pageants on there own I find it hard to believe that’s true. And considering all the activities that a parent could chose to involve their children in it seems strange that they would chose beauty contest of all things. A event that puts their children in a position to be judged, mostly based on looks, and compared to other children based on looks. At such young ages any child is developing their own perceptions of the world and it’s hard to believe that this contests wouldn’t effect their image in a negative way. I do agree that children all have a different level of maturity and should be given more credit for being more capable of handling situations then is thought. However seeing how young the children who compete in these contests can be it’s hard to make the argument that they’re more mature. I’ve seen contest that literally have children who can barely walk down the aisle to compete yet. It makes you wonder why the parents find it necessary to put the children in beauty contest when they haven’t even developed any physical characteristics that make them different than many other child. At that age many children look exactly the same. I often think that many parents are competing with each other or worse trying to find some sort of pride in their own appearance through their children.On one hand however I can see that many parents who have children in these contests who have children who are at an age to make the decision on their own I can see that perhaps it is something they truly enjoy. In fact many parents I’ve seen insist that their children don’t participate in certain practices that are inappropriate or will effect them negatively. It’s so complicated because their are the parents and children who aren’t as insensitive as others and truly enjoy and aren’t harmed by them. Sat, 29 Jan 2011 03:14:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/blog-1-freedom-and-toddlers-in-tiaras/#IDComment124463594 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/what-does-the-confederate-flag-mean-to-you-119-blog/#IDComment124461255 I find the issue of the confederate flag odd. On one hand I understand the argument that it is related to slavery and therefore offensive. However I also understand that the confederate flag also stood for many other ideals and do not solely represent the idea of slavery. Overall I’ve never been offended necessarily by anyone wearing or having a confederate flag however I’ve never really understood the reasons behind them doing so. In high school many people had the confederate flag bumper sticker and even belt buckles. I asked many of them why they were wearing them and I never got a clear answer from any of them. In fact the answer I heard most was “I don’t know I just think it’s cool”. It made me consider that many I was looking into the meaning of the confederate flag too much and maybe in the United States it has just lost much of the meaning that it once had. Similar to way that peace an ying yang symbols are placed every wear and on anything for no particular reason maybe the confederate flag has simply become another one of those symbols that in our culture that has lost it’s meaning. Maybe the people was wear or won a confederate flag like it not because they are trying to express racism or support southern ideals. Maybe they simply wear it because to them it’s just a symbol, like a peace sign, that they happen to think is “cool”. However that being said I also find that even if people who own the confederate have been desensitized to the any meaning that the confederate flag used to have doesn’t mean that removes their responsibility to understand why other people are upset by the confederate flag. Regardless of whether or not the confederate flag is related to other ideals of the south, the fact is that it is still associated in many of our minds with slavery. Even knowing that the confederate flag stands for other things doesn’t remove the ingrained idea that it is related to slavery. Similar to the how the swastika will forever be related to nazis and Hitler. The swastika was originally related to peace in the Hindu religion. When you combine a symbol with something so horrific or monumental in history it’s nearly impossible to remove that idea ingrained into the symbol. Because of this I think it’s strange to think that people would still feel the need to wear a symbol that is so related to something that other people do find offensive. Because others do find it offensive, while I don’t personally, I think it’s not necessarily sensitive to wear the confederate flag regardless. Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:57:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/what-does-the-confederate-flag-mean-to-you-119-blog/#IDComment124461255