My Meaning to Society

I personally feel that I lack a place or meaning in society. When I was younger my purpose was just to be young and innocent. Once I entered high school and could work, I felt like I lacked a purpose. If anything, I feel like my purpose is to prepare for a greater purpose that will come after college. Some of my friends have jobs but only to earn personal spending cash. They do help support their families making themselves a contributing member of society. I feel the age of having no purpose but to enjoy life has been extended.
I have been doing community service since freshman year. Doing service definitely helps me feel that I do matter to society. Service allows me to help make my community the wonderful community it is. The service I have most enjoyed is serving food for the homeless through PADS. I felt I truly helped people even if was only for one night. I also enjoyed being a guest speaker at S.E.E.D., because it made me feel that I was bettering the members mindsets.

Race

Until this class, I never even entertained the idea that race is not a biological factor. I assumed that I am white because both my parents are white and I was born that way. I never considered the idea that I could be white, because that is the label society assigned. The timeline of how racial differentiations were formed is never taught in a history class. I think it should be. I think that not teaching it is encouraging racial stereotyping. I am to assume that because a person has dark skin they are black according to science. But that is not the case. I call dark-skinned people black, because that is what society taught me to call them.

Class Mobility

My dad's mom was part of the upper middle class, and she married down to my dad's dad who was part of the lower class. My dad grew up a member of the lower class. My mom's mom was middle class and my mom's dad leaned towards the lower class. My mom grew up as a part of the upper middle class. I plan to be an actress and most stage actors do not make very much money. Therefore, due to my career choice, I will probably become a member of the lower class. However, If I am a successful Broadway actress, I could be part of the middle class.
My family class mobility seems to be based on career choice. My dad's parents were in the lower class, because my grandfather had trouble maintaining his glass business. My mom's dad was able to move up in class because he had a successful tavern and restaurant. My mom moved us up to the upper middle, because she became a well-paid accountant.
The class mobility seems to also depend on education. My dad's dad never went to college. My mom's dad went to junior college. My mom earned her Master's degree. For me, my success will depend on talent rather than bettering myself through education. However, I will be attending college.

Blue Collar

The two groups that were presented in the movie as glamorizing the blue collar life style were trying to show appreciation and longing for the genuine nature of blue collar people. They were not making fun of the blue collar people, however, they were being condescending. For example, the yuppies that went to the "dive bar" would spend their weekends with the blue collared but then return to their comfortable middle class life. They were hypocrites, because they claimed to appreciate how genuine blue collared people were but they themselves were not genuine. They would put on a facade during the week and use the dive bars as a form of escapism.
People are comfortable making references to class stereotypes, because they personally do not associate themselves with a certain class. If someone does not commit themselves to one class they have the freedom to make such references because they do not feel they will offend anyone.

Prison

The 30 Days video fascinated me. I watch alot of shows about prison; for example: Locked Up on MSNBC. On this show, cameras are taken into prisons, and prisoners are interviewed about their crimes and view on prison life. However, it was interesting to view prison from he point of view of a respectable member of society. Prisons need to be organized in a different way. Prison's goal should be to cure criminals of their addiction to crime. The way they are currently being run, it seems as if their gaol is merely to keep criminals away from crime for a period of time. George, Morgan's cellmate, put it best; prison takes away so much of a person's freedom that the first thing a person wants to do when they are let out is run wild. Obviously, prison has to put some restrictions on a person's freedom, but not to the point of dehumanizing prisoners. Many prisoners have a separate wing for curing drug addiction. Well crime can be an addiction; therefore all prisons should be set up as a support group; instead of a caging facility. Prisons should have a way to support prisoners when they are released to keep them from resorting back to crime or drugs.

Masculinity

When I think about macho masculinity, one particular memory comes to mind. When my brother was younger, he attended a summer camp that provided busing. He walked into the house one day and he was crying. He told my parents that some kid had been making fun of him. My dad yelled at my brother. He said that my brother should suck it up, be a "man", and stop crying. If the situation had placed me in my brother's shoes, my dad would have expected me to cry. But because my brother was a boy, he was expected to be tough and repress his vulnerability.
When I entered high school, my brother told my mom that if he found out someone as picking on me, he was going to beat that kid up. I was shocked to hear my mother's reaction. She accepted what my brother was saying. I decided that if I was getting picked on, I would take care of it myself. I figured I would handle myself without resorting to violence.

Fear

The major agent of socialization that invokes fear into Americans is the media. In general the news is bad. Newspapers and TV stations are constantly reporting on murders. This causes Americans to constantly fear for their lives. I can't remember the last time a murder occurred in Buffalo Grove, yet I am still afraid of answering the door when I am home alone. Despite the fact that crime rates have decreased, Moore stated that ownership of guns has increased. People are scared for themselves and the life of their families.
The media has also caused the white community to fear black males. News stations are always reporting that suspects in crimes are black males. In reality, the black community is for gun control. However, the black ment that make headlines carry guns and are criminals.

Nature and Nuture/ Animal Unit in Acting

The discusssion we are having about how nature and nuture affect human beings reminds me of a unit of study I did last year in Advanced Acting. For one month we did an animal unit in which each student researched an animal and eventually began acting as that animal. I choose a sheep, and I would crawl around the stage as a sheep. We did different exercises to simulate the life of our animal. We explored their living space and sleeping and eating habits. We began interacting with the other animals with a watering hole exercise. In order to think as an animal we had to use only our naturalistic instincts to guide us rather than our conscience.
However, the point of the unit was to transform from an animal to a human with personality traits that could be compared to the animal. For example, sheep have great maternal instincts, so my character was very warm and nuturing. We did exercises as human characters that paralleled those we did as animals. The watering hole ws paralleled with everyone in a Starbucks. As animals our only instinct was to get to the water. However as humans we had the knowledge to stand in a line and wait our turn to order. The preditor prey exercise was paralleled witht the balloon exercise. We were given the situation that we were all stuck in the basement of the building and only one man and one woman could be allowed to leave, the rest would have to die. Each person was given a balloon, and in order to kill someone you had to pop their balloon. In the animal world this taskwould take very little time, because it is survival of the fittest at its most basic. In the human world, it took a while. People were afraid to just automatically try killing. We tried to compromise with people and convince them to kill themselves but nobody would do it. People finally buckled down and a mass killing ensued. I was one of the first to go. I tried to gain sympathy simplyly by saying my newborn baby was a floor above the basement all alone, but no one caved. It came down to two men and two women. They tried to form alliances working with the human value of trust. In the end, the game was still survival of the fittest.

Senior Picture

This week seniors took our class picture. I don't see the point of taking the picture. In theory, it is a nice idea to have a picture of everybody in your graduating class. However, the size of our class diminishes the quality of the photo. We are all going to look like ants, because there are over one thousand of us. It is impossible to get a picture in which everybody looks good. There will always be a number of people who won't have been paying attention because they were talking. There will be a number of people who think they are original and clever by giving the camera the finger.
The purpose of this picture is to be able to look back on who you went to school with when you are older. I would rather just look in the yearbook at people's individual pictures.

Tuesday with Morrie/dependence

Americans view being dependent as a weakness. A dependent person cannot provide or take care of themselves, and they are seen as weak. Going off to college is important and life changing, because it is the first time young people have to be independent. This is part of the reason teens both look forward to and fear college. They want to be on their own and make their own decisions. However, they are in charge of taking care of themselves.
The American value of individualism plays into this. We want to be independent and be able to everything ourselves. I personally am very dependent on other people due to my visual impairment. I meet with a vision inteneriant during my free periods and she reads tests and some of my homework t0 me. I sometimes have to have my mom read my homework to me. When I am alone in an unfamiliar place, I have to depend on the help of strangers. It definitely bothers me that I am so dependent. I wish I could do my homework completely on my own. I feel so helpless when I have to ask strangers for help. I sometimes feel line a burden to my friends, because they have to lead me around when we go out. I know they don't mind doing it, but I wish I could be more independent.

Boy Scouts

This weekend, one of my family friends was receiving his Eagle Scout award for Boy Scouts. This is the highest honor a boy scout can achieve. I was not looking forward to attending. Before I went, I was joking with my friends about the fact that an almost 18 year old was still in Boy Scouts. But what I found was that a lot of boys in that community were still involved in scouting throughout high school. My family friends live in a Christian based, sort of old fashioned neighborhood. They still have a town square that includes a church. The seem to have a very different sub-culture than the one I belong to. Around here, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts is done in elementary school and that's it. But in their community people really commit to it. My family friends also have two daughters in high school and they are both still Girl Scouts. I was a Girl Scout up until I was ten years old and then it became boring.
Our sub-culture is much more focused on technology. My friends can't go a day without texting and checking their facebooks. My family friends are much more community oriented. They are heavily involved in their church and scouting. None of the 3 kids have a facebook and the two daughters have to share a cell phone.

Sub-culture

I found today's discussion about the sub-culture very interesting especially what was said about Mores and Folkways. I mentioned that graduating is a More, but Sal pointed out that Stevenson takes it up a step with going to college. Our graduation rate is high , and our rate of going to college is almost as high. It is considered underachieving if somebody goes to community college. CLC is know as college of last chances. At another high school, going to a community college would be respectable. Our sub-culture can be identified by our competitive nature. The school pushes us to take AP classes and apply to highly rated four year colleges.
I was also interested in how someone said what used to be mores are now folkways. For example, cheating used to be taboo. Cheating is expected now. Personally, if I didn't copy some homework, I would never finish all my homework. Teachers assign so much unnecessary busy work. I know there was an article in the school newspaper about cheating. the teachers believed students didn't turn each other in because they were afraid to. The real reason students don't turn each other in is because everybody does it.

Social Construction of Reality

The reality of C's neighborhood centers around a social construction of respect and loyalty. C is taught from a young age to view the mobsters with fearful respect. Once C becomes Sonny's protege, his respect grows to reverence. The reality of the neighborhood centers around respecting those with the power but not necessarily those a person is related to. C is also taught the unwritten loyalty between members of the neighborhood. He felt proud that he kept silent in front of the police officer rather than rat out Sonny. C grows to have more loyalty to Sonny than to his own fathers. The unwritten laws of the neighborhood are those set down by the mob.
On a darker note, C is taught to be racist from a young age. He is afraid of this friends seeing him with Jane, because she is black. His father disapproves of interracial relationships. Although C tries to be open minded, the racism of his society seeps into his subconscious. He calls Jane's brother the N word even though the day before he protected the brother from getting beat up.

Volunteering

I have done volunteer work before but not much. I am in NHS and am required to do community service, but most of the work I do contributes to the school as opposed to the community at large. Fore example, I got most of my hours last semester by being a member of the teen staff for Operation Snowball. Snowball allows me to reach out to people in school I would normally never get to know or help. One person that I helped this year at Snowball was another visually impaired student. She had just recently developed this impairment and had a very negative attitude about it. I was able to show her how to be positive and make the best of the situation. I am famous among my friends for making jokes about my blindness. I introduced this girl to myu blind humor. I told her that having a sense of humor about the blindness shows people that I am accepting an comfortable with who I am and so they can accept me in turn. By the end of the weekend this girl was very open about her impairment and was willing to talk to anyone about it. Listening to her tell her peers about her blindness with a hint of humor but without embarrassment filled me with pride.

Stranded in the Mountains

The reading about the people stuck in the mountains reminded me of "Life of Pi". In that novel, the main character, Pi, is stranded on the ocean for 7 months with only a tiger as a companion. Pi was a strict vegatarian but he was forced to eat fish in order to survive. He eventually became barbaric and just ripped at the fish with his teeth like an animal. In the reading, the people were foreced to resoret to animalistic instincts to survive. They were forced to eat other humans. The moment this struck me most was when one person found a cold dead hand somebody had stashed away for a snack. Pi was very religious, like the people in the sotry, he believed God would forgive him for eating the animals. The people in the reading knew they had to stay alive even though they may have had to eat their family members.
It is so sureal to me the think that the story in the reading really happened. I can't even envision being so desperate for my life that I would resort to canabilism. I lives such a sheltered, pampered life that tragic stories and adverse misfortune, such as poverty, seem ficional.
If I had been in their situation, I would have eaten the humans. Howerver, I don't kow if I could overcome the revoltion and sheer tragedy of eating my own family members.

The awkwardness of silence

In our society, people are generally uncomfortable with silence. It is a bad sign if you run out of things to talk about with a person. In order to have a successful conversation there should be no "awkward silences". People don't know what to do if there is a silence. Where should they look; at the other person, at the floor, at the ceiling? My level of comfort with silence depoends on who I am with. I can spend an hour in the car with my mother and not say a word. However, I would feel uncomforatble with an hour of silence with somebody I was friendly with.
A lot of times if there is an awkward silence, people with start rambling, just to fill the silence. Some people draw out stories just to fill time with talking. There are people who do just like to hear themselves talk, but I think it has to do with self-absorption rather than a need to avoid silence.
Some people do need to listen more. If one person is talking another person might feel it is necesary to constantly interrupt and ask questions just to keep up a conversation. That persoanlly annoys me. When I am telling a story I like to keep the flow of it.
In our society, people are always saying I need to get away and have some peace and quiet. But people rarely sit in literal peace and quiet to reflect. The need for peace and quiet is more a yearning to get away from a certain place or person.
I experienced an awkward silence on the first day of class when Sal just stood in front of the class and said nothing. I get anxious if I am hanging out with somebody new and there is silences.
I can sit in silence with my immediate family or my three best friends. The reason it would be awkward with anyone else is because if there is silence, I get worried that the other person will lose interest in me. It doesn't matter if my family finds me interesting;the are my family and biologically have to care about me. With my friends, I know they find me interesting and want to be with me, because they are my best friends. I would rather sit in silence with them than have a forced conversation with anyone else.
Silence can be a good thing, because it gives people time to think and reflect. However, silence can be used in a negative way: for example, the silent treatment. Our society puts silence in a bad light, because our society likes to be in constant communication. However, I think people should try to accept more, because you can enjoy somebody's company without talking to them.

Me on Blogging

I personally have never blogged before but think it is a great way to open another avenue of communication. However, so far I am not enjoying it because I am not technologically savvy. I hope to get better as the semester goes on.