Over the past few days, there has been a great deal of talk about Dan Savage. I am so happy that we had a discussion in class today so that everyone is better informed about the whole issue. Beyond class discussion, however, I am also happy that students have been discussing this outside of class. I have never seen so much discussion and passion about an event at Rhodes. Tons of rumors have been spreading about the protest, and that isn't productive, but regardless, I am proud to be part of a school that is willing to talk about such issues. I am also very impressed with the maturity level of the different parties involved. Since the night of the protest, when things got way out of hand, the conflict has been handled well. There is still active dialouge with mutual respect and openness.
What I am interested in in relation to this class is the idea that this passion can be translated into other issues. We were talking about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how people are very uninformed about the rights that they have and the fact that the United States has agreed to upholding these rights. I wish that students were passionate about issues that extend beyond Rhodes and that we did something to inform others about topics we have learned abut in class. I think this will be even more true after we have finished our research papers.
Classes like these inform people of problems and solutions, but students rarely translate them into the real world. I will admit that I am one of those people. I have become a different person since I have been at Rhodes but I have yet to take the knowledge I have gained and do something with it. I know that I will in time, and I think this class and my overall experience at Rhodes will greatly influence how I live the rest of my life.
I guess for now, I would just like to know how you guys feel about what we have learned in the class and if anything has inspired you to make change. It is hard to take theoretical knowledge and apply it to the real world, so do you have any ideas about how we can get people talking and acting?
People are motivated when an event directly affects them. I think in this particular case, the majority of individuals at Rhodes shared similar opinions making it easier to gather and protest. When it is one individual against many people, it can seem impossible to accomplish anything; however, when many people become involved, power follows shortly thereafter. If the economy continues the way it has been recently, I think that as newly graduated students, we may protest in the future. When you go into college, you like to think that when you come out, you will have a job that equates to the education you put forth to get it. Therefore, in the Wall Street riots you see many young graduated college students protesting for the college loans they are unable to pay off because there are no jobs. If this continues and applies to more people, this could escalate into something bigger with people talking and acting.
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying about theoretical knowledge and the fact that people often times go out of class, without an visible change in their lives. But I wonder, if we can assume that there is no change happening. I'm in my 5th semester of my Philosophy Studies and I already did 4 years of Ethics in high school before that and thinking about what changed for me, I really have to say, it was a lot. Of course, you could say that this is the normal change from a teenager to whatever comes afterwards, but I really believe that I am a different person that I would have been without these insights in Philosophy. So, there is a change in peoples' lives, and hopefully they are more aware of things like Morality and Community.
Additionally, I would like to mention that knowledge always comes with responsibility. In our case, we need to realize that not everybody on this world had the chance to learn about Philosophy and benefit from its achievements like the Human Rights. Therefore, we need to act responsibly and that also means, to take our knowledge into our real lives, although it sometimes means to make hard decisions. But as I said before, I think, most of the people do that automatically, because they learned about it and they can't forget about it.
I can't say that I've applied what I've learned in philosophy to the real world, however, I have applied many things I've learned in other classes to the real word. I've always been pretty outspoken for things I believe in and support, but after coming to Rhodes, I'm more eager to put actions behind my words and I think that makes a huge difference.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, as Professor J said in class, many of the protesters on Wall Street had no knowledge of Marx's ideas, however they are acting based on his philosophy. Just because you don't feel you've applied your theoretical knowledge to the real world doesn't mean you have yet to bring change to the real world. Your participation in groups such as VOX and other organizations speaks numbers to what you've learned at Rhodes, and how well you've applied it to real life situations. Don't sell yourself short.