English Portfolio

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Working on an Introduction

The introduction to my inquiry project after a couple revisions (and in need of a couple more):

 

What politicians say is often more important than what politicians do. In modern elections, candidates are nearly equally qualified, and their speeches, debates and sound bites become the only means to choose between them. Their rhetoric focus on social issues as a means of widening the gaps between them and the polarity of such issues causes passionate moral responses in their constituents (McLeod 1999, 360). The invention of the television has allowed candidates to profit from this emotional response to their opponent’s moral stances: attack ads litter t.v. channels in the build up to elections, reminding voters that the other candidate is the “bad guy.”

Today we are within another technological revolution; that of social networking. Though social networking has only seen its greatest growth in popularity in the past five years, it has already had a perceived impact on politician’s rhetoric (Jones and Fox, 2009). On January 8, 2011, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona District Court Judge, and 14 others were shot during a public meeting in Tuscon, Arizona (Weeks 2012).  The New York Times reported that the shootings “raised questions about potential political motives” (Lacey and Herszenhorn, 2011). The political response was swift; according to The New York Times “Democrats denounced the fierce partisan atmosphere in Giffords’ district and top Republicans quickly condemned the violence”” (Lacey and Herszenhorn, 2011).

Claims such as “political rhetoric is becoming more violent,” now have to be analyzed in the context of new technologies: if political rhetoric is becoming more violent, is it because of social media? In my research it is my hope to explore the possibilities of significant rhetorical change in the past decade as a result of social media, and in the process find an answer to this question of violent rhetoric.

All we knowwe learn to d…

All we know
we learn to doubt
in life’s successive schools.
Which goes to show
we started out
unutterable fools.

Piet Hein, Grooks 4

Some Prose for Mother

I remember my mom barging into my room as she always did, without knocking, and telling me that her best friend from high school, Stacy, was dead. I remember particularly that Stacy’s daughter had written a poem for her on MySpace.

I didn’t think much of it at the time. I was slow to adopt social networking, and it didn’t mean anything to me to hear that someone had posted a poem about their dead mother on MySpace. I merely thought up an appropriately solemn look and nodded in my mother’s direction. Then I probably went back to the computer screen, back to what-ever-it-was I did on the internet before Facebook and Tumblr.

I remember some years later when an acquaintance’s father died, and the string of condolences underneath her Facebook status. I thought about it some, and felt guilty at my final judgment; something about announcing the death in a status seemed to make it trivial, putting it out there in my news feed with the daily boyfriend drama and shameless camera-phone-and-mirror self portraits of my peers.

This was a couple of weeks before my mother died. I thought about posting a status about her death, but I still felt strongly against it. I felt that a post would be a cry for help, or seeking attention—a post cheated her because she died, not I. She died and she had deserved the thoughts, the prayers, and the comforting remarks.

I realize I never adequately knew how to accept the real-life condolences I received either, and this may have affected my attitude toward posting about my mother’s death. I answered far too many declarations of “I’m sorry for your loss” with “it’s okay.” (This strange remark had two affects: either a look of discomfort and puzzlement resulting in a quick departure from my company, or a tearful relative weeping on my shoulder as I comforted them in a strange reversal of roles.)

Even now, years later, I see posts about her from my relatives. On the anniversary of her death this year the first picture in my news feed was her headstone. My first reaction is to be appalled, and I don’t know why, perhaps again because it trivializes it.

 I suppose I can resort to the “everyone deals with death in their own way” to label my odd behavior so I don’t have to explain it any further. I only wrote this because my own experience is contrary to the article “Friends with Benefits: Do Facebook Friends Provide the Same Support as those in Real Life” by Kate Daily.

In response to “Children of the Great Recession”

Brownstein, Ronald. “Children of the Great Recession.” National Journal (2010): 4. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

“Children of the Great Recession,” an article by Ronald Brownstein for the National Journal, examines the challenged faced by the “Millennials” in trying to find careers in the current recession. The “Millennials” are described as those born between 1982 and 2002—meaning myself and my peers are among them.

I have witnessed scenarios similar to those described by the article, but the one that particularly stands out to me is my childhood “bestie’s” brother. He graduated several years ago with the same degree that I am pursuing with good marks, had internships, and held several jobs throughout college. Now he works in the electronic section at the local Target.

I’ve haven’t done extensive research on the recovery, and have no authority to judge whether the solutions proposed by the article (investment in community colleges, etc.) will alleviate the problem. I, however, can say a bit about what I have seen work for my peers and myself (which is a small, unrepresentative sample and I do not claim as a solution.)

The only way my friends and I have found employment is through knowing someone. I knew my grandmother’s coworkers from helping out now and then with some filing in the bank. The bank’s higher-ups wanted to higher their children and grandchildren on as interns. My grandma is arguably included in this group, so they asked her if I would like to intern (all the other kids happened to be high school juniors as well.) I stayed on at the bank after my internship to become a teller.

So I suppose in my experience all I’ve been told by relatives, career centers and well-meaning acquaintances is true, and networking is more important than anything else.

Susie’s Diary– insight into a life of someone sick during spring break

Dear Diary,

Today I flirted with the check out man at Target using only my eyes for I can hardly speak due to chronic bronchitis. He was probably 30, and his face had a tattoo. He told me to have a nice day.

I went home to my house and took a nap on the couch/bed. I did not go to my actual bed because it is too much work to jump from the doorway, over the pile of crap, to the bed. My dog jumped on me and I hid my head under the covers saying “bother, bother, bother.”

I woke, watched Dr. Who for 5 hours and read funny articles on Cracked.com. I checked facebook 5 times, but there were no new notifications. It made me sad.

I drank coffee and I took lots of meds to stop the pounding in my skull. Then I ate Hamburger Helper for dinner because that’s what bachelors eat and my chef is a bachelor. I could not taste it because my nose is stuffy. Everything is bland.

I saw my cat had disemboweled a gopher on the porch because he loves me so. He must have devoured the rest of the remains. I thought of the poor wee gopher and I cried.

Sincerely,

Susie

p.s. My day wasn’t actually that bad (eh. but it wasn’t great) and I did not cry. But there was a dead gopher.

“Beware the banana curls” and other such nonsense

I have trouble talking to people I don’t know. That said, its a wonder I make any friends, especially since the expression on my face is usually a mix of apathy and slight distaste at the goings on of the world. I don’t mean to have this face, but I don’t smile as often as some others.

I find a lot of people from this strange, mysterious force that drives people together when they are thrown into crowds of people they don’t know.

I first realized this strange occurrence when I was waiting for a bus at an airport. There were only men in business attire besides a gorgeous blond chick and I.

This blond chick looked the opposite of a person I would normally converse with. It was obvious her clothes were name brand, her matching luggage set was baby blue, she wore over-sized sunglasses and held a latte in her free hand. And her hair was too perfect (I make it a rule to never trust people with perfectly curly unnatural curls produced by a big-barrel curling iron).

Well she sits next to me and begins speaking. I’m shocked because a) she’s talking to me and b) she’s being extraordinarily nice and friendly. In my head I’m like WTF, but I manage to politely respond. By the end of the bus ride we are practically BFFs and I know that she’s a pageant queen from a private school in Georgia and she knows all of the particularly interesting stories I tell anyone (like how my dog is crazy or how I live practically alone and watch Bones and eat ice cream or go to Denny’s with the gang–my life in 26 words).

Then I never see her again. I doubt I thought about her once until I wrote this blog entry. This is a sad fact, but an inescapable one. What would we do if we kept in close contact with all the strangers met on buses, planes, at camps? I could never keep up with that many Facebook friends. I don’t think I have space in my brain for that much detail.

The good of this all: the knowledge that in strange, awkward situations, there is always an emergency friend to turn to, to make that bus ride with suit wearing men you don’t know less awkward. And I think there’s a message in here somewhere about not judging a label-ho by her banana curls.

Practice makes perfect

“Today’s Political Rhetoric Seen as Empty, Uninspiring.” Weekend Edition Saturday. National Public Radio. 29 Aug. 1994. Access World News. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. Transcript.

In this 1994 excerpt from the Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR, Scott Simon covers the current trending political rhetoric, briefly examines its effectiveness and purpose, and compares it to previous rhetoric. This is a brief overview and not an in depth analysis, but it gives good insight on the state of political rhetoric in 1994, before the use of the internet and during a time of relative peace. He mentions the use of negative T.V. advertisements as well, which suggests that political rhetoric, if it has become more violent, may have become so due to television and not the internet.

 

 

I guess I’ll figure it out when I have to

It’s just my luck that I would have three research projects simultaneously, and little way to make that research somehow overlap.

The first is for Applied Anthropology, and must be a background paper on a specific are of applied anthropology. How specific? I don’t know, but I was given the impression that my topic of choice, public policy, was too broad.  When I try to narrow the search, however, I end up with more political science research than anthropology. My hope is to focus half of my sources on specific examples of applied anthropology in public policy concerning the political assimilation of immigrants (this will overlap with some political science/general social science research) and the other half on the history of anthropology in public policy and different methodologies.

The second is a case study for a class called Cultures and Conflict. All I know is that I had to propose a study, and this study had to involve two separate cultures and a conflict. At first, this seemed easy—too easy.  After spending nearly two months in this class, I know how difficult this task will be. We haven’t even been able to identify what is “culture” is in class. I have an idea, but I have a suspicion that if I quote the three similar textbook definitions I learned for culture in Intro to Anth I will be cut off abruptly, as I was last time I tried to quote something I thought was relevant (I think the rationale behind stopping me from quoting might be that she is trying to teach us to think critically for ourselves, but if I could give a definition for culture my definition would follow one of the textbook ones, only greatly paraphrased.) I decided on a tentative topic that I hope will work: the cultures in question would be democratic and republican politicians, and the conflict would be the debate over the debt ceiling.  I dread Tuesday, when I receive my topic proposal with commentary. Also I will get my reflection from our last debate returned; I fear this even more than the topic proposal. My first line explained that I am terrified to speak unless I feel adequately informed about the subject and that this debate was difficult for me because I didn’t feel like I had time enough to prepare. Later on I explained what I learned and how the debate shaped my opinion, but I now think she will be merciless because I seemed complaining.

My third research paper is also the reason for this blog. Its purpose is to talk about technology, Web 2.0 and an area of my choosing. I chose how Web 2.0 changed political rhetoric, but both of those categories are too broad for me to find a good starting place. At first I wanted to focus on the evolution of belligerent political rhetoric in presidential campaigns, but now I am unsure. I guess I’ll figure it out when I have to.

Though last minute isn’t my style.

p.s. This is culture:

•  That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (Tylor, 1871).

• A society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions – which are used to make sense of experience and generate behavior and which are reflected in behavior (Haviland et al. 2005).

•  Ideas and behaviors that are learned and transmitted. Nongenetic means of adaptation (Park 2006)

Red Hands and Blue Feet

I have red hands and blue feet. No, this isn’t some kind of political statement, symbolically depicting my radical moderateness—it’s a medical condition. This unusual color combination occurs because the capillaries in my extremities react too greatly when exposed to cold. They go into vasospasm: first my blood vessels narrow, next my blood flow is restricted, my feet or hands turn white, then yellow, then finally purple and blue. As the blood flow returns my skin flushes with color, ending as a bright red.  Most of the time my hands warm quickly and my feet stay cold, meaning I usually have red hands and blue feet.

It’s called Raynaud’s phenomenon and luckily it’s only a minor condition. I’ll be able to cope with some fuzzy socks and an electric blanket.

When my grandma heard I had Raynaud’s, her first question was, “Honey, did you look it up on the internet?” Of course I did. The moment I returned from the doctor I was looking up information on WebMD. Before my doctor diagnosed me I had

image by Tcal at en.wikipedia

also Google searched “why are my feet blue and numb?”

What if I had been diagnosed before internet ? I surely wouldn’t trek all the way to the public library to check out what Reynaud’s was. I would take the lazy way out and take my doctor’s word for truth. If I doubted him, I would see another specialist.

This article from the OECD Observer comments on how the internet has changed the way patients access medical information.