I think that this Rose Café provided an interesting way to think about the cultural association of binge drinking with masculinity or toughness. I was surprised that I had never really questioned or interrogated the the fact that being able to drink massive quantities of alcohol is often taken to signal masculinity and toughness. It was fascinating to hear that this association originated so long ago, originally among German knights who were losing their prominent positions as defenders of society and, accordingly, an arena in which to prove their masculinity and toughness. Hearing about where this association of heaving drinking with masculinity originated made me curious about what societal conditions make this association so prominent and relevant still today. Indeed, I do not think that just because something gets incorporated as a cultural fact in the historic past, it continues to remain relevant. I think it would be super interesting to interrogate what cultural functions this association performs today. Additionally, I think that while heavy drinking is a gendered phenomenon, it definitely is also a behavior in which women engage. I had never thought about whether women’s heavy drinking offered a means of conveying some cultural signal, and if it does, what this cultural signal might be. I would definitely also attend a Rose Café that covered that topic. Essentially, what I really enjoyed about this discussion was that it forced us to revaluate aspects of our culture that we accept as natural or normal, and I thought that comparisons to countries where this association was not accepted as normal and was actually frowned upon really underscored this point.
Author Archives: krl46
Decisions, Decisions…
I really enjoyed learning about the AREA problem solving method at this week’s Rose Café. After attending many Rose Cafés in which we discussed and learned about different problems the world is facing, I felt that it was really beneficial to learn about a problem solving method that we could apply to any problem choose, whether we are grappling with an important decision in our personal life, trying to tackle an emerging problem in our community, or trying to devise and recommend a policy solution to a particular issue. One of the things that I find most useful about engaging in this sort of reasoned, thorough problem solving is that not only does it provide a guide for arriving at the most rational, beneficial solution, but it also provides a sort of rational map that enables others to see how we arrived at our conclusion. This method essentially kills two birds with one stone, so to speak, as it can help people arrive at a sound decision while also providing people with a means of defending that decision. I believe that having a means of allowing other people to logically follow our reasoning as to why we came to a particular conclusion makes discussion and debate more productive and purposeful.
After taking the quiz that indicates what style of problem solver you are, I did some self-reflection and came up with a question that I wish I could have asked Cheryl Einhorn. The quiz told me that I am a “Thinker,” meaning that I like to gather various sources of information and digest them before making a decision, and I certainly see truth to that categorization. Something that this categorization made me realize, however, is that when I am trying to make some decision I often gather various sources of information then have a set of questions that are essentially unanswerable but, using logical and critical thinking, it is possible to come to reasonable conjectures about what those answers might be. Sometimes, however, the decision to which the reasoned guesses lead is a different decision to which the objective information I have gathered would lead were it the only factors that needed to be considered. I often find myself wondering whether or not to include the reasoned guesses I make about certain questions to which cannot be clearly or close to clearly answered because I do not really know if the guesses I made are accurate.
Making Time for Mindfullness
I really loved learning about the history of meditation and how to practice it. What I found interesting about the history of meditation is how a practice that is so deeply rooted in religious traditions has become so secularized. As I was listening to meditation’s history, I realized that I really never thought about how meditation was linked to various religious traditions, so I appreciated learning about its rich history in various religious traditions. I think the fact that meditation is so widely practiced and embraced really speaks to its power. I also really enjoyed getting to practice two guided meditations. I often consider trying to start mediating because I feel like have heard so many students emphasize how it helps them re-focus, de-stress, and make the most of their day. Whenever I go to download a guided meditation App, though, I wonder if I really will be able to focus enough on it and get into it enough to get something out of it, and I never actually end up downloading the App and giving it a try. When I actually tried the meditation, however, I realized that I did not really need to be thinking about whether or not I would be able to do it the right way and get something out it. I still do not really know if I was doing things the “right” way, but the meditations felt really relaxing, and I felt re-focused, calmer, and re-centered after they were finished. I realized that doing whatever works for you as you are trying to practice mindfulness meditation seems to bring positive effects. Previously, I admittedly often felt like I did not have the ten minutes to totally set aside for meditation and reasoned that it probably would be more efficient to use that time in a different way. However, I really felt like taking that ten minutes to unwind and re-focus refreshed me in a way that made the rest of my night not just more productive but more enjoyable. Accordingly, for me, practicing meditation reaffirmed how important and beneficial it can be to prioritize self-care even when it may seem like prioritizing self-care will cause other commitments to fall by the wayside.
Appreciating Cornell’s History
I thought Dr. Blalock’s presentation on the history of West Campus and Cornell more broadly was awesome. I love learning about Cornell’s history because whenever I do, it reminds me to appreciate the opportunity to be here. Whenever I learn about any aspect of Cornell’s history, I often find myself surprised at the extent to which I did not know what I did not know. I, of course, knew that Ezra Cornell wanted to found an institution where any person could pursue any study, but I did not realize that a goal of this vision was to provide a place that students who wanted a college education but wanted to study a practical discipline, such as agriculture, could attend. Learning that in comparison to other prominent educational institutions at the time, where affluent white men were theorizing about subjects like theology, Ezra Cornell’s commitment to enabling students to achieve excellence in a practical pursuit through higher education was unique and progressive gave me a fuller appreciation of the extent to which Cornell believed in the power of education.
Also underscoring this belief is the fact that Ezra Cornell had only a third grade education, which I had never heard before. I think it is awesome and inspiring that after achieving the level of success that he did without an education, Cornell still recognized the importance of education and dedicated himself and his fortune to ensuring that all people could access higher education. I think that this history has the potential to inspire those who remember it to ensure that they strive to make the most of the infinite educational opportunities that exist at Cornell and that they use their education to give back to the world around them, as Ezra did. I think that living on West Campus, with a rich and interesting history of its own, offers an ideal opportunity to enjoy many, many experiences that enhance, broaden, and diversify our Cornell Education.
The Importance of Enjoying the View
I really enjoyed the Rose Café lead by Lisa Nishii this week because I feel like she offered extremely important advice that is rarely given. I believe that Dr. Nishii’s emphasis on taking time to explore what it is about which we are most passionate and having faith that things will work out is a point that students today need to hear and do their best to internalize. Indeed, students often feel pressure to find a resume-enhancing internship, and the priority thus becomes landing any internship but preferably one prestigious enough to powerfully enhance their resume. Finding an internship or opportunity that will enable a student to explore his or her passions seems to take a back seat. Additionally, I think that there is so much pressure to keep moving along the fast track to success that it can be not only easy to forget why we decided to start striving for that destination in the first place but also easy to lose sight of how exciting the journey can be.
Accordingly, I very much appreciated how Dr. Nishii took the time to allow us to remind ourselves and our peers what we love about Cornell and why we wanted to be here. Like many Café attendees, I also am really amazed by the opportunities and experiences that Cornell has to offer, from attending the lectures of and conducting research with some of the most renowned scholars in the world to attending an event with Justice Sotomayor to stumbling across a cattle auction on your way to the Dairy Bar, as I once did. As Dr. Nischii said, now is likely the only time that we will be immersed in an environment like Cornell’s, so we really should make an effort to let ourselves enjoy it whenever we can. As I was sitting at the discussion and taking in Dr. Nischii’s advice, I realized that when I reflect back on my time at Cornell, I am almost certain that I will not be thinking that I should have spent more time studying and stressing, but I might be wishing that I had explored Ithaca and the surrounding area more or that I had attended more lectures of visiting scholars or prominent professionals. Dr. Nischii’s discussion has given me an extra push to invest efforts in enjoying Cornell and all that it has to offer.
Adding Fun AND Addressing Problems
I really enjoyed this week’s Rose Café where we learned about all the ways in which Cornell is working to create a safer, more fun environment for its community. I think it reassuring to know that Cornell is not only actively working to prevent its community from harm but also trying to make the social scene the best it can be. This effort, in my opinion, concretely evidences that Cornell is committed to seeing the community thrive. Additionally, I believe that taking efforts to try to shift the culture that exists on campus in a way that prevents sexual assault from occurring in the first place is powerful. Indeed, to use Laura’s metaphor, I certainly agree that the more individuals that are not pushed downstream, the better.
What slightly concerned me about these efforts to shift campus culture in a way that makes every community experience more fun and more memorable is how these efforts are not framed as addressing the issue of sexual assault and gendered violence. I do understand the point about not wanting to seem accusatory, but I wonder if there is a way to broach the subject in a way that simply tries to create understanding about the issue without being accusing. For example, when it is suggested to fraternities that they purchase a coat rack as a hospitable gesture that will reduce the hassle of their guests, could not it be mentioned that it would really add to the fun that the guests are able to have because it prevents women from having worry about putting themselves in a vulnerable position to get their coat? In my opinion, it is often hard to solve a problem when people are not forced to acknowledge that there is one. If people are able to pretend that sexual assault is not a problem, I worry that the problem will persist. For example, if individuals are not forced to acknowledge and grapple with the fact that sexual assault is a problem, when they see one student leading another intoxicated student upstairs, they might be less likely to check on them and deescalate the situation if necessary, rationalizing that surely he is just showing her the way to the bathroom or something.
Ideological and Moral Justification: A (Potentially) Dangerous Weapon
What I found most interesting about V for Vendatta was that it conveyed not only how ideas and ideologies can be a powerful force but also how, in the absence of scrutiny, individuals can employ morality to justify almost anything. The actions of both sides of this political battle raise question an important question: When do the ends justify the means, and who gets to decide when the ends justify the means? As we were watching the film, I kept asking myself what makes a person realize that the ends no longer justify the means and whether there are truly some people who never reach that realization. Specifically, I wondered if it is humanly possible for a person like Chancellor Sutler, for example, to sincerely view every act, regardless of the harm it inflicts, as furthering the creation of some world or forwarding some goal that will result in an amount of good that far outweighs the harm. A key insight that I took away from the film is that scrutinizing the means often reveals whether those means are actually in service of some purported end. Indeed, it is in finding out how Chancellor Sutler rose to power that Finch begins to fully understand that the intolerant, oppressive acts the government imposes in the present are not in service of realizing and protecting some larger political and moral vision for the country.
Additionally, the film offers a powerful reminder of the importance of interrogating the ideologies that govern our society and shape the way we see the world. If we never take those ideological glasses off, they become a blindfold. By offering that reminder, the film also made me consider how crucial a role dissent plays in society. When there is always someone willing to step forward and voice a dissenting opinion or provoke others to view matters from a different perspective, it becomes harder and harder for people to turn a blind eye toward the discrepancies between an action and the ideological framing of that action.
The Power of Stories
I really enjoyed attending the discussion about The Refugees at this week’s Rose Café. What I really appreciated was how everyone shared how they identified with the characters or situations in Nyugen’s short stories. The discussants were a diverse group, yet still, whatever the background, history, or present struggle of the immigrants and refugees in Nyugen’s story, multiple members of the group could articulate how their stories overlapped with those of the immigrants and refugees. What I found particularly powerful to watch was how from that point of common identification with some aspect of the human experience, we all begin to appreciate where these stories differed from our own or recognize what was unique about them. I think that the discussion as well as Nguyen’s writing really revealed how powerful individual stories can be. They enable us to learn from the perspectives of people with experiences and backgrounds that sharply differ from our own and urge us to recognize how one’s life is enriched by being exposed to or bonding with those who are different from ourselves while simultaneously encouraging us to consider what aspects of our story or our spirit are the same.
As I was sitting at this Rose Café and enjoying listening to people share both their own stories and their reactions to the stories of the refugees and immigrants, I kept thinking about how much better the world would be if everyone took time to listen and respond to each other’s stories. Particularly in the United States, where anti-immigrant rhetoric is figuring prominently in public discourse, immigrants and refugees are unjustly represented as undifferentiated, potentially threatening “others.” They are thought about as statistics, not as human beings with stories. I believe that if individuals not only grasp that the political decisions made will impact not an undifferentiated or hypothetical mass but individuals with aspirations, challenges, strengths, and regrets but also strive to listen to and understand those stories, the manner in which they talk about and understand issues of immigration will necessarily change.
The Importance of Taking a Closer Look
I really enjoyed learning about Professor Barrett’s research on poverty traps. One of the things that I found most interesting about this learning experience was how he gave us a chance to understand how researching and truly attempting to understand the barriers and difficulties that keep people in poverty reveals information about how those barriers can be mitigated or even removed to allow people to begin to propel themselves out of the trap of poverty. I think that, in the United States especially, politicians do not take time to truly understand problems and end up pushing simple solutions that may be intuitively appealing and politically advantageous but ill-suited to solve complex, multi-faceted issues. Moreover, I really appreciated how Professor Barrett emphasized that understanding the barriers and difficulties that people caught in poverty traps face reveals how their responses to these problems are calculated and rational even though they might not appear that way to an uninformed outsider. This point, in my opinion, is crucial to remember. I think that too often, at least in the United States, people have a tendency to point to specific actions of the poor as irrational, problematic, or even irresponsible to unjustly blame them for their own continued struggles. A closer look at the varied, complex challenges that the poor face often reveals those actions to be rational, necessary, and inventive. Given that decreases in rates of upward mobility are indicating that the United States is failing to be the meritocratic land of opportunity that it promises to be, I think it is extremely important that people recognize what kind of poverty traps exist in the U.S. as well. The increasingly polarized labor market, for example, forces many individuals without a college education to earn in a living in the precarious, low-wage service sector where jobs are usually part-time, last-minute scheduling makes it difficult to work two different jobs, and there is little room for promotion.