Excuse myself from leaving in the middle of class - (some comments)
Hi, all-
I am sorry to leave the class during the break.
I was reminded of some thoughts, issues, and experiences concerning what we have talked about, which was emotion-provoking; at the same time, I was not in good shape. At least, I wanted to share this with you and excuse myself for yesterday:)
Still, I wanted to share some thoughts that I had during class concerning two questions raised by Shantanu.
I kind of missed the timing to speak out. haha
1) If we accept certain symbols in our lives, would that make any difference/affect our identity? (Not sure if the question was correct)
As soon as Shantanu raised this question, I came up with what I observed in my early 20s upon entering university in Korea. So, in Korea, if you enter university, that is about the time you can officially drink, which is a huge part of college culture and artifact among Korean students. (They love drinking.. I guess, actually, it can be global commonalities) I have seen some Christian friends who chose not to drink because of their religious belief; instead, they usually had soda or water. Some still went to Church, but they did not accept the specific dogma concerning alcohol and accepted to follow the mainstream of college culture. I was one of those who believed in Christianity and confused about whether I could ever drink alcohol at that time.
In this case, I see "drinking" serves as a symbol of artifact or channel to make friends with through or have a chill time among Korean college students. In the meantime, for those who are devoted Christians (it could be other religions as well; this is just based on my limited experience), it can be a matter of their choice concerning their religious identities. If you are aware that drinking conflicts with your part of identity and belief, but still choose to do so, I would say you prioritize belonging in the culture that utilized the symbol of drinking as 'friendship and networks'. There may be some people among Christians who do not really care about it, then, drinking itself would not make any difference in their identities. In this case, I would understand that the symbol of drinking was not tied to their identity from the beginning.
In a nutshell, I would understand that once any symbol in a specific culture functions differently from your previous beliefs, or conflicts with what you would typically do based on your identity, then the symbol can potentially affect your identity depending on how you respond to it. (On the contrary, your previous/current identity maybe even reinforced? or became stronger either by accepting or denying it)
2) What if someone belonging to a certain culture finds that something different that would probably be accepted in that culture? Should s/he(or they) bring this up, or not? (I cannot quite remember the question but hopefully, it is similar enough)
I thought of the case that Copernicus found the theory of heliocentrism in the era when geocentrism had been accepted almost like the 'truth.' Since the leaders and many of scientists at that time strongly believed in geocentrism based on the Roman Catholic beliefs, it must have been so risky behavior to raise that kind of heresy considering the cultural and historical background. Still, Copernicus and Galileo took the risk for the sake of discovering truth (that they believed it was) despite all the surrounded people who naturally and strongly believed geocentrism. Here, the reason why it can be mapped out in our discussion is that the idea about geo vs. heliocentrism is not only the matter of science, but it served almost as symbol of God's existence at that time. Since their beliefs were based on creationism, Roman Catholics were closely tied to geocentrism that could back up their idea that 'The earth where God's creatures live is the center of the universe.' I understand that Galilei was convicted of heresy and called to the inquisition not because he discovered another scientific theory, but because he refused the symbol of 'God' in the era when and in the culture where God could not be an untruth.
I am sorry to leave the class during the break.
I was reminded of some thoughts, issues, and experiences concerning what we have talked about, which was emotion-provoking; at the same time, I was not in good shape. At least, I wanted to share this with you and excuse myself for yesterday:)
Still, I wanted to share some thoughts that I had during class concerning two questions raised by Shantanu.
I kind of missed the timing to speak out. haha
1) If we accept certain symbols in our lives, would that make any difference/affect our identity? (Not sure if the question was correct)
As soon as Shantanu raised this question, I came up with what I observed in my early 20s upon entering university in Korea. So, in Korea, if you enter university, that is about the time you can officially drink, which is a huge part of college culture and artifact among Korean students. (They love drinking.. I guess, actually, it can be global commonalities) I have seen some Christian friends who chose not to drink because of their religious belief; instead, they usually had soda or water. Some still went to Church, but they did not accept the specific dogma concerning alcohol and accepted to follow the mainstream of college culture. I was one of those who believed in Christianity and confused about whether I could ever drink alcohol at that time.
In this case, I see "drinking" serves as a symbol of artifact or channel to make friends with through or have a chill time among Korean college students. In the meantime, for those who are devoted Christians (it could be other religions as well; this is just based on my limited experience), it can be a matter of their choice concerning their religious identities. If you are aware that drinking conflicts with your part of identity and belief, but still choose to do so, I would say you prioritize belonging in the culture that utilized the symbol of drinking as 'friendship and networks'. There may be some people among Christians who do not really care about it, then, drinking itself would not make any difference in their identities. In this case, I would understand that the symbol of drinking was not tied to their identity from the beginning.
In a nutshell, I would understand that once any symbol in a specific culture functions differently from your previous beliefs, or conflicts with what you would typically do based on your identity, then the symbol can potentially affect your identity depending on how you respond to it. (On the contrary, your previous/current identity maybe even reinforced? or became stronger either by accepting or denying it)
2) What if someone belonging to a certain culture finds that something different that would probably be accepted in that culture? Should s/he(or they) bring this up, or not? (I cannot quite remember the question but hopefully, it is similar enough)
I thought of the case that Copernicus found the theory of heliocentrism in the era when geocentrism had been accepted almost like the 'truth.' Since the leaders and many of scientists at that time strongly believed in geocentrism based on the Roman Catholic beliefs, it must have been so risky behavior to raise that kind of heresy considering the cultural and historical background. Still, Copernicus and Galileo took the risk for the sake of discovering truth (that they believed it was) despite all the surrounded people who naturally and strongly believed geocentrism. Here, the reason why it can be mapped out in our discussion is that the idea about geo vs. heliocentrism is not only the matter of science, but it served almost as symbol of God's existence at that time. Since their beliefs were based on creationism, Roman Catholics were closely tied to geocentrism that could back up their idea that 'The earth where God's creatures live is the center of the universe.' I understand that Galilei was convicted of heresy and called to the inquisition not because he discovered another scientific theory, but because he refused the symbol of 'God' in the era when and in the culture where God could not be an untruth.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Clara! I think asking the question of the relationships between context, identity development and the internalization of symbols is super pertinent to our ives as students. In our society at Ohio State, at least for graduate students, I believe that the "anything goes" attitude that all of us have developed with time leads us to look at the symbolism of alcohol and the act of partying in a looser manner. However, if I was in undergrad at this huge school, I don't know whether I'd say the same. At least in my undergrad, despite it being a very small number of people, I think that the peer pressure was something that drove me to do certain things and accept them as symbols of experimentation at this stage of my life, despite my religious beliefs. However, I feel that sometimes, gaining that perspective by interacting with a bunch of people with different views about it is the way to develop a nuanced outlook towards it, and really understand what it means to have religious views and still be a part of "college culture". It really warms me to be a part of a student community here that looks at these symbols as a function of personal choice rather than a cultural stream of consciousness that defines college :)
ReplyDelete