Caution: I have strong opinions, but I do not think I know even close to everything.
Part One
Today we talked about negative aspects of Folklore. This includes driving other races out of geographical areas because we believe we are better... actually the attitudes and actions boil down to a superiority complex.
As a whole, America is part of this history. Though America is no Nazi Germany, Americans think they are entitled to a little bit more than the average world citizen. They believe their ethics and morals should be pushed on others who do not want their ethics. Americans like to stand up for the underdog, but they do not always check with the underdog to make sure the under dog wants to be saved. Like with Iraq.
Why are we in Iraq? What good does it do for anyone? I voted for Bush in 2008. I gave him my first presidential vote at the age of 18. I talked to my Kerry-supporting friends and attended Bush rallies... my friends and I even made Bush signs that we replaced Kerry signs with. I loved Bush. Loved him. Now I cannot stand him. I hate that we are at war for something the general public does not understand. I used to think that there must be some under cover reason for American presence in Iraq. I don't think so anymore. [And I am all for Obama, even if I haven't done as much homework on him as I should]
What does that have to do with Folklore? Everything. We talk about Hitler having a superiority complex, but so do we. And even though we are not about to start a genocide, Americans need to step back and take a look around.
I should let it be known that I love America. I love the freedom, I love the melting pot of culture, I love the history, I love the privileges we have and the opportunities. I love that I am able to attend college and that the "American Dream" is still alive today. I just think that Americans need to get out of "THEM" mentality and switch it to "US". If we do not fix our own problems, then we should not try to fix anyone else's [though I do understand why Americans love to fight for the underdog... we started out as the ultimate underdog].
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Part Two
Today we talked a lot about what constitutes folklore. To me, anything can be folklore as long as it's been passed down by someone other than the person saying, and I even think things turn into folklore once a story has been told to an individual who has not been present. The story is in their minds, and chances are that the way they think of it is probably not how it happened to the storyteller.
The whole time we talked about the historical view of folklore, discussing accuracy and accommodations, I could not stop thinking about the Founding Fathers and a comment made last week about taking God out of our society. Many of the Founding Fathers were Deists. They were not Christian. Thomas Jefferson set out to write his own Bible. They did not believe in God the way contemporary Christians did, and yet they still wrote "One Nation Under God" AND "In God We Trust". Sometimes it's not about an actual event, but an idea of the event that matters. The idea of that event in later years is folklore.
Would it make a difference if the common Joe or Jayne knew that many Founding Fathers did not believe in God? Probably not. Society is liberal enough that it would not really matter, and some might even view it as more reason for God to be taken out of the nation. But I don't think so. The Founding Fathers respected the nation's love for God so much that they KEPT God in the nation. And we should too.
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Part Three
Today we talked about the interior and exterior of a group.
I think this is really interesting. I like that no one has the same viewpoint, not even if they belong to the same group. No one knows everything, and most people know something.
Most of my life, people never thought I was smart. They didn't label me as stupid, but I wasn't an A-Lister in my high school hall of fame, but that was because I didn't care. I was on the honor every semester of high school, and on the principal's honor roll half the time. But I didn't make academics the main priority in my life.
It's the same way now. People, especially boys, are shocked when I tell them that I am double majoring in history and english. They don't understand why. I don't look like a brain, and I spend most of my free time photographing, laughing, and painting. I never talk about academics to my friends because when I do their faces go blank. Nonetheless, I typically have fifteen topics jambling in my mind and I want to learn as much as I can. But I still like to live my live balanced. I don't want to get too overstretched on everything. The busier I am, the happier I am. And the happier I am, the less stressed I am, so I keep my lust for learning to myself and to my papers and to my classroom.
I'm part of a lot of groups, and only one knows this part of my personality: the kind in the classroom. But they do not know the rest of my personality, unless they infer a lot about how I dressed. The boys I have dated longest in my lifetime knew me the least. My friends closest to me have known the most about me, but I only share certain parts of my life with me. Why? Because they can't be with me every hour of every day and each person (and activity) brings out a different part of my personality. And I love it like that. I love so much it's insane.
And if people in my life don't know everything that goes on-- neither the insiders or the outsiders, then in the scheme of a group setting, no one is ever going to know everything about a group of people whether they are regarding it as an insider or an outsider. Life and traditions are just too vast.
