Global warming has been a big issue for a long time. We now are more accepted to the fact that if we keep going the way we are going, our planet may be damaged beyond repair. For many decades people believed global warming was a “joke” and many that spoke or did anything to address global warming were considered “quakes”. They are now respected but that doesn’t mean what they are doing by starting movements doesn’t end them up in some trouble. Bill McKibben is an environmental activist that started the 350.org website and organization with a few students from Middlebury Collge. They all had a common desire to change the global problems that we are facing. As McKibben states “There’s always stuff to be done and more of it all the time and that’s what movements look like.” (22:16) One of the biggest issues with people not wanting to accept or start something is because they think they are only one voice. I myself have this feeling. I also have a feeling of hopelessness when I see things like this video. I think when we all accept the fact that something like this is going on but it is so large that we can not do anything right now to fix it, a sense of hopelessness takes over. But as McKibben said, there is always stuff to do. This is similar to the change that Duhigg talks about and how he discusses that not just one person can make a difference. It is about who we know and the ties that we make or already have. It is also about starting somewhere and sometimes we have to fight for what we believe in. In that, we can change what is being done as Rosa Parks fought against the system saying that she needed to move to the back of the bus. Bill McKibben has been arrested many times for standing up for what he believed in. Sometimes that is what it takes.
Author: phussey (Page 5 of 6)
Duhigg expresses the importance of strong ties and weak ties. Explaining that they are both equally important but weak ties can be more impactful then strong ties. They all do need to work together in the end. Duhigg states that our weak ties are the people that would tell us about an opportunity that our strong ties wouldn’t. When we are in a certain “clique” we are already aware of what they know because we talk often. For our weak ties, we see them so infrequently that they may be able to tell us about an opportunity that we are otherwise unaware of. However, I believe that weak ties would not be anything without strong ties. Without strong ties, weak ties would not exist. Our strong ties connect us to the weak ties and they would be the first to be there if something happened. As Duhigg stated “people have no problem ignoring strangers’ injuries, but when a friend is insulted, our sense of outrage is enough”, this expresses that we would be more motivated to help a close friend than an acquaintance.
In the text overviewing Charles Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habit” many topics and stories were told but the main purpose it came back to was social change/ social habits. In society, we have people who make an impact in the community by being involved and being a member of society. Duhigg talks about social habit, “Social habits are what fill streets with protestors who may not know one another, who might be marching for different reasons, but who are all moving in the same direction.” (Page 87). This expresses the fact that no matter who we are or what we have done or haven’t done, we are all part of some connection in society. In society, we have strong and weak ties. Strong ties are your close friends and weak ties are acquaintances. At first, we all may think that strong ties are more important, but Duhigg contradicts that with the argument that weak ties are critical. When something happens our strong ties would know first and then the connection would end, but the weak ties are the people they know and someone I may have talked to once or twice. When we have acquaintances they extend our inner circle to make a much larger picture, but without strong ties, we would not have weak ties. They are all important in social change.
- Driving to camp on my mom’s bus
- A sense of nervousness
- walking into a college as a kid
- nervous where to go
- the smell of a gym
- talking to her, her being very nice
- playing games
- walking into the bathroom and seeing her again
- asking that big question
This story means so much because it changed the way I thought about people from other cultures and religions. I see so much hate in this world and it is for no reason. When we are all the same but may look different. As a child, I was brave enough to ask a question that may have offended another, but in fact, it changed me forever.
Why is racism still alive?
Can someone who has already made up their mind be changed?
How can we irrigate this forever?
How does audio play a role in the way this story is told?
The audio like in a movie, changes with the way the mood of the story is going. Due to the podcast only being something you listen to, the audio is important.
What parts of the podcast are particularly effective and why?
The part of the podcast that I found the most effective were the stories from people dealing with this discrimination and statistics which really gives you a perspective about how bad this issue is.
How does it compare to the more visual story we got from Martha Hall’s books?
Martha Hall’s books still showed pain but she expressed it in a different way, she funneled her pain into art which worked for her. These teens told their stories in hope that it will change the way people think about the LGBTQ community.
Some extra notes I toke:
- One of the girls that spoke came out as gay to her best friend and it did not go over well, her friends parents asked them to meet at Starbucks and one of her friends parents asked “why are you making this choice, you are hurting so many people you love, you are going to lose everyone you love”.
- People using the words “gay” or “faggot” in describing things they find worthless or stupid.
- Kids are afraid of losing their parents if they come out to them. We want our parents to be proud of us
- Parents don’t want their kids to be bullied so they want them to be straight.
- “being gay isn’t a condition” (Anne Hallward_
- 74% of gay or transgender teens report being verbally harassed
- A suicide hotline gets 45,000 calls every year
- 1/3 of transgender teens report being physically harmed
- 30% of LGBTQ teens attempt suicide
- “depression is a short road”
- The problem isn’t who they are, but how they are treated.
- “it’s terrible to feel like you don’t belong”
- Aiden’s mom said,” I don’t feel like I lost a child, I feel like I have gained an amazing son”
- When schools create GSTA, it actual helps straight boys more than the LGBTQ community due to the number of kids that are picked on for people thinking they are gay.
When I first started the video on Martha Hall, my first thought was how her books were any different than every other book in a library, but when she toke one about and talked about it, I thought they were definitely unique and not like any book I had ever seen. The way she made the books to not only tell her story but make them artistic which is what she loved, made them very special. After hearing her story than finding out that she passed away made me sad. She talked more about how she overcame cancer and used those books to express how she was feeling. Coming into class the next day, I thought we were only going to talk about the books but they were there to look at and read. I have to admit I was VERY excited to see them for myself and having the thought that they were ORIGINAL and there was nothing else like it in the world was surreal. She only spoke about two books in the video but seeing her other books spoke more then I thought they would. There was one in particular that seemed as if it had a stronger meaning then just to talk about her cancer. The book looked like a medical book about what to expect with her diagnosis, but the book was not highlighted or written on as you may think, it was ripped and stappled many times, there were even pages sewn together. Martha is not around for us to ask her what this meant but I think she was putting her pain into this book and showing how she really felt without having to write it. Some pages were even ripped, then patched with a bandage. Again, there was so much meaning in that book and in all of her books. I am very glad that her legacy is able to live on through those books and I am honored that I was able to see them.
Question: How can social cohesion heal social stigma?
Possible answers: People working together can lead to people’s first impressions changing. Once people have a stereotype in there head, it is hard for people to think otherwise. Or social cohesion can become so strong that people don’t just think about there first thought, but have an open mind always when meeting someone new. Could social stigma be to powerful, an therefore social cohesion may not be able to help stop judgement. If social cohesion is strong enough, people wont think about race, religion, sex, etc. Do first impression’s control social stigma? First impressions may lead to social stigma, but sometimes people develop stereotypes for people they have never meet. What kind of platform would work for everyone, and do stories work for everyone. When would stories make it better or worse? Some people may reach to stories different, in a bad or good way or not at all. Some stories people may just be able to relate to but not get anything from them. Can someone be to old to be persuaded to change there mind set.
Position: Social stigma is very powerful, it can control people to do unthinkable things because it is what they heard and that is all they know. That is why racism is so powerful, people have “heard” that someone did something horrible so it means that anyone that skin color, or religion is evil. For example, 9/11, that was an absolute horrifying day and many people lost there lives because of terrorists. Now the after math to that lead to social stigma, anyone who looked like those terrorists are instantly thought of as terrorists. I have seen in many cases where we have bombed, during war, places where specific bad people live, but what about civilians who are just trying to live there lives. Just because one person or a group of people did something, does not make there whole culture responsible. Social cohesion can play a huge part when we hear stories about innocent people being caught in the cross fire for the life of one person. Hearing stories about what that was like, could help people see from the other side, from where the social stigma is.
Thesis: Age can be a big factor in social cohesion, but still making a platform for people to be able to reach out to, may impact more people then we think.
Social cohesion is the ability for society to work together to better the world and so that we will prosper in that world. When anyone has a concern or something troubling in there life, some share and some keep it bottled up. Both ways have good and bad about them, when you bottle problems up, it may cause you anxiety or depression, but if you share your concerns, people might judge you. But what if those stories could change the way people think, so that no one can ever feel like anything to do with mental illness, sexuality, etc could be accepted and change the way people think. That is exactly what Anne Hallward wanted to do with the Safe Space Radio, she wanted to give people a platform to share there silent stories. I listened to a little bit of a few of the stories and it sounds like everyone that was sharing there stories, had been waiting for a platform like this. Sometimes it feels better to get a story out there. I do think this will help with social cohesion, I think things like the Safe Space radio will allow people to know that they are not alone. On story in specific was about autism and how Ellen Jennings son was having seizures and showing signs of autism but she was called a refrigerator mom by her sons doctor, but she was right when she thought something was wrong but because of that delay in his diagnosis, he missed out on crucial steps in development. But by her sharing this story, others may hear it that are going through the same thing and instead of just excepting that because he is the doctor, they may fight back more and not except no for an answer. Change can only occur if we know what the issue is, when we share our stories that makes people think twice about why that happened and how we change change to better the world.
AIDS-
- The social stigma around a false epidemic
- Influences dealing with social stigma
- Lets talk about the truth
- When is the right time to panic
Mental Health
- The pressure of life
- Stress leads to hiding
- Shame with mental health
Racism
- We all look the same on the inside, why should the outside matter.
- When did the color of our skin define us?
- How long will racism still be a thing?
Many things result in something being blown way out of proportion, could social stigma be the cause behind this? Whenever something “hits the news”, most of the time if it is severe enough, people tend to panic as there first instinct, but most of the time the news or wherever you read the news is making it sound worse the it actually is. Social stigma is when society creates a normal for reacting to certain situation, or will create a normal way to react to something. For example, when AIDS became an “epidemic”, and people didn’t want to touch or even walk with someone with AIDS, it was because they didn’t understand it and therefore heard it was a terrible disease and people panicked. People thought, if we ignore them, they will go away, or like people said in Helen Epstein’s text, “out of sight, out of mind” (page 109). Social stigma usually relate to gender, race, culture, etc. and it is hard for most people to shy away from that because a lot of people do it and it sometimes becomes “the normal”. Social stigma makes us turn on people because they may have something affecting them. People, like with AIDS thought instantly that it was contagious, but in fact it isn’t. OR they thought it was a “gay” disease, when in fact AIDS can also be contracted through blood. Helen Epstein’s text talked a lot about this and how she saw these organizations getting people talking about it and not treat anyone infected like they have the plague. Social stigma seems to always do more harm then good, people when they hear about something like this need to look it up and do more research then just what they hear from an article on facebook (which can be VERY false). Everyone deserves to be treated fair, no matter if they are sick, or have a different skin color, we were all created equal and should be treated that way.
