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Page 5 of 6
Shelly Merry
I always hate writing these, kind of, “this I believe” statements, where I banter on for five hundred words about what the seemingly all knowing me truly believes. Because quite frankly I’m just a college student and my ideas and beliefs have changed dramatically since my freshman year, and hopefully will continue to change and develop in the years to come. So to write what I believe in today may not be what I believe in tomorrow and definitely isn’t what I believed in yesterday. However, I do feel that in order to have evolving beliefs or ideas one much be observant to the world around them. In order to know how you actually feel about a particular thing or issue, you must be conscious of its past, what it symbolizes in society, its benefits and detriments, what it potentially perpetuates, and/or a number of other things. Basically, you must see the politics behind whatever it is you are observing.
Take the closest object to the right of this paper you are reading for instance: does it have any societal significance at surface value? Of course not, it’s probably just a whatever that you use for whatever to make your life more or less convenient. But think about it a little further, look beyond what its functions are or what it’s made out of or how it betters or ruins your life. Where did it come from, who made this object, how does it affect that individual; when advertised who does it target and who does it affect? Odds are, some how, it comes down to a class, race, or sex issue. Everything is political in some way, and (I believe) everything comes down to the oppression of one of those three categories of a class, race, or sex issue which in turn reflect a relation of power and dominance within society. -g
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