DOUBLE POST!!!
Today is really a good day (:
Lecture for Childhood and Youth on Youth Values and Practice in The New Age was just so inspiring. Maybe because my awesome tutor lectured the 2nd half of lecture; and I tend to feel really inspired after tutorials with him, not just for the fact that he's charismatic and remind me fondly of one of my most inspiring teacher in JC, but also because he always make us relate theories to real life. Actually that's what the whole course is about anyway. Honestly am really glad to take this module because it affirms my reason for taking sociology in the first place.
Sociology was actually a discipline that came from philosophy. Simply started because the thinkers wanted to apply thoughts to society (thus social thoughts) and ask for change. For example Karl Marx's critique on Capitalism fuel revolutions...things like that. Sometimes we ought to take a step back and look at what we are studying and question ourselves our motivations to pursue what we pursue. Is it for change, no matter how minute, for the fact that we are unhappy with social injustice?
I know idealism is a dangerous thing. My trip to Cambodia in May taught me that and I think I only shared some of the hard truths I felt there with my CG while one other friend was privileged enough to read my thoughts and reflections from the trip after I'm back. However if we ever stop believing, there's just going to be -nothing-. And nothing is worse than doing something positive albeit almost useless I guess. However fear caused by social sanctions is very real, and that is something one have to try to overcome. The very least, study hard, earn money, and make sure one uses the money wisely; not fuel meaningless consumerism and materialism.
At the same time like what I've learnt from Anthropology this semester and from the lecture today, we have to recognize that our way of life may not be the best. It is easy to fall into the whole '1st world superiority' for such issues; certain degree of tactfulness and respect for indigenous culture is needed; a bottom-up approach.
I like the quote (:
ReplyDeleteNow thinking if I should save my last 2000 for Childhood & Youth instead of Social Inequalities, though I think I would enjoy both equally much.
hmm about anthro, I struggled with thinking of cultural relativism in terms of moral relativism in tutorial today - obviously, there are some beliefs that will come into conflict with mine. and some things, for faith reasons, I will not and cannot concede.
nonetheless, I still like the idea of taking a step back, considering the biases we may have, and then understanding that people DO do things differently (: