I get irrated at things and people rather easily when I am in a group setting , espically when I feel that my opinion is not the same as the majorities. I normally will try to express my opinion and share my thoughts about twice, and then give up and sit in the group for the rest of the time making faces (often by raising eyebrows at people who I find to be “silly” ).

This is what occurred during our meeting on Friday. People believe that the stadium is a waste. I have no idea if it is a good idea or not. I will be honest, I didn’t research this stadium and I have not researched “why the Verizon center is the fluke in the mix”.

What occurred to me is this…. You cannot expect a team with no real history to have a history. Maybe in 30 years they will… they will get rid of the statues in the front and put up statues of their greats. Maybe they will tear down the signs and posters highlighting famous DC sports stars, and famous baseball stars and instead have it of just their greats. But at this point, there would simply be a pretty boring wall of history (with a ton of empty space) if we just went with what the DC nationals history is.

People also thought it was redicilous to have so many expensive corporate suites and found it to say something about the team that there were so many different options for people besides watching baseball (like going to the arcade or going to a fun bar type place). The Yankees got more box seating when they expanded their stadium and now have a kids fun area.

All in all, I think we need to give this stadium time. Teams don’t get good overnight. (I mean the Yankess did… but that’s a different story)

Choices in Identity

All the talk of identity this week has made me reflect on the identities people choose for themselves, particularly what they prioritize. I'm female. I'm (as of today) nineteen years old, although most people tell me I look younger. I'm Jewish. I'm unusually short and a brunette. I enjoy reading and learning, particularly about politics and history. I'm an American University student. But if someone asked me who I am, which one of these things would come to mind first? Interesting, the first thing that comes to my mind wouldn't necessarily be what I chose to say. Being unusually short is a very important part of my identity, but I don't think that's something I'd mention if someone asked me to tell them a little bit about myself. Of course, it depends on the audience. I probably wouldn't want to emphasize my Jewish identity to a fundamentalist Christian if my goal was to get into their good graces. In a situation where I wanted to be taken seriously in a professional environment, I would want to deemphasize my age and try to make people focus on my knowledge.

Thinking along these lines has made me someone more inclined to believe Goffman's arguments, although I still feel that his viewpoint is overly cynical. There's a difference between trying to act appropriately for the situation and being outright deceptive. I think that a lot of behavior that Goffman would characterize as a "performance" is just people utilizing common sense and realizing different behaviors are appropriate in different situations. This is part of the natural process of growing up. Some people may take it a step too far and create "fronts" but I don't think that this is the norm.

What is An Identity?

While discussing the concept of identity this past week, it occurred to me how much more of a complex idea identity really is. So many people throw the word around casually, but when asked to define it, it was a much harder task than I would have predicted. In terms of one’s personal identity, I came to the conclusion that it is ever changing and never definite as it relies on numerous dependent factors. When asked what my identity was four years ago, I most likely would have rattled off some characteristics about myself that were exceedingly obvious. Traits like girl, fourteen-year old, freshman in high school, brunette, and short would have come to mind and my identity would have been minimized to reflect only surface level traits about myself. Now phrases such as eighteen-year old, freshman in college, Jewish, undecided, and independent come to mind. While some of these traits still do not reflect who I am in more depth, they do prove that one’s identity can change over time. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity/

I also found it interesting which descriptions came to people’s minds first. Generally, people either started with obvious traits that others were aware of, or traits that made them unique. For example, I heard Günperi tell a group that one of the first things she would tell someone when describing her identity was that she was originally from Cyprus. However, after being asked if she was in Cyprus and was asked the same question, she said that she would probably state her political affiliation instead. I found this interesting that perhaps where someone is and who is asking can impact the specific identity that person chooses to portray.

Reflection one: National's Stadium

I would like to talk about how I feel on the Nationals Ball Park for my reflection. To go right to the point, I feel that given time (and a much better team) the ballpark will be a success. People in D.C. are skeptical right now, and they should be. It is a new team to the area, it is using the history of all baseball in the area to link itself to the community, and it is in LAST place. So yeah, right now, it is not going to seem as though it is helping the area. Yet, once this economy repairs itself (optimistic right?) the area around the ball park is expected to grow exponentially. There are shops and buildings just waiting to be built! It’s basically just bidding its time.
Several concerns were thought up about the ball park. To list them, people feel it cost the city to much money to build and it has yet to start to affect the area. Well, since reading my College Writing book I have learned that it is good to address everything against your argument. So here I go. It did cost a lot of money. 693 million dollars in tax payer’s money to be exact. (http://www.jdland.com/dc/stadium.cfm) But, if the area of the Capital River Front BID can use this to build up its economy, than the stadium will be well worth the money. It has yet to become affect the area significantly because of the economy not picking up, however when the shops come in, I feel it will result in a better area, more jobs, and better area. I also want to point out that in our group, except for one person who abstained from the vote, the decision of if it was worth building the field was divided along gender lines. The boys supported the stadium, and the girls did not. I don’t know why, but I thought it was very interesting.

Why does everything in the world seem to be so cynical???

Everything I read, see, experience, and/or otherwise absorb in the past two days seems to be so cynical. First, Goffman. Then, realism in international relations. The cynicism seems even to extend to one of my favorite tv shows, La Señora (http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20090622/senora-capitulo/530398.shtml). The world around me really is trying to tell me to let go of my perennial optimism. Is it really true that there is no place in the world for idealism and a little bit of hope? Even my ipod has decided to play every depressing song on its normally very chipper hardrive, but at least I can hit the next button.

Ok, I'm going to start with Goffman. Goffman asserts that all human action and interaction are performances. This is extremely disturbing in so many ways. First, I would hope that 99% of people do not go in to any situation thinking "How should I perform to give the correct impression? Well, I must not be myself or let any socially undesirable part of me be revealed?". This is what Goffman implies that everyone does. He does not suggest once in the entire 255 pages of his theory that human interaction could possibly be genuine. Although many of Goffman;s observations are insightful to one studying sociology, he reduces people to manipulative and selfish creatures. This is what is so cynical about Goffman; he views all of us as fake. Basically Goffman's view of the world is just cynical.

I think what really drove home the idea that the world was saying "Tonks, give up and be realistic" was my reading for world politics. As I read Morgenthau's "Six Principles of Political Realism", I was shocked how according to realism every state is motivated by power. To me this idea is just about as cynical as you can get. I'll admit that I am an idealist and that I hope that every state would be motivated not just by a desire for more power. I am not naive so I do recognize that a lot of what happen is in international relations is a result of the quest for more power, but I also think that there are other motives such as community, altruism, and a basic common part of human learning that tempers self interest with compassion and common sense. This reading was completely depressing and made me wonder if I actually wanted to be a diplomat. I recovered when I realized that all theories of IR are not realism. But it did really make me think about how cynical we are as a society.

Finally, La Señora just was the last thing that I needed to convince me that the world is quite cynical. The basic storyline is that a woman is married to the man that killed her father. It is set in 1920s in Spain. She is trapped in her marriage and is trying to escape through an annulment. The show is cynical because basically anyone who is a man with money no matter his motives can have anything done, even through the Catholic church. It was the perfect way to continue the cynicism of Goffman and realism.

And to end a completely random clip from one of my other favorite tv shows, Cuentame Como Paso, and it is not cynical at all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DQm85m44hM

Friday August 28 - Internet and Class Log

Internet Log

Google - Who built Nationals Ball Park, who built and Navy Yard Metro Station.

AIM

L is available (10:29:46 AM)
"S" (10:29:45 AM): Identity - How you and others view and present yourself as well as your internal believe system that leads you on your path.

Google - Opposite of intrinsic (needed to find out if we could use the word extrinsic in our definition of identity)

Fun Fact - Extrinsic is a word!

Google- seersucker suit

Blogger - Kept an Internet and Class Log

Funerals - Performance or Not?

Goffman’s treatment is disrespectful in comparison to the way my family views funeral services. To compare someone who has just passed as someone who is essentially faking it and if they do not their role properly within the show, have a negative impact on the performance is a disturbing idea.

In my mind, the purpose of a funeral is to pay respect for the one who has died in a respectful manner by sharing the day with others who cared for the person and remembering positive experiences in order to fully celebrate their life. The way that Goffman describes a funeral as a performance in which the deceased is the main performer implies that the event is a much more positive occurrence than it is thought of for most families. This performance implies also that its sole purpose is to entertain the audience, in this example, the guests.

When sitting shiva for my great aunt this past summer, I was reminded of the significance of funerals. I tried to put myself in other people’s places to try to understand the emotions other relatives were experiencing. How her son, her husband, and her sister may have felt. After thinking about this in relation to Goffman’s metaphor I find it insulting because from past experiences and within my family, funerals are taken very seriously because it is one of the last times to formally cherish the deceased’s contributions and life as whole.

However, on the other hand, I was also reminded of Irish traditions in terms of their wakes. Although burials of loved ones are often somber events, the Irish often treat the event more as a party with a lot of food and drinks present. A lot of the guests are usually drunk by the end of the celebration and some families even dress the corpse in formal clothing and find a way to support the body to a standing position to involve them in the party. This cultural example most closely relates to Goffman’s illustration of a funeral being a performance and a predominantly positive gathering.

http://www.yourirish.com/traditional-irish-wakes.htm

Goffman's controversial statment

According to Erving Goffman, most events involving interaction between people is a performance. It would only make sense for Goffman to use many different events as examples of this. However, that does not mean that Goffman was not being disrespectful at the same time. Rereading this paragraph, I can sense almost a dry humor here as Goffman describes this example. This humor is found in his statement that, “…since the star of the show must stay in character as someone who is in a deep sleep…” This humor can be considered insensitive, and can strike anybody the wrong way, however, the rest of the example does serve to prove a good point. In my opinion, the statement is not offensive, because let’s face it, in the context of what Goffman is explaining, it is true.

Goffman did get to a point in his example. I have alter-served many funerals before at my church. His version of how people act is correct. The collective group of people do look like they are in mourning, because let’s face it, they are in mourning! . Yes, some of the audience is probably acting along with the funeral director. They may only be there for their friends, and not affected by this man’s death in the least. And yes, he is right that the deceased person would not be running the show. Although this is known by most people, as I said earlier, he probably states this as a way of dry humor. The funeral director, or undertaker, would be running the process of the wake, funeral, and burial. This person does act solemn around the family, even though he probably is not because of his exposure to death. He is most likely running other funerals also. So yes, Goffman does give us a good example and gets his point across. Based on my experience with funerals, everything Goffman is stating is true. And yes, some of the audience is probably acting along with the funeral director. They may only be there for their friends, and not affected by this man’s death in the least.

Goffman and His "Performance Funeral"

Goffman's book focuses on the idea that life is a performance and that everyone of us is a performer. His example of of a funeral as a performance is very odd and disturbing on a personal level, but yet at the same time the idea that most social rituals such as a funerals are performances makes sense.

My first reaction to the ideas that a funeral is a performance was horror. How could Goffman be suggesting that something so solemn and personal as a funeral is a performance? Funerals are so embedded into the grieving process that it would seem as if Goffman is able to be a completely objective and detached observer. Goffman would almost have to be a purely analytical person to not consider the emotions that people experience during a funeral. Personally, I have been four funerals in the past two years. I found each of them very painful and not at all to be a performance. The tears I saw were genuine and those who comforted the family were sincere. I remember how I watched two mothers in my high school bury their daughters and my classmates. When I think about my experiences with funerals, I wonder if Goffman had really experienced a funeral first hand, and not just as an objective observer. My first reaction to Goffman's funeral example was that is was disrespectful and took away some of the solemnity of the occasion.

But when I began to think about Goffman's example of the funeral in a critical manner, I realized that Goffman actually had a point about social rituals that are embedded into our society. Goffman's examples throughout the introduction and first two chapters are all disrespectful, but they are reveling about how society and people act an present themselves. Goffman argues that social rituals are performance. He is right. How many social functions have I been to where the purpose is to put on a show. All the political cocktail parties, photo ops, and even funerals are performances meant to give a specific impression. This is exactly what Goffman is talking about. Over and over again he discusses how everyone is a performer and part of a performance. I have always wondered why funerals have been made into such big social events. I understand that someone has died, but does the family really need to be with so many people to grieve. At the same funerals I have attended when I had lost classmates, I have seen mothers that all they want to do is be left alone. Why does society insist on these huge showings of grief when it may not even be helpful? Goffman reveals something very interesting about human behavior; he understands that humans are showy and loud often for no important reason and often for the very wrong reason.

Overall, I thought Goffman's example of the funeral was disrespectful and yet enlightening. It is interesting to examine how many of our common social ritual are just that, truly rituals.

On funerals...

I have somehow managed to go through eighteen years of life without ever personally attending a funeral, which makes this question a little bit difficult for me. That said, I feel that Goffman's view of funerals is, characteristically, overly cynical. Maybe it is because I grew up in a household where everyone tended to be honest about their feelings and intentions, but I don't share Goffman's opinion that everyone is performing and putting up a "front" whenever they are dealing with other people. While I'm sure that a certain percentage of the population behaves this way constantly, and almost everyone at least occasionally, I hope that it's not overly idealistic to believe that most people are generally honest.

In the case of a funeral, some degree of dishonesty (pretending to be more upset than one actually is) is acceptable and probably even a good idea, but I would think that unless one actively disliked the deceased person the general atmosphere of morning would generate fairly organic feelings of grief even if one was relatively indifferent to the person when he or she was alive. Additionally, if one is friendly with any of the family members or close friends of the deceased, they should at least be grieved to see their friends in pain.

Considering this, I'd have to conclude that Goffman's view of funerals was in fact somewhat disrespectful. While funerals obviously don't matter that much to the deceased person, they are often very important to their loved ones and can be a part of the healing process (or so I've been told.) Viewing funerals as just another cynical performance does seem to detract from the deep meaning that they have for many people.

Number one..... timeee is running out

Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, p. 101:

Is Goffman's treatment of this and other social occasions revealing, or
disrespectful? http://profptj.blogspot.com/

---Goffman knows his stuff. For the family and the close friends of the loved one.... this play is real. But for everyone else at a funeral, this event is just a highly emotional play.

Players in this play dress in coustume- in this case black tends to be the norm. They drive in the car laughing and giggling, listen to the car radio and consider how terrible "Sally" (the wife of the deceased) must feel. They feel bad, but sad? Once they get out of the car and as Goffman describes it; their setting changes- "A setting tends to stay put, geographically speak, so that those who would use a paticular setting.... cannot do so until they have brought themselves to the scene." (Goffman 22). The main act begins.

The players fronts now change, eye contact tends to be avoided, faces fill with sorrow, and sadness looms in the air.

This narration is so well rehearsed that as Goffman describes even the hearse driver knows his role and knows he must act somber - he has no connection to this person, and atleast to me... he has no reason to be sad for this death more then any other death he reads about in the newspaper.

I attended one funeral when I was with the fire department at age 17. I went because a member's child had died. I remember the ride in the fire truck vividly. The men cursed at each other, joked about who was doing what job when it came time to clean up and laughed the whole way. But the second that firetruck came to rest, the men were as somber as can be.

Goffman's anylsis is perfect. Funerals are just one more type of social event that are played and acted out.

It migh be upsetting that even a funeral is an act in life, but.... The Truth is- All the world is a stage- even a funeral.

See song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXI6zIOvKS4&feature=related (number one... time is running out by apollo 4400)

Sasafras

just testing this bad boy out....