Week 4 Post Blog

"The Plight of the Individual" 

or 

"How Courtney has been Driving Herself Crazy Trying to Understand Interests and Ideas"

First, I am so very glad that we spent a second week on interests and ideas.  While I am sure that I have still not fully grasped all the inner workings of these concepts, I feel slightly more prepared to speak on it in the future.  So a huge thank you my classmates for helping shed light on these elusive subjects.  The two by two we discussed on Tuesday seemed unhelpful at first, but after going through one piece at a time, I am more comfortable with the material. And today, I would like to recap some of what I learned and what questions it created in my mind. 

Professor Shirk mentioned that one way to view the two by two was by considering the top two blocks as “nurture” and the bottom two blocks as “nature” when thinking about the development and implementation of interests and ideas.  While he cautioned us not to draw too much from this parallel, I found the mental visual extremely helpful.   Taking it back one step, I think maybe we can more safely say that the top two blocks may be considered integration and the bottom two construction?  With impermeable autonomy and attunement, we see actors working together within themselves to achieve goals and promote interests.  With permeable autonomy and attunement, we see actors shaping and molding those within their societies and communities to reach those same goals and interest. 

I know we are not supposed to necessarily be thinking about how this relates to individuals as much as states and actors and such, but I just can’t seem to help it.  The plight of the individual is to observe and be inundated with all of the ideas and interests around them and then decide for themselves through “gut feelings” or strategic calculations what right looks like.  Talk about a hard decision.  I turn on the TV or get on Facebook and everybody and their mother’s ideas and interests bombards me.  What if I choose the wrong one?  If I used my gut feeling, does that make it right for me?  What affect does my choice have on other people?  Is there a way to determine right and wrong?  These questions plague me on a daily basis.  **If anything or everything I said is just completely wrong and way out in left field, feel free to let me know in the comments, and then point me in the right direction.  I will not be offended at all.  These past two weeks have been a struggle intellectually, but I am thankful for the challenge!