Graduates

This blog is a space to talk about theories in our personal lives. To discuss how we see the world in terms that are more specific than what we see on tv and what we say in passing. I want this blog to a place to post ideas about our personal philosophies.

Erin made a good point the other day. This time in our lives is more important than people think. Poeple includes us, and the time is "after college".

I think for most of us, independence (real independence) is an idea that we only started considering in college, and has only really been a life experience for a little over two years.

This is significant. For our entire lives we've traveled in tracks of other ideologies and values. We've used other people's definitions by necessity and lack of alternatives. We still do this, but we no longer really have to. The great adolescent dream of being without boundaries and managers is finally upon us!

Of course, we don't embrace such freedom. Freedom of that kind is limiting and endangering. We still assume other people's definitions, have managers, follow paths. We've graduated from the world of enforced conformity and into the world of voluntary conformity.

However, as many of us have felt for a long time, while conformity is valuable and necessary, it too is dangerous. Thoughtless conformity leaves us vulnerable to thoughtful manipulation. The dangerous element of both freedom and conformity is thoughtlessness.

I don't think we talk about theory enough as a culture. We as youths have become independent in an environment that nutrures independence more than most in history thanks to the information highway. However, information is not thoughtfulness. Information is also generalities, summaries, assumptions, biases, prejudices. I'm not sure philosophy has ever been popular, but I think philosophy and abstract theory is important to make sense of complicated things. And people do talk about philosophy. They call it values, principles, morales, standards. Yet all too often these things are not upheld, or even understood by the people who propose them. Of all things, globalization requires principles, standards and values. Being responsible in an environment of kelidoscopic backgrounds and perspectives means that we understand our ideas beyond annecdotes and generalities. We can't simply be confident with decisions by following our social compass. We are too aware of our own fallability and the influence of our subjective past.

I think it's high time we talked about our personal philosophies. We're becoming whole people and represent a real and valuable world perspective. Let's talk about that perspective. Lets define the terms that we use that are ambiguous. Let discuss why we do the things we do. Let's talk about how we see the world.