post tenebras lux

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Started law school a couple of weeks ago. It was kinda weird, felt like first year uni all over again... which felt like the first year of high school... which felt like the first day of school. Feeling isolated and not really knowing anyone, wondering if the person next to you will want to talk to you or rather speak to the other person next to them. Quite interesting watching the social dynamics of people in uncomfortable situations. Personally, i think i freak out a bit and try too hard. You know, that person who talks about useless stuff until you're suddenly left with uncomfortable silence. That said, i did meet someone who had some fully interesting ideas and opinion's, i think she was a feminist! (Haha, read into that what you will).

Talked about the current social structure and what implications it had for women and men in the roles they played. She put forward that all "gender roles" are socially constructed and need to be changed to allow the individual to grow and develop. I asked her if there were inherent differences between men and women, to which she replied not really, aside from the obvious physical differences. We kinda had to stop there 'cause we were in a lecture at the time...

But it made me think about the way i think, and what the basis may be for any of my decisions. To what extent is that controlled or at least affected by the stereotypes and societal norms that have been portrayed in a society dominated largely by white anglo-saxon males.

And then i was thinking, what does that mean for us now? Like, if we know that a lot of our perceptions are based on biased world views, how are we to legitimately and freely form our world views? The Bible provides important general guidelines, but the tiny things like, "how macho are guys supposed to be" and "to what extent should consideration of the maternal role of women play in their career progression" and stuff like "political correctness"... even Christians differ in their opinions about these things. And contrary to the comment, "it doesn't really matter dont be anal Gavin", which im guessing many of you are thinking, if it matters to the people out there who we're trying to tell the Gospel to, then it becomes imperative we consider the issues as well. I think so anyway...

It continues to amaze me how much apathy has become common place in the "modern persons" philosophy. The saviour of individualism and much trumped up intellectual trophy of post-modernism has watered down any desire to know the truth about the way things are. Too many people that I've spoken to havent thought about, or even worse, dont care about, the "reason" for things... whether it be crazy ontological questions about human existence or personal questions like, "what is the purpose of relationships". Wongo posted on his blog something about relationships which i found quite challenging and helpful. It made me question why i have the friends i have and to what extent it was merely a selfish exercise for self-satisfaction.

In my real property tutorial, one of the readings was about the nature of property and what theories explained its presence in modern society. One of the theories cited property as the means for the attainment of subjectivity through intersubjectivity. I think she meant that each individual starts off as homogenous, or without identity, and the way we attain this uniqueness, or subjectivity, is interaction with other individuals who desire the same subjectivity. Property is the means by which we interact. So im wondering, can that be said about friendship? Do we only have the friends we have because we believe it says something about us? Is it a purely selfish exercise?

Bah. And then i wondering, if you can go through life and not worry about all these issues, is that such a bad thing? Am i being way to judgemental about the way other people think? Am i imposing what i think on others? I guess you dont have to think about this kinda stuff... but it helps explain so much about people, about art and music and films...

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