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10/02/2003 08:40:00 AM | Meredith comment turned post once again... hi sarah. i would love to meet you sometime. This is from a previous comment from Graham: --not to attack Mer and intimidate her from participating in this enlightened discourse but... "women are more level-headed about these things" and in the same post you talk about a strap on peeing device.-- Don't worry, Graham. Im not intimidated. and i have actually used the strap-on-peeing device. it comes in handy in the woods, and apparently, here on freedartmouth as well. All I meant by the level-headed comment (whcih, i admit was probably the wrong choice of words because i am rarely level-headed about anything) is exactly what i said-- i dont unabashedly subscribe to one side or the other of a political debate. i prefer to sit back and follow a discussion passively, because i know that if its men arguing, their opinions will most likely not be swayed. however, i certainly see the value in debating-- it strengthen's one's mental agility etc... however, I think politics are like sports. Here's why: because you guys pick a political team (sometiemes, but not always, as randomly a sports team), and stick with it. A lot of it is about persona-- (especially recently) "i want to be identified with such and such a political candidate etc... and so I think they're right no matter what." Its also a lot like war or religious fundamentalism. but that is a whole other story. i do think that these political debates you have on freedartmouth could easily be analyzed through the lens of homosocial theory. basically, this forum serves as yet another outlet for males to bond with each other over their two favorite things-- war and females (though females don't come up that much except to make insulting comments about CMB in a thong. on a side note, i hear thongs can be quite liberating, though i dont know from experience). by war i obviously don't mean war, but i mean this kind of semi-antagonistic banter that goes on. i admire the fact that most of the time it is very intellectual and informative (though, i found it extremely hilarious that the kerry-dean rivalry that so flagrantly showed itself in the last presidential debate was also mirrored in the graham-janos debate here at dartmouth). but this kind of political rivalry is obviously nothing new... a similar kind of male banter is found in the opening scenes of Romeo and Juliet. To take another tack, at the end of the last presidential debate, some interesting points were raised-- the candidates are basically on the same side of the playing field. I tend to agree with the Kooch and Brother Sharpton on this issue-- just as with the dem candidates, the vast majority of the people who blog on freedartmouth are actually on the same team, and don't really have such radically differing opinions on the larger issues. on a macrocosmic, and slightly sensational scale, michael moore and others have commented on how the bush family and the hussein family are not all that different. nepotism, fundamentalism, etc..--(i can feel it in my bones that i'm going to get slammed for this one). when i read this blog, though, i tend to agree with most things that are said, in some capacity. and maybe the level-headed person lurking somewhere deep inside of me would prefer not to worry my pretty little head over the details. on another sidenote, i thought that CMB was far and away the most eloquent of the 10 candidates. she thought up her responses on the spot and managed to avoid sounding like a tape recorder mindlessly yet emphatically filling here speeches with political cliches, or like a high school teenager arguing about sports statistics. sadly, perhaps the reason why there are only 632 supporters registered on her website and only 5 supporters in the Leb/Hanover area is because she doesn't look good in a thong. (i dont know how kerry or dean would stack up) if a candidate isn't loud, in this day and age, they probably won't be heard. yet i agreed with CMB's policies-- universal healthcare, but also an emphasis on the need to finish what we've started in iraq (which the Kooch opposes). why is it that clark, who says he will lay out his economic adgenda in a few weeks, is neck-and-neck with dean, when many people can't even seem to find any concrete facts on his candidacy? well, that's enough from me for now. i'm sure i'll regret this later in the day. perma link |
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