Growing up my dad worked full time as a teacher, wrestling coach, and football coach. My mom had the same hectic schedule. She worked full time and was back in school for her masters during my early childhood. Thus they weren't around much. Most of my childhood was spent at a babysitters, in the wrestling room or on the football field. I always had someone making sure I didn't get into too much trouble but it was always someone different. My dad's newest TA, a babysitter, an office aid, some random athlete...you name it. That's not to say there weren't constants out of them all, but I learned to listen to anyone who was put in charge and rely emotionally on close to no one (with the exception of my parents).
I'm not saying this to make you feel bad or to imply that I had some sort of horrible childhood. I actually had an amazing childhood. My dad's office in the wrestling room was a giant playground for me, I made tons of friends (most of them my dad's coworkers and students), and had a chance to learn how to have fun on my own. But I do want to give some sort of background as to what my childhood was like so I can better explain why i am the way I am today.
I am strangely independent for my age. Even as a young child I liked working on projects by myself (forget groups), I was fine taking charge of situations, I did what I wanted (which usually resulted in a grounding), and so on. This independence continued on through my adolescence. I was always on some sort of sport's team or another so I was hardly home...just like my parents. We were always doing something and real family time was rare. We had a great family life however. I never doubted my parent's love for me or that they would be there if I needed them...I just hardly ever needed them. It was a good life. Also, as the oldest, I took on new responsibility and I thus a little more independence.
As I grew older my desire for independence didn't wane. My first boyfriend went to another school and I was lucky if I saw him once a week. For most sixteen year old girl's this would be unacceptable, but for me it was what I considered normal. I didn't need to see him everyday...hell I didn't even need to talk to him everyday. We broke up about a month into the whole thing because "we didn't spend enough time together." I was hurt but as a whole my main thought was "what a pansy." I needed a guy who could handle being on his own.
My next boyfriend was much better. We survived nearly a whole year on once a week visits. He understood that I had commitments. But still he didn't work out quite the way I wanted him to....I was leaving for college and I wanted to be single. He, however, saw some sort of marriage in our future. I, at eighteen, did not see marriage as a good thing...I saw it as more of an imprisonment. The next relationship took things even further. I dated a guy who lived 803 miles away and went to school 615 miles away. I had all the independence I could want. But unfortunately this gave him ample independence which he took the time to abuse...by cheating...so that relationship ended.
Not that you needed to know all of my dating history but I feel as though these relationships illustrate how much I love my independence. Even my best friends since age thirteen have gone to different schools. I need relationships but I don't need someone there twenty-four/seven. This has been the case more so since I left for college. I have lived on my own since I was eighteen. Independent in every way except financially (and lets face it being a full time student and financially independent with no college degree is near impossible).
Ok so now down to the so what. I am independent. I don't need someone there all the time, but when my boyfriend told me he might be moving out of state for college I died a little inside. While he was up here this weekend we were kissing and I had to leave the room to cry. I have never done that before! Had to cry because I realized this guy that I could potentially fall in love with wouldn't be there in a year. Normally I just say "Ok...this sucks but it will be alright. Suck it up and move on."
I am becoming more and more emotionally dependent on him the longer we date and its starting to scare me. I've been sad when I break up with boyfriends before but its more because of the rejection factor or guilt. I've never cried for a true sense of loss. Sometime loss might be part of my tears, but it is never the whole reason. But this weekend I was in the bathroom crying over a potential loss...I mean I hadn't even lost him yet.
Right after I returned to the room and tried to shut down, to push him away...but I couldn't. I ended up telling him exactly how I felt and he said the one thing I needed to hear more than anything. He told me that this sadness wasn't something that I needed to bear on my own. This was something that I could share with him. He said that I could depend on him to be there for me and help me through anything.
At that point I had already typed the first half of this blog entry so I had already thought about my independence and where I want him to fit into it. I didn't want to feel hurt and I didn't want to feel like I was losing him when he left...but at the same time I wasn't ready to give him up. I wanted...I want...to depend on him. I want him to depend on me. I don't want to stand on my own right now. I trust him and I want him to be a part of my life...but still I find myself pushing away...the fear of losing him and having my heart broken threatens to take over from time to time.
How often do we do that? We find something we want but then we see the potential loss so we push away. We walk away from an opportunity to have something great just for the fear of what may happen to that something in the future. Its like if we let ourselves love it too much it will just leave...
Well I don't know about you but I'm sick of walking away from something great just because of some fear of some maybe or what if. If we let ourselves be ruled by this fear then we will for sure, without a doubt have missed out on anything great we could of possibly had. This silly little girl is going to keep going and keep falling for this guy even if he is just going to be gone...I mean no risk, no reward right?
April 11, 2011
April 7, 2011
Dehumanization and "otherization"
I've been doing debate for nine years now. I have always loved it and thought it was the perfect way to persuade people to care about things I thought were important. Yet within the last two years I have been disillusioned. Constantly reading about the problems of the world and outlining impacts to real or potential situations can start to desensitize any individual to these situations.
For example, last tournament I was told that just saying dehumanization was an impact was not enough. I needed to explain why dehumanization was bad. In another round I needed to better link dehumanization to otherization. I was confused by this. Wasn't the thought that making someone's life worth less bad enough? Why did I need to explain why that was so bad? In addition to fully impact the empirics of the situation would take ten minutes in and of itself. This is due to the fact the people are seriously mislead when it come to the Holocaust and the realities of genocide in our modern world. If you site the example of Hitler's Nazi Germany as an empirical example of the effects of dehumanization most will naively wave you off as melodramatic. This is because nothing even remotely close to that would ever happen again, especially in the United States of America...or would it?
For all those who want me to internalize the impacts of dehumanization and "otherization" this is for you.
In 1915 an unknown amount of Armenians were killing during the Turkish process of ethnic cleansing. The number is still unknown due to the fact that the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge that such a genocide ever happened. During World War two millions of Jews and other "undesirables" were systematically murdered. In 1944 thousands of undesirable minorities died during the soviet's forced deportation. After World War II thousands of Germans were killed and many more displaced in their expulsion from Poland and Czechoslovakia in an attempt to exact "justified" revenge. Again in the 1990's there was an attempt to purify a nation within the Yugoslavian wars. These are just a few select examples of genocide and ethnic cleansing within the twentieth century alone and, even then, these cases are limited to Europe.
Obviously the problem of ethnic cleansing, genocide, dehumanization, and otherization is a modern problem (as modern as the 1990's in the "civilized" world). But where does this dehumanization link in. Why does it matter if we put people in this category of "other"? Isn't it a long leap from other to murder? Sadly the leap is not that big. I'm going to focus mostly on the Nazi extermination of the Jews because this is the genocide most are familiar with, but do not think that this is the only case you can apply this link to.
Genocides do not start as mass killings of one peoples group. They start smaller and grow. Hitler began with the thought that Jews needed to be removed from Germany, contrary to common belief he did not begin by advocating the execution of Jews (although it might be be safe to say he would not have morned a Jewish death). Prior to the concentration camps, the death camps, the death buses, and the Jewish Ghettos there was the otherization of Jews. This type of sentiment was not centered in Germany. Anti-Semitic thought was popular across Europe and into the United States. In fact, most people though Hitler was a great man throughout most of the world (and he did not keep his anti-Semitic sentiments on the DL internationally).
These sentiments manifested themselves first in the form of state rights. Jewish individuals had their rights taken away and eventually their citizenship as a whole revoked. This was not in an attempt to kill them but to drive them out of the German Nation. When this did not have the desired affect Jewish Ghettos were created and the Jewish population was driven to these areas in mass numbers. Within the ghettos Jews were not forbidden to leave, in fact they were encouraged to leave the country still.
Mass execution of Jews were not fully legitimized until 1941, this is still before the German government had decided to murder all the Jews. At this time Hitler was still toying with the idea of sending the Jews to Madagascar. It wasn't until after the United States had entered the war and there were little to no signs of stopping that the state decided the Jewish problem must be permanently solved (in other words death).
As you can see this idea was not one man's brain child. This was an effort by masses of people built up under a simple ideology which grew into absolute hatred for what they deemed the parasite race. Murder was the end product but it was the product of years of anti-semitic thought, a growing Germanic national identity, and a total world war. The best part is that it all began with the otherization of a single nation. Similar sentiments can be found in the study of almost any modern genocide.
To finish it all up Genocide is the direct product of dehumanization in its most sever of situations. If you don't buy this you can at least see that dehumanization leads to the devaluing of a life and when a life is worth less you can do anything to it without feeling much pity. This anything could range from murder to rape to assault. When a person is worth far less than your own value what is there to stop you from treating them like an animal or a simple thing?
For all of those who wanted me to internalize dehumanization I ask to consider what I have written. Please don't think that I have written everything. It has taken me only half hour to type all of this up and I have included only a skeleton of the haunting facts. If these aren't enough please go read Fire of Hatred by Naimark. He does an excellent job of laying out the facts in a very non biased way. Yet even without the theatrics or bias the facts of such events are heart breaking. They inevitably offer up a warning to our modern world. Genocide and dehumanization are not inevitable and we must prevent against such things. Ideology is very easy to build and install yet nearly impossible to destroy. Such a tool in the hands of the state can be dangerous and, in some cases, fatal.
For example, last tournament I was told that just saying dehumanization was an impact was not enough. I needed to explain why dehumanization was bad. In another round I needed to better link dehumanization to otherization. I was confused by this. Wasn't the thought that making someone's life worth less bad enough? Why did I need to explain why that was so bad? In addition to fully impact the empirics of the situation would take ten minutes in and of itself. This is due to the fact the people are seriously mislead when it come to the Holocaust and the realities of genocide in our modern world. If you site the example of Hitler's Nazi Germany as an empirical example of the effects of dehumanization most will naively wave you off as melodramatic. This is because nothing even remotely close to that would ever happen again, especially in the United States of America...or would it?
For all those who want me to internalize the impacts of dehumanization and "otherization" this is for you.
In 1915 an unknown amount of Armenians were killing during the Turkish process of ethnic cleansing. The number is still unknown due to the fact that the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge that such a genocide ever happened. During World War two millions of Jews and other "undesirables" were systematically murdered. In 1944 thousands of undesirable minorities died during the soviet's forced deportation. After World War II thousands of Germans were killed and many more displaced in their expulsion from Poland and Czechoslovakia in an attempt to exact "justified" revenge. Again in the 1990's there was an attempt to purify a nation within the Yugoslavian wars. These are just a few select examples of genocide and ethnic cleansing within the twentieth century alone and, even then, these cases are limited to Europe.
Obviously the problem of ethnic cleansing, genocide, dehumanization, and otherization is a modern problem (as modern as the 1990's in the "civilized" world). But where does this dehumanization link in. Why does it matter if we put people in this category of "other"? Isn't it a long leap from other to murder? Sadly the leap is not that big. I'm going to focus mostly on the Nazi extermination of the Jews because this is the genocide most are familiar with, but do not think that this is the only case you can apply this link to.
Genocides do not start as mass killings of one peoples group. They start smaller and grow. Hitler began with the thought that Jews needed to be removed from Germany, contrary to common belief he did not begin by advocating the execution of Jews (although it might be be safe to say he would not have morned a Jewish death). Prior to the concentration camps, the death camps, the death buses, and the Jewish Ghettos there was the otherization of Jews. This type of sentiment was not centered in Germany. Anti-Semitic thought was popular across Europe and into the United States. In fact, most people though Hitler was a great man throughout most of the world (and he did not keep his anti-Semitic sentiments on the DL internationally).
These sentiments manifested themselves first in the form of state rights. Jewish individuals had their rights taken away and eventually their citizenship as a whole revoked. This was not in an attempt to kill them but to drive them out of the German Nation. When this did not have the desired affect Jewish Ghettos were created and the Jewish population was driven to these areas in mass numbers. Within the ghettos Jews were not forbidden to leave, in fact they were encouraged to leave the country still.
Mass execution of Jews were not fully legitimized until 1941, this is still before the German government had decided to murder all the Jews. At this time Hitler was still toying with the idea of sending the Jews to Madagascar. It wasn't until after the United States had entered the war and there were little to no signs of stopping that the state decided the Jewish problem must be permanently solved (in other words death).
As you can see this idea was not one man's brain child. This was an effort by masses of people built up under a simple ideology which grew into absolute hatred for what they deemed the parasite race. Murder was the end product but it was the product of years of anti-semitic thought, a growing Germanic national identity, and a total world war. The best part is that it all began with the otherization of a single nation. Similar sentiments can be found in the study of almost any modern genocide.
To finish it all up Genocide is the direct product of dehumanization in its most sever of situations. If you don't buy this you can at least see that dehumanization leads to the devaluing of a life and when a life is worth less you can do anything to it without feeling much pity. This anything could range from murder to rape to assault. When a person is worth far less than your own value what is there to stop you from treating them like an animal or a simple thing?
For all of those who wanted me to internalize dehumanization I ask to consider what I have written. Please don't think that I have written everything. It has taken me only half hour to type all of this up and I have included only a skeleton of the haunting facts. If these aren't enough please go read Fire of Hatred by Naimark. He does an excellent job of laying out the facts in a very non biased way. Yet even without the theatrics or bias the facts of such events are heart breaking. They inevitably offer up a warning to our modern world. Genocide and dehumanization are not inevitable and we must prevent against such things. Ideology is very easy to build and install yet nearly impossible to destroy. Such a tool in the hands of the state can be dangerous and, in some cases, fatal.
A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week
This week has been a very unhappy week. I don't want to say depressing because that may be a little melodramatic...but it still wasn't a happy week. I guess it all began Tuesday.
It was soooo sunny and nice outside that I decided to ride my bike to work, but about an hour or two into my shift it began to rain...and rain...and rain...well lets just say if Noah were around he would of started gathering the animals. Thus my bike was useless to me and I was stranded at work. Not that big of a deal, I had a ride, but still not happy.
After work I sat outside of Sport's Authority and there was a truck. It sat there with its lights on me for about five min. I was kinda freaked out so I called up James and tried to look unconcerned, but really I was kinda scared. The guy finally rolled up and asked if I needed a ride. I replied no.
*Just as a side note; in what world would a young girl take a ride from some random stranger in a wife
beater who drives a beat up white truck...nothing about that screams rapist...nothing...
After he left I continued my conversation with James. (I still felt as though staying on the phone was a good idea) During this conversation I was informed that he was considering transferring to a school in San Diego. I was shocked but I decided to deal with it as things came. Nothing was decided yet so why cry about it? I hung up with him, got into my rides car and went to the gym.
As I ran things started to hit me. James might be leaving...like really leaving. One more person I had gotten close to was leaving me. This sound really selfish but since I came to college just about every close friend I've had has moved, gotten married, grown distant, or just left due to their personal reasons. Nothing too big if it happens with just one friend, but after about the third or fourth time it get a little old. This has lead to somewhat of a complex. I deal with it well enough (aka I don't have abandonment issues or serious commitment issues...well no more than any average/sane 20 year old). Yet even though I've learned to deal with it doesn't mean that its fun to deal with.
By the end of mile one I could hardly hold in the tears. (I must have been quite a site; sweat on my brow, snot running, and tears threatening to come out...I bet I was pretty red in the face) I finished my mile, cooled down, left the gym, called George and broke down. I was crying and blubbering and feeling really really stupid for crying over a bunch of maybes. In addition my hatred for crying comes is only second to my hatred of feeling like a stupid girl (which was a very strong emotion at the time).
George provided some comfort. I mean its not like he could tell me that everything was going to be ok or that I was being stupid (because, although I was feeling stupid, bottling up my emotions would of been a lot worse), but he did tell me that if James were to move and if we did break up it was because God had something bigger for me. That will ultimately be a comfort but for now I'm still worried and sad. I guess I'm just the happiest I have been in a relationship. I don't feel pressured to change or be someone I'm not. I'm in a romantic relationship with one of my best fiends and its a pretty healthy relationship if I do say so myself. Why would I want to willingly give that up?
So that was the end of day one of the bad week. Wednesday went on without much of a hitch. I saw my family, went to classes, and did some homework. The only thing is I was made to feel quite stupid by a professor and I didn't get to really talk to James. Normally this isn't a big deal, but when I already feel like I'm losing him I guess not talking to him reinforces those feelings. Yet again stupid girl feelings, but they're what I'm feeling none the less.
On top of all this last night I had the worst dream. I was walking from a book store...I think it was the one I work next to in Logan. I was in a parking lot with one car in it. I knew that inside the car there was a man even though I couldn't see him. As I was walking across the parking lot a dog came out of nowhere and attacked me. I screamed and collapsed to play dead but it kept attacking me. The man in the car jumped out and stabbed the dog. He got the dog's blood all over me and also stabbed me in the leg. I feinted and when I woke up the man, the dog, and the blood were gone. But on my leg was a scratch of sorts. It was as though a pocket had been made out of my skin and inside there was a giant splinter.
I ran over to a walmart or home depot and to the register. I was screaming and crying about the man and the dog, but because the blood was gone no one believed me. I tried to show the sales person the scratch but it had turned into a pocket on my shorts (weird right?). The man I was talking to was fat and white and began to care even less. A muscular black man came from the back of the store to help me. He put me on a gurney. He and another man (this one of similar build but white) wheeled me out. They left me in a hallway. I got up and tried to find them but instead of locating the men I found myself at the doors of a gym.
All the lights were off but I knew that the man who had attacked/saved me and/or the dog were in there. I began screaming again and the men came to take me away....and that was all I remember. I woke up scared and discombobulated. And thus I was only half asleep for the rest of the night. I woke up this morning sore, tired, and (to make everything even better) outside it was raining. This rain later turned to snow...and it hasn't stopped snowing since one. The weather has only served to perpetuate my bad mood. I feel lonely and I feel like crying. I know that if it were sunny outside I would be fine, but its snowing....in April.
Really there is no point to this post. No grand lesson or prodding thought. Just my unhappy thoughts. I want to talk to someone but really there is no one to talk to right now. Maybe tomorrow will be sunnier and I'll feel better.
It was soooo sunny and nice outside that I decided to ride my bike to work, but about an hour or two into my shift it began to rain...and rain...and rain...well lets just say if Noah were around he would of started gathering the animals. Thus my bike was useless to me and I was stranded at work. Not that big of a deal, I had a ride, but still not happy.
After work I sat outside of Sport's Authority and there was a truck. It sat there with its lights on me for about five min. I was kinda freaked out so I called up James and tried to look unconcerned, but really I was kinda scared. The guy finally rolled up and asked if I needed a ride. I replied no.
*Just as a side note; in what world would a young girl take a ride from some random stranger in a wife
beater who drives a beat up white truck...nothing about that screams rapist...nothing...
After he left I continued my conversation with James. (I still felt as though staying on the phone was a good idea) During this conversation I was informed that he was considering transferring to a school in San Diego. I was shocked but I decided to deal with it as things came. Nothing was decided yet so why cry about it? I hung up with him, got into my rides car and went to the gym.
As I ran things started to hit me. James might be leaving...like really leaving. One more person I had gotten close to was leaving me. This sound really selfish but since I came to college just about every close friend I've had has moved, gotten married, grown distant, or just left due to their personal reasons. Nothing too big if it happens with just one friend, but after about the third or fourth time it get a little old. This has lead to somewhat of a complex. I deal with it well enough (aka I don't have abandonment issues or serious commitment issues...well no more than any average/sane 20 year old). Yet even though I've learned to deal with it doesn't mean that its fun to deal with.
By the end of mile one I could hardly hold in the tears. (I must have been quite a site; sweat on my brow, snot running, and tears threatening to come out...I bet I was pretty red in the face) I finished my mile, cooled down, left the gym, called George and broke down. I was crying and blubbering and feeling really really stupid for crying over a bunch of maybes. In addition my hatred for crying comes is only second to my hatred of feeling like a stupid girl (which was a very strong emotion at the time).
George provided some comfort. I mean its not like he could tell me that everything was going to be ok or that I was being stupid (because, although I was feeling stupid, bottling up my emotions would of been a lot worse), but he did tell me that if James were to move and if we did break up it was because God had something bigger for me. That will ultimately be a comfort but for now I'm still worried and sad. I guess I'm just the happiest I have been in a relationship. I don't feel pressured to change or be someone I'm not. I'm in a romantic relationship with one of my best fiends and its a pretty healthy relationship if I do say so myself. Why would I want to willingly give that up?
So that was the end of day one of the bad week. Wednesday went on without much of a hitch. I saw my family, went to classes, and did some homework. The only thing is I was made to feel quite stupid by a professor and I didn't get to really talk to James. Normally this isn't a big deal, but when I already feel like I'm losing him I guess not talking to him reinforces those feelings. Yet again stupid girl feelings, but they're what I'm feeling none the less.
On top of all this last night I had the worst dream. I was walking from a book store...I think it was the one I work next to in Logan. I was in a parking lot with one car in it. I knew that inside the car there was a man even though I couldn't see him. As I was walking across the parking lot a dog came out of nowhere and attacked me. I screamed and collapsed to play dead but it kept attacking me. The man in the car jumped out and stabbed the dog. He got the dog's blood all over me and also stabbed me in the leg. I feinted and when I woke up the man, the dog, and the blood were gone. But on my leg was a scratch of sorts. It was as though a pocket had been made out of my skin and inside there was a giant splinter.
I ran over to a walmart or home depot and to the register. I was screaming and crying about the man and the dog, but because the blood was gone no one believed me. I tried to show the sales person the scratch but it had turned into a pocket on my shorts (weird right?). The man I was talking to was fat and white and began to care even less. A muscular black man came from the back of the store to help me. He put me on a gurney. He and another man (this one of similar build but white) wheeled me out. They left me in a hallway. I got up and tried to find them but instead of locating the men I found myself at the doors of a gym.
All the lights were off but I knew that the man who had attacked/saved me and/or the dog were in there. I began screaming again and the men came to take me away....and that was all I remember. I woke up scared and discombobulated. And thus I was only half asleep for the rest of the night. I woke up this morning sore, tired, and (to make everything even better) outside it was raining. This rain later turned to snow...and it hasn't stopped snowing since one. The weather has only served to perpetuate my bad mood. I feel lonely and I feel like crying. I know that if it were sunny outside I would be fine, but its snowing....in April.
Really there is no point to this post. No grand lesson or prodding thought. Just my unhappy thoughts. I want to talk to someone but really there is no one to talk to right now. Maybe tomorrow will be sunnier and I'll feel better.
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