Mind=Blown

Who knew? Thanks to this post, "The 'B' Word" by my professor in Mass Media, I've discovered just how truly biased I am against, what I feel are, liberal extremist comments.

If someone condemns Fox News, for example, because they have a conservative bias, then other outlets fall somewhere along the line between left and right by default. MSNBC, naturally, must be liberal, and being liberal, according to the logic of the accusation, implies that it is better. (Meanwhile, CNN (ugh) remains pathetically and uselessly "centrist.") These networks, it turns out, plot themselves along this paradigm resulting in disservice to all.

But what's lost here are other, more important qualities than being right or left, such as being right or wrong. Here's what I mean: to discount a report or a story because you view it as "liberal" or "conservative" is merely to ignore that which doesn't support your prejudices. It's faulty thinking. Each of these terms, "liberal," "conservative," and "biased" are so vague as to be useless, and no combination of them can yield a meaningful critique.

Neither being liberal nor being conservative is the same as being wrong. Either one of them might, in fact, be wrong. Or both might be. But it wouldn't be because they are liberal or conservative. It could only be because their reasoning is faulty and their statements do not align with the truth, meaning "with reality," which is accessible in some measure to us all. 

I have grown up around people (including my parents) who say, "psh, you can't trust that, you heard it from CNN."  Just because it's an unpleasant thought, or an opinion voiced by someone known for being liberal, I shouldn't take it as false. I've never thought of journalism, media, or any kind of news in terms of, "I wonder where that information came from, I wonder if they have data to back it up, I wonder." I realize now that I probably don't have very good critiquing skills beyond deciding if the statement sounds extremist (liberal or conservative). 

A good example of my in-bred bias happened just tonight while watching a video on PBS with Daniel Ellsberg and a few journalists from the New York Times. Ellsberg was predicting that if we have a republican House and Senate (this was a video from September of 2010), journalists will be pulled in more and more under pressure of revealing sources from whom they received top secret information or documents, under threat of being held in contempt. As soon as he said this, I jumped back in my chair with a "Wait just a damn minute" face locked into position. And then I thought, wait. . . what do I really know about this issue? What do I know about any secrecy acts? What do I know about who stands where on this topic anyway? What do I really know about politics? 

And so it began. I'm still struggling with the idea of listening or reading information, no matter their reputation for being liberal (CNN, perhaps, or NPR?). I'm not sure how to go about looking for information that hasn't been labeled either which way politically, and then determining if it is factual, or if it is trustworthy information. I tend to base my beliefs on the trust that I have in people who tell me about information, or the trust I have in some newspaper or news show. I feel unsteady. How do I decide what is fact? It's a bit easier with news or information or events that occurred 30+ years ago (I'm starting to really get into the whole deal with Nixon and the Watergate debacle, I'm going to start on "All the President's Men" soon); there are books, many people who have written on the subject. I can research that. But on topics like 'global climate change?' What trustworthy data is out there for me to find? Will it take me 30 years to feel comfortable with making a choice as to whether I believe we are in serious danger or not (though, the question then becomes, are we in serious danger from rising ocean levels? Thanks to Times Talk on Monday, the answer is undoubtedly YES)? 

Gah. It's a lot to think about. If anyone has any suggestions on how to start again, how to obtain the critical mind necessary to make an informed decision before I turn 40, I would love to hear it.

Mind=blown.

Is that. . . Spring???

I was walking in the tunnels to class yesterday, accustomed to the clouded, gray sky I saw through the windows just peeking over the grass outside. When I emerged from Hagg-Sauer at 9:35, I saw more of the same, dreary, gray sky. I scurried past the smokers because it was still cool, being 9:35 in the morning, and the sun had yet to really rise let alone attempt a break out from the jail that seemed to trap it. And I really needed my coffee. Then, on my way back to Hagg-Sauer from Sattgast around noon, I had to blink. A lot. What was this thing, this thing that burned my eyes? It was less yellow than the lights in the buildings. . . could it be. . . SUNLIGHT? I felt my skin burn, not crawl with cold. I smelled evergreens. I was outside, and I could smell something other than COLD. I laughed. Out loud. I made the person walking by me jump--perhaps it was a crazy laugh. I had the first scent of Spring, and I wasn't about to go back inside anytime soon. Even if it meant walking through many puddles of water with my holey shoe. Because that was melted ice I was walking through. Not ice.

When I catch that first scent of Spring, I go a little crazy. Like a man that was shut in solitary for six months emerging to a sunny day in August, by the ocean with a view of the mountains, his favourite dog waiting for him by an ice cream van on free ice cream day.
Once, in middle school, emerging to very little snow, a lot of mud puddles, and a hot sun grazing my face, I ran to the middle of the 'recess' area and began twirling. I also tried to dance with my friend, who was very put off by my odd behaviour. So, I stopped twirling and dancing. It's hard to twirl and dance with someone standing as still as possible, hoping to get away from the freak who went from being slightly depressed to maniacally happy.

So I went to my creative nonfiction class yesterday at 4, on the verge of skipping out and running to the park to find a bench to perch on. When I got to class, I just couldn't help myself. The words spilled out as soon as my professor walked in with her high heels and knee-length skirt.
"We should have class outside today."
"Okay."
Huh? Did she see what she was wearing?
"You'll have to go through some snow to get to the benches." I was staring at her heels. And her poka-dot leggings.
"Okay. As long as everyone else is willing, I sure am."
So that's how we ended up trooping outside to find some benches to sit on. Half of us got settled before she stared at the snow and said, "I'm thinking we might freeze out here."
You're in a skirt and heels, I thought. She continued to say that we should go inside to do the presentations. And then she made me feel like an idiot, because yes, while it was my idea, I was high on sunlight and temperatures that I'm sure actually hit 33. She yelled, "Sorry, Kris, but I promise we'll have class outside as soon as it gets nice."
This isn't nice? After below zero weather and a sun that seemed to have gone south with the birds?
I'm pretty sure at least half my writing class was irritated with me that day. Jenny (my friend in the class) thought it was all very funny. At least she did.

Don't get me started on today. It was 40 and so sunny I tried to think where I left my spare sunglasses. . . and remembered they are on the back seat of my Dad's 'burbon, 90 miles away. The sad thing is, we'll get another snowstorm before Spring really hits. Ah, Minnesota weather.