Hi everyone my name is Sebastian and I’m headed into my second year in the Masters program. I spent most of my summer reading The Prince, The Book of Five Rings, and I just started the Tibetan Book of the Dead…I’m now also reading Pride and Prejudice for the third time (shout out to you Leffel). I also built a tiki bar in my backyard with my brother and dad with all the pandemic induced free time. I did a little experimenting in the kitchen and wound up with this incredible curry that used a red bell pepper as it’s base… I’ll definitely be doing that again this semester.
I was the assistant coach for Cortland’s gymnastics team and taught a few PED courses for the Phys Ed department – hopefully if everything settles by the spring they’ll be able to bring me back on for team; for now though, I’m back in the Library working Tech Help.
Two questions I would like to be able to answer at the end of the semester:
- Who opened Pandora’s Box and let 2020 out.
- ^^ see above for a joke ^^
On a serious note, I’ve spent most of the Summer having conversations with individuals of varying political (and subsequently moral and ethical) beliefs and the end result has left me somewhere between a tepid hopelessness for America and an aggressive drive to find a way to communicate new, seemingly radical ideas to those who would rather bathe in the status quo. I guess my questions would be as follows:
- How do you introduce those “radical” or “revolutionary” realities surrounding things like systemic inequity or toxic behaviors to someone who acknowledges a need for change, but is hesitant to leave the comfort of “the norm” because “that’s just how it’s always been”.
- How to locate the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality and how those intersections affected political decisions, while considering the historical context; this way I can spot patterns and potentially even speculate on what could come to pass.
I am very much looking forward to our on and offline discussions! I can’t wait to (pseudo-) see you all on Monday!
Hi Sebastian — great to have you in the class! Between the curry, tiki bar, and excellent reading list (food for thought?) it sounds like you’ve managed to have a delicious summer, despite, you know, 2020.
Your questions are excellent, definitely things we’ll explore this semester. I spend a lot of time thinking about the pros and cons of calling justice and equality “radical” and “revolutionary.” I’m always going back and forth on whether it’s beneficial (my current answer is, it depends on the context and audience).
Looking forward to virtually meeting you on Monday!
Hi Sebastian! It’s nice to virtually meet you. Your questions, your willingness to engage in conversations with others about their beliefs, and your reading list reminds me of one of my favorite students I’ve had in my career =)
Your questions are something that I think about a lot as someone who oscillates between being more centrist on certain issues and far to the left on others. I think in part, tactics / strategy come in play here. There’s a context that need to be considered: what are your goals for your movement, and what tactics make the most sense for the present moment / context? I think there’s often also a lot of pushback that centrist policies / tactics are the only way to make progress, and that comes from a historical misunderstanding of many radical movements and the success of “radical” tactics. For example, with all the current commendations of the centenary of the 19th Amendment, there’s a lot of justified focus on how many sufragettes were fighting for the rights of White women at the expense of others, but not much discussion about how using tactics that were radical at the time like protesting in front of the White House, civil disobedience, and hunger strikes, the suffragettes of the 1910s were able to achieve in about 10 years what the more traditionally-tactic suffragette movement took over 60 years to fail to get. I also think that tactics / strategy depend on the context and how people identify politically based on their context–for example, my husband grew up in rural Virginia where his political views were considered quite extreme left / radical in context, and it was only when we moved to Ithaca that he realized he was actually a centrist.
Hi Seb. Excited to be taking another class with you! I don’t think I ever got to see your cat before so I’m ecstatic. I’m sad to hear that you aren’t able to continue your gymnastics coaching because of all the pandemic stuff! But I might run into you in the library now. I’m gonna be at the Writing Center this semester! Can’t wait to dig into this material together!