I realize this has nothing to do with the current course material, but I felt it was a relevant topic to discuss.
Recently, Barack Obama was once again attacked for his alleged affiliations with "radicals". We saw this before with Reverend Wright, but Barack is once again being judged by the company he is believed to keep (or to have kept). This raises an interesting question: how much is our image defined by the people we surround ourselves with? Is Obama a less capable president because of former friends and acquaintances? What do I look like based on my crowd?
This all sort of reminded me of the clique mentality seen in Mean Girls. It's so much easier for people to categorize and sort others into safe little groups by making assumptions; who has time to get to know people anymore? If I hang out with a few potheads, I must blaze all the time. If I hang out with clean-cut, academically inclined people, I must be smart. The list goes on and on. While it's definitely true that some relationships could affect the direction of your life (spend all your time around people going nowhere and pretty soon you'll be in the same boat), do all your friends project something onto you? What does your crowd say about you, and should it matter?
1 comment:
I agree with you Cam, our image is most defiantly molded by the people we associate ourselves with. Obama has been criticized for his associations with people, such as the Reverend and other radical people, just as Bush was criticized for his affiliations with the members of the Bin laden family.
I used to hang out with a certain person who people knew was into drugs and other illegal things. I didn’t think that people would assume that I too did the drugs, but to my surprise I found out last year that rumors were going around that since I hung out with her, I must have been doing the same things as her. When I found out, I was devastated because the extent of the rumors were just ridiculous, just because you affiliate yourself with someone, doesn’t mean that you agree with their views or actions or that you participate in the same activities as them.
The people that I hang out with now are all known as straight-edge, clean people with good morals. I hope this changes people's opinions about me. If it doesn't, then oh well, it's their loss for not getting to know me and my values.
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