On taking Cultural Studies:

According to Gandhi (Mahatma),"No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.". I have no choice but to agree. In this age of outrageous and outright Globalism I find myself yearning to interact with different peoples in a more intangible exchange of give-and-take: ideas, customs, mores, conventions, and quirky colloquialisms that decorate every body's lifestyles. Yeah, sure, it's good to "teach a man how to fish..." and about advancement and money-making, but as a collective people, and I mean on a grand scale, most have forgotten who they are and where they came from. I may be wrong but to me it seems as though people perceive "true" and "different" cultures to exist only in the third world. Some people don't even realize that they have quite an exotic culture revolving around their own world until they are much older.

But, getting back to the quote, it's important for people to keep that advantageous hope of catching a glimpse into an utterly unknown world, to look at it with open eyes and and an objective heart. Hah. We are all here and deserve a chance to experience culture and to either level with it, quietly and respectfully reject it, or to embrace it wildly and wholeheartedly.

So, the reason why I took this class is to broaden my horizons--and the study of culture and society fits in all-too-well with my major; documentary film. I would like to spread awareness in any form that I can capture, edit, and distribute. Some do not have the ways and means of traveling to far-off destinations and movies, media, books, magazines, etc., are the only way that some people can learn and expand. I may sound a bit self-righteous, I mean, why should I have the privilege of being able to film, write about, and explore other people's lives but hopefully my good intentions will grant me a pardon, hah. Anyway, I'm striving to have the ability to do what an anthropologist, an ethnographer, and a sociologist all do so that I can be prepared to look at my subject and portray it, him, or her honestly and with all due respect.