Photo Essay
Introduction
In this photo essay, I explain my personal journey through this class and my search for meaning. My Choose Your Own Adventure project focuses on my current primary worldview, sociality, and so supplemental elements of that worldview are included in this photo essay. But for the most part, this is a personal narrative of the development of my ideas throughout the course. It especially focuses on how my various ideological influences lead to my current worldview.
Before beginning a journey, I always like to know exactly where I am starting. In an intellectual sense, my starting point is my hometown of Saint Henry. I have lived there my entire life; before Bowling Green, it was all that I knew. My family has lived in the village for generations. I have a great appreciation for this community and the values it instilled in me. While Ohio is full of small farming towns, this area is unique. The forces that have shaped this area have had an enormous impact on me and my worldview. Saint Henry and the surrounding towns in the area are relatively rural, with the nearest metropolitan area over an hour drive away. People are rooted to their tight knit communities. The bonds of family and friendship are strong and life-long. This public attitude is also closely related to the dominant religion in the area, Catholicism. Between the silos and grain mills, one can spot dozens of church steeples in the area. They dominant the comparatively puny towns. The one pictured above is Saint Henry's namesake and the tallest building in Mercer County. Most towns are overwhelmingly Catholic; Saint Henry itself is over 96% Catholic. The strong religious principles lead to a very close and active community base. Everyone is willing to contribute to the church or the town in the form of donations or community service. In addition to this strong local pride, the town is very traditional and conservative, especially among the older generation. Families are nuclear, minorities are almost nonexistent, and political candidates are Republican. The town exists in its own little bubble, which I spent my formative years in.
Another strong lesson that I took from Saint Henry was pragmatism. I am not referring to the same pragmatism found in The Search for Meaning, but there are obvious parallels between the lessons I learned at home and Ford's worldview. I chose my work boots for this image because working and labor are considered extremely important in my hometown. The running joke is that there is very little for people to do in the community besides work and drink. I can at least personally attest to the labor aspect of that. The area has a very strong working class tradition, and most good jobs are in the agricultural or manufacturing sector. Smart and competent workers are highly valued, but ivory tower college education is not seen the same way as in more developed areas. The employment rate in the county is a cool 3.7%, one of the lowest in the state. Work is a big part of one's identity. Those who don't have a job are considered moochers or parasites. "Welfare" is a dirty word. People are expected to make their own way. Saint Henry is a place where the American Dream is still alive. As far as how this industrial culture has impacted my worldview, it has given me a very practical attitude towards my thinking. Whenever I would read Ford's worldviews, I would always think of how this would actually look in the real world. Because of this, some worldviews "clicked" much better in my mind than others. In particular, science and pragmatism (both focused on materialism and results) were very appealing and simple to me. More abstract worldviews, such as philosophy, baffled me at first. Philosophy answered questions that I never asked. In the context of the real world and work, Plato and his Forms are irrelevant. When I am presented with a worldview, I always want to know what it could do for me. This practical attitude extends into most aspects of my life. My writing style is well developed but very direct; I try to get right to the point. It can even be seen in the creation of this website: all of my projects are laid out in an organized and easy to navigate way. I have no use for fancy borders or creative layouts. When creating my own worldview, it has to conform to my pragmatic expectations. The worldview has to work.
While the intellectual impact from my hometown was strong, it provoked a reactionary response from me for a very long time. Like all teenagers, I rebelled against the system that I was in. The town was religious, and so I became an atheist. The political climate was strongly conservative, and so I was borderline communist. Whereas my father and many successful community members never graduated college, I considered intellectual development to be of the highest importance. I found my philosophic niche in the scientific worldview, even before I really knew what that meant. Reason, intelligence, progess were my most important values. My favorite period in history was the Enlightenment, as it embodied these values to an extreme. There was a certain smugness to my beliefs, especially when I would encounter things like the image above. I took this picture at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. It is an entire museum dedicated to young-Earth creationism, Biblical studies, and trying to disprove actual science. This exhibit demonstrates how different fossils and species are present on continents thousands of miles apart. It claims that after the great Biblical Flood, animals drifted across the oceans on the floating forests that must have been uprooted with the massive rushes of water. Obviously there are well-proven scientific alternatives to these religious explanations, but my strictly scientific mind harshly dismissed them. This line of thinking was absolutely revolting. I couldn't believe that some people actually accepted this nonsense. I thought that they were morons, and I wasn't afraid to say so. I glorified science and humanist philosophy. If there were a better embodiment of scientism, I would have given him a good run for his money.
My worldview was rabidly scientific until I reached college. My experiences at BGSU radically changed how I think of the world. If my scientific views were a reaction to my hometown, my current values are a counter-reaction to the extreme liberalism of university culture. In the first few weeks at BGSU, I readily embraced the progressive attitudes. But I quickly saw what I perceived as the negative side of this culture. In particular, I was shocked at the "social justice" movement that is embedded in the university structure. While I have always been a strong supporter of social progress and freedom, the university takes it to an extreme that turns me away. For example, in my leadership class I was taught the goal of leadership is positive social change. This is crazy to me; what about leadership in the workplace or in the political sphere? There have been many extraordinarily effective leaders throughout history who did anything but accomplish social change. Ignoring these aspect rejects nearly any practical use of leadership. It is a naive way to teach a subject that we students need to learn. In addition, the university promotes a culture that is hostile to opposing views and debate. On many occasions, I was openly mocked and reviled for my "ignorant" beliefs. Many people that I knew were closet conservatives who felt unsafe to openly express their political views for fear of being called a bigot. In one instance, an acquaintance of mine was reprimanded for a supposedly offensive poster put on his dorm door, despite our nation's freedom of speech. It seemed to me that the university was open minded only towards its own ideas. The extreme liberalism that the university advocated was completely disconnected with reality. These experiences shook my scientific and progressive beliefs. They suddenly felt so wrong. It troubled me to think that my worldview was flawed, but I could not help but see what was right in front of me. I slowly found myself adopting beliefs that I once despised. In particular, I started to look backwards in my new search for meaning. I learned to accept more conservative values and norms, like religion, tradition, and community. In a sense, I returned to my roots. Cracks were starting to appear in the way I saw the world.
The real break in my world view came in the Great Ideas class, which centers around Dennis Ford's The Search for Meaning. While I normally despise class books, this one was actually relevant to me. Everyone cares about their purpose in life, and I am certainly no exception. Ford breaks down meaning into its component parts and explains how each affects not only our broad purpose in life, but our everyday lives. And he doesn’t just look at the “one true” definition of meaning that many propose. In fact, Ford distinguishes twelve unique worldviews, each having its strengths and weaknesses. Few people completely embody one view, rather, we are a mix of different worldviews. Ford's writings and the class discussions made me realize that unscientific viewpoints had a measure of legitimacy. In particular, Ford's chapters on metaphysics and postmodernism undermined my scientific explanations for the world. Postmodernism even turns science against itself. As Ford points out, the scientific discoveries of relativity and the uncertainty principle undermine of consistent, objective view of the world that the scientific worldview claims (116). Metaphysics builds on this, concluding that if the purely material world of science cannot be confirmed, a transcendent realm is hardly a far-fetched idea. Moreover, these arguments were good. Whereas I could always fight for the cause of science in the past, Ford's worldviews provided a rather clear and convincing picture as to why science is not the one true path that I thought it was.
The Great Ideas class also helped expose how much of my thinking was already unscientific and contrary to my proclaimed way of thinking. I reflected especially heavily on our very first lesson, the mythic worldview. Many of my traditional sources of meaning fall under myth, which Ford defines as timeless and unchanging stories that draw us closer to purpose through faith in them. This is a very broad definition, and it includes everything from religion to sports fandoms to political dogmas. A myth that I feel particularly strong about is patriotism. I love my nation and I am very proud to be an American. I feel a deep and personal connection to US history and culture. It certainly defies logical thinking; I understand that the US is imperfect and that other countries are just as great as ours. But when I see the stars and stripes blowing gently in the breeze, none of that matters. The myth disguises the obvious flaws in my thinking or even turns them into objects of pride. The federal government’s tremendous military expenditure seems wasteful until I see supersonic missiles raining down on baby-killing terrorists half a world away. The genocide of Native Americans is insignificant next to the image of settlers pushing the frontier forwards, fulfilling their Manifest Destiny. The poster that currently hangs in my room is another perfect example. “One flag! One land! One heart! One Nation! Ever more!” Oliver Wendell Holmes’ quote could just as easily have come from Adolf Hitler, but when put against of backdrop of Iwo Jima, it is suddenly acceptable. Despite my self-awareness of myth, I am still devoted to it. My strong adherence to myths, patriotism among them, created a cognitive dissonance in my mind between the mythic and scientific worldview.
With my scientific foundation broken, the bottom fell out of my philosophic structure. I earnestly didn't know how to look at the world or even how to think about it. I had to rebuild my own worldview from the ground up. But where would I start? I needed a way of thinking that could accommodate for my various unrelated tangents of thinking. It needed to incorporate the lingering scientific sentiments that I still thought were valid, but also acknowledge the illogical emotional aspect of human nature. It needed to feel right in addition to being logical. While Ford's worldviews were very influential, I never saw them as meaningful. They didn't answer that critical question of why I found life worthwhile. I looked back at my first reflection and what I found meaningful: friends, family, helpfulness, happiness, work. In order to create my worldview, I had to find the common factor in all of these. Ford's ideas were useful in making the framework for my worldview, but I would mostly bring in experiences from my own life. This concept change in this class did not occur in a vacuum. The experiences that I brought into college and the This was the beginning of what I would eventually become the social worldview.
One of the strongest influences in creating this new worldview was my friends and social relationships from my hometown. Pictured above are some of my friends. I have known most of them my entire life. In fact, some of their parents were friends with my parents in high school. These are the kinds of relationships that last a lifetime. While I have made many friends in my lifetime, these ones are a step above the norm. We grew up together, we have had years bonding with each other. We know each others' lives almost as well as our own. In a sense, our idea of sociality and friendship formed around each other. From these bonds, we gain trust, humor, and sympathy from one another. We rarely get sentimental with one another, but we all treasure our friendship. This influenced by creation of sociality by showing me the value of strong, long lasting relationships.
When I first got to college, I had fears that I would have difficulty finding new friends. In fact, I had assumed that I would always hang out with the few people who I previously knew that were coming to this university. Almost every person that I had known before university I had known for years and years. I had few interactions with true strangers. Fortunately, I had little problem making new friends here at Bowling Green. The friendships that I have made here are among the strongest I have. The campus has a wide variety people from all backgrounds. I have made friends with those who are very different than me, some of a different religion, other in terms of socioeconomic class, and a few of different nationality. BGSU taught me about the commonality of mankind: no matter how different people can get from one another, social bonds can be formed. It is as if there is an immaterial tether attracting people to one another. This spirit of togetherness is essential to the social worldview.
This semester, I joined the BGSU chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. This was a very atypical decision, but it has had a huge influence on the way that I see the world. Like my other social cliques, SAE is a close group of friends. But uniquely, it is highly structured and organized. There are weekly meeting, elected positions, and membership dues. The fraternity also has a rich history that its members take pride in. There are also complex and secretive ceremonies that all members must participate in. This may seem very unusual, but these convoluted customs are an essential part of the institution's structure. However, the official, businesslike attitude that SAE promotes does not disrupt the social network between its members. We do not refer to each other as "brothers" for nothing. The bonds are as strong as family. In fact, I know some who consider joining SAE the best decision that they have ever made. The high level of structure allows this social strength to be focused in a positive direction, whether that be organizing a philanthropic event or bettering the character of our brothers. In regards to sociality, SAE and its focus on the bonds of brotherhood show how the social world view can work in a practical sense. Through the fraternity, we are able to make the world a better place and make ourselves better people. I would not be the man nor the balanced philosophical mind without the influence of SAE.
It is not a coincidence that I consider socialization the most important aspect of life and that I am an education major. Despite the ubiquity of standards and testing in the profession, teaching is still extraordinarily personal job. The real difference between good and bad teachers is not content expertise or pedagogical knowledge, but their ability to connect with students in a personal way. This is especially true with my area of study, high school social studies. While most people think that my concentration is only about teaching history and government to inattentive teenagers, my job is actually teaching citizenship. Basic knowledge of our nation's history and government is a cornerstone of this, but there is so much more to it. It is about instilling students with a sense of duty, a willingness to take personal responsibility for community issues, and a drive to better themselves. As my high school history teacher said, I need to turn my students into "self-starters", who are their own biggest motivators. It turns them into self sufficient citizens who are still willing to contribute to their communities. This cannot be done merely through boring PowerPoint lectures, it requires active and innovative teaching. I think that they Great Ideas class is a great example of this. The discussion based classroom leads to authentic learning and enthusiasm. People can learn much more from each other than from any book. My perception of education goes hand in hand with the social worldview. My classroom will be focused on people, and it will prepare students to work in the social world that we live in.
One thing that I feel is not properly emphasized in the Great Ideas class is that the search for meaning never really ends. My views constantly evolve based on my experiences and philosophic needs. While sociality answers my questions on purpose now, it may not in the future. This final project only represents a snapshot of where I am at this moment. But I am very pleased with where my worldview is at. It makes sense to me and emphasizes positivity and support. What I believe is permanent is my attitude towards the search for meaning. After this experience, I am much more acceptive of other worldviews and willing to ask deep questions about myself. In a sense, I have learned to be intellectually tolerant. My path towards purpose will continue to meander, but I am closer than I have ever been before.
Sources
Ford, Dennis. The Search for Meaning: A Short History. Berkeley: University of California, 2007. Print.
Ford, Dennis. The Search for Meaning: A Short History. Berkeley: University of California, 2007. Print.