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"Mom, he's breathing on me!"
Sorry, I had a flashback to childhood, with DMagic and I antagonizing each other.
Yes, there are different kinds of clothes, but they are all basically the same. See how many people around you are wearing jeans. See how many girls are wearing colors like pink or purple, and then how many males wear the same color. In an analysis of culture, I think sometimes the seemingly insignificant things (like clothing) tell us a lot about belief systems. But anyway...
The truth thing. Hmmph. A touchy issue for me, cause I'm not sure where to stand. I don't quite know whether to believe in an "objective truth" or a relativity of truth. I switch back and forth on the issue. My ideas and belief systems are still forming. Hey, I'm still young. I guess it't not *required* for me to have answers right away. I'd rather think about it thoroughly than make the wrong decision.
A question, though: I know you believe in an objective truth. Where do you get it from? How do you know? Is it just what "seems right?" Or is there a rational justification for it? (By the way, I don't hold rational justification to be the only, or even best, means to truth. Gut feeling or religious experience are also, in my opinion, perfectly valid.) Just wanted to hear your beliefs, since you never really express reasons for them.
I don't think females are more likely to be influenced by college "brainwashing" - I think college STUDENTS are more likely to be influenced it. I think, more than anything, my mentor (a wonderful professor) has given me the ability to question and to think for myself (whatever that means). I really do question everything - conservative ideas, liberal ideas, everything. Everything they tell me in school, I consider alternative or opposite positions. I'm kind of one of those people that finds it easy to see MANY different viewpoints. I even take much of what YOU say into consideration, believe it or not. I'm not unwavering in my beliefs by any means. You probably think that means "wishy-washy." Oh well. For me, I think it just means that I'm still growing and changing. Hopefully, I always will be. A stagnant mind seems such a waste.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out "regimes of truth" is a college term! After all, it is in quotation marks, which means it is from a book, and books (duh) are read in universities. But, yeah, it's a term taken from Michel Foucault. :)
He's a postmodern literary theorist who has written a lot on power relations, punishment, and "historicizing" (tracing the history of) societal institutions. Fascinating stuff, and, no, I don't agree with all of it. I told ya, I question everything. To do otherwise would be decidedly "sheep-like."
TCP
A favorite quote of mine, by Soren Kierkegaard (a Christian existentialist, which almost seems a contradiction in terms):
"Fixed ideas are like cramp, for instance in the foot - yet the best remedy is to step on them."
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