Cali Landscapes

Now that I have read other spring break blog posts, I felt slightly inspired to write a little about my own. I actually spent this year’s trip going with a friend to Southern California. In past years I have always been at various ski races, waking up at the crack of dawn to put on layers of jackets to then spend the break not getting a tan. I couldn’t get all the way away from this though, since I still spent the last four days here in MN racing, but I was able to get away for most of it (and ended up with a burn not a tan).

In SoCal I went to visit a few friends that weren’t on spring break. I stayed at Azusa Pacific University and Chapman University for a couple of nights each, which was very fun (and cheap for me!). Overall I really enjoyed each of their schools but they had a much different feel than what we have here at St. Olaf. It took a bit to understand, but it was a part of that same feeling that ultimately caused me to choose St. Olaf. The causation for these vibes ended up being the campuses.

At Azusa Pacific University there are two main campuses in which the students are bused between. The two seemed very isolated from one another, one containing most of the Freshman Dorm life, while the other consisted of the academic buildings. That caused a feeling of separation of school from the rest of life. The two areas just created different vibes. At Chapman the campus was much smaller and condensed due to California land space. There weren’t as many open quads or nature filled areas. People did not tend to “hang out” in localized areas like I find at St. Olaf. Instead a focus of campus was the dorm buildings or academic buildings themselves or apartment complexes for upperclassmen. 

Basically what I gathered from these visits was that landscape plays a much bigger role in overall vibes such as the community aspect than I ever could believe. I know we spent a lot of time covering landscape as a topic last semester but this was the clearest way I have ever seen this concept. Each school’s campus was different. None were necessarily better than the other, as there were both positive points and negative points to each style, but it was clear they all created different atmospheres.

Future Travel Promise

Now that we all have almost made it through the first year of school, (it seems crazy right?), I am trying to plan out as far into the future as possible…. lunch at 1 today.

 But in all seriousness I have been looking at study abroad programs, in an obsessed sort of way. At this point I have lots of options and I am extremely excited for all of them. After reading Tocqueville’s work I have become even more inspired and know that I will be taking advantage of study abroad options. He took a trip to America and was able to learn so much about our culture. Having a different viewpoint (French) coming into this trip, Tocqueville was able to understand American politics in a light different from any longtime citizen. Some of these points were so simple or common to our lifestyle that we tend to overlook them.

In general, I have decided to reflect on everything I observe in my travel and write a journal. I am really bad because I like to start things and struggle to finish them but I am stating this on my blog therefore it is much more likely to happen. I feel like learning from seeing and doing is so much stronger. I hope I can enhance this future trip even more through my writings.  I want to look back onto my trip much later and remember even more the things I learned from this experience that tend to be lost over the years.

I guess this was mostly a pledge to writing while traveling…. as inspired by people such as Tocqueville.

Identity in Associations?

I know this seems a little late but relooking at organizations like girl scouts got me thinking...

“Joining a group became more a matter of individual fulfillment than an expectation of life in society, and leaving a group no longer presented the same dilemma as when it meant serving ties that defined one’s identity.” 

I found this quote when reading Leslie Lenkowsky’s analysis (“Still Bowling Alone?”) of Putnam’s article “Bowling Alone”. I really liked the way this quote highlighted several concepts. In the past Americans tended to identify themselves with these associations. Lenkowsky says that today we find a lot less of this in America. Instead, people freely join groups but are no longer “tied” down to them since they no longer need that identity, and therefore quite much more frequently. I think I have to agree with that statement, at least the idea that people join and quite these associations a lot today.

 I felt this way in my own life in the past. So many times I would join some sort of group but eventually quite keeping my membership short lived. I also saw it a lot in the groups I did stay in. For example, I was a Girl Scout for all my elementary years. That group actually retained a large amount of girls from year to year, but we also saw many girls make half-hearted attempts to participate and then drop their membership after a short period. I think the difference between those that stayed and those that left, was that those that were more committed also identified more with the group.

Why is that? This trend continues even today in my more college level view. Groups tend to have people that come and go a lot more frequently. Is it because the members don’t identify themselves with the group? I think a big causation at least in college people’s life is the ability to identify oneself in other volumes. Facebook seems to dominate that realm. That makes since for the college audience but it doesn’t really explain this trend in other age groups like the child associations.

I still basically have left off with the same question I had before. Why have we lost identity with the groups? Lenkowsky believes it is because membership has become easier to gain and therefore means less. I sort of agree with that but how had would it have been to ever join associations like bowling leagues?

Tocqueville's Views on France's Revolution

Tocqueville states in his introduction that morals, ideas, laws and habits are all important parts of society that need to change to fit democracy. He says that these are things that citizens of France need to adapt to in order for the revolution to take full effect.

He uses many examples of these concepts that American’s have a different mentality to. For example, the law of inheritance is an example of a more democratic style of inheriting land. Instead of having property remain in the hands of one family, unbroken for generations, in America land is divided, sold and bought more constantly due to this law. Since land is changed frequently, money is held in other ways than in just land. This means equality is more common among American citizens.

The reason Tocqueville gives for this difference between American morals, ideas, laws and habits and France’s is because America started out as a democracy while France had to change from one form of law to another.   

Laws that Promote Democracy

Something I really like about Tocqueville’s style of writing is his usage of examples that do not seem obvious. I would not have expected the idea of land inheritance to come up in a book about democracy, as it did here. The law of inheritance is one that Tocqueville mentions as something that promotes democracy in the United States. It is a change of “law” and also habit from what existed in Tocqueville’s France, which he believes is necessary in order to be democratic. In France land is passed on generation to generation, without being divided, and therefore stays within the family name and wealth does not become altered dramatically.  In the United States, the law of inheritance gives equal shares of property to the next generation. In turn, land is subdivided and holdings become too small to continue to own, therefore there is much more selling and buying, and other forms of having wealth (other than land).

Tocqueville uses this example to prove that changes in law are necessary for democracy to work in France, so that the revolution was not a “waste”. I like his usage of examples that would not be expected. He really proves his original quote valid, that in order for democracy to succeed, laws, habits, ideas and morals need to be altered.  

Themes of Democracy

“The result is that a democratic revolution has taken place in the fabric of society without making any of the changes in laws, ideas, habits, and morals necessary to make the revolution useful.” (Alexis de Tocqueville)

                This statement makes a lot of sense as it refers to the revolution that was taking place in France. In order to put any new form of government in place, changes must be made. Especially with a democracy, a large change has to be made in all areas mentioned above. Without those changes society will not completely form to fit the democracy, and like Tocqueville mentions, the democracy will not be completely put into place.

                In the United States, this form of government was much easier to establish because it was began at ground zero. With France, a historically long and traditional way of life had to be completely broken. This is true for all governments, back then and today. To get a new and successful government, laws, ideas, habits and morals all go through a change.

                I believe that as we continue learning about the democracy in the United States, we will find out more about this concept. How do our laws, ideas, habits and morals shape to fit a democracy? What are the major differences between the lifestyle we live with in the United States compared to that of other nations?

American Upward Mobility Movies

After reading Cullen’s chapter on “The Dream of the Good Life (II): Upward Mobility” I really thought he brought up several good points. One I focused on even more, maybe because it relates to a lot of our lives, is his quote on the concept of underdog stories in American.   

“For hundreds of years, American readers and writers have had tireless appetites for tales of poor boys (and, later, girls) who, with nothing but pluck and ingenuity, created financial empires that towered over the national imaginations and in some cases towered over the national landscape as well).”

(pg. 60)

It’s true. Everyone wants the underdog to win in many of the stories presented in American literature, and today, in American films. How often do the underdogs come out on “top” in some form (fortune, fame, glory). It has been a theme common to America for a very long time. There are countless films about the sports teams battling back with many underdog type problems, yet they still keep making those movies. Even movies like Star Wars, Babe or Disney films like Ratatouille all have that same kind of theme where minorities can raise themselves up and gain from that work.

This has the “newer” (II) American Dream written in every work. I have to wonder though, is this just an American concept which we like to hear or read, or is this an interesting topic for humankind as a whole? I do feel like we love to embrace this idea as our own in America, and yes it is a very American type of concept, but I think “heroic” (upward mobility) type stories have been written forever, in many cultures, even in ancient times.