Manipulation in the Blog

This week we were tasked with writing about manipulation seen in our everyday lives. One of the devices that I've been thinking about over the past few days has been deadlines. Especially in school, deadlines do not need to be when they are. They are arbitrary dates imposed by the professor, or in rare cases the students, for when work should be handed in. The implications of instituting deadlines early on in life seem obvious. By making students used to having due dates for their work, students not only learn a sense of accountability for their work, and when it must be done, but also they are being prepared for the rest of their lives where they will likely be forced to follow deadlines in their work with much higher penalties than in school.

While this manipulation may be helpful for some, it is also making the assumption that all students want to go on to work in jobs where deadlines are a reality. This assumption does not allow for those who would prefer to live their lives off the clock, and so it perpetuates societal definitions of success at a subconscious level. By posting this a day late, I have made at least a small attack on the prevalence of deadlines in society. Although this is certainly not enough to change anything, it at least shows that while deadlines may seem at times that they are make or break, they can in fact be inconsequential.

Illusion of Class Registration

I want to start my post with apologizing for it being late. I could come up with some excuse, like I was just so traumatized by the bomb threat or I’m not going to be manipulated into doing something on time. But really I just forgot, sorry. Today all the sophomores picked their classes for next semester. This is always an extremely stressful process. Everyone wants to get into the same easy classes and ends up scrambling when they don’t get in. My biggest issue with this is the show that Hamilton puts on about it. On the tours you always hear about the open curriculum and how this gives you so many different options. This is supposed to be one of the great defining characteristics of Hamilton. So why does it feel like I have no options every time I go to register? You need a prerequisite for this class, this one has 20 spots but only 2 for juniors, and this one is only offered for specific majors. It’s such an illusion of choice. You’re supposed to be able to learn whatever you want in college, but really it’s limited to those certain classes that the college has chosen. And there are so many limitations that you really don’t have many choices at all. Another illusion here is the fact that you have so much time to take a lot of different classes. At my first advisor meeting I was told I had 32 classes to take while here, and it sounded like so many. I remember being worried I would run out of easy classes to take. When you factor in going abroad, your major, maybe a minor, and maybe pre-med or pre-law requirements you don’t get to chose any of your classes anymore. For my last semesters here at Hamilton I will be able to pick 1 class, all the others have been decided for me by requirements. I chose to do this, so this is fine, I’ve accepted it. However, it is completely unfair that we market our school in a way that gives people such an illusion of choice when there is very little choice at all.

The Parameter of Choice

After Friday’s discussion on the child’s “choose your own adventure” books, I found myself in a state of déjà vu. As a child, I was a big fan of the Goosebumps collections and ironically, especially the ones where you got to choose what action you wished to character to take. However, just as Professor Schwartz described in class, the reader doesn’t have a really large selection of choices. In other words, the reader is not able to do ANYTHING and choose whatever they want to do. Instead, the author forces the reader to select a choice out of a choice of 2 or more. As a child, I always though that the reader never really got the freedom to choose and select exactly what they wanted to do. Once again as Professor Schwartz noted, in context to the course, this intention in which the author made the story was practically a manipulation technique. By allowing the reader to choose out of a small parameter of choices, a sense of control and power is given to the reader. However, in reality it is the author’s manipulation to make the reader think that they are in control. As always, I though of this idea and tried to relate it to something that we encounter everyday. Also mentioned in class, I found that the car example to be the most revealing of manipulation. From our car dealers today, we are made to believe that a car was made for us and that we have the full choice in what car to choose. However, when going to a dealership, we aren’t really choosing the car that is made for us but instead selecting the car that we think is best fit for us. I found this to be another example of modern day manipulation in the everyday market.

The Panopticon

I recently read a book that mentioned something called the panopticon. I don’t know if anyone knows what that is but basically it’s a type of building design that was created by the Jeremy Bentham. The layout of the building was designed so that a single watchman could observe the inmates of a prison without the inmates being able to tell if they were being watched. The idea that at any moment they could be watched would make the inmates behave constantly.

            Bentham created a design that could manipulate people into behaving because of the paranoia it set in that an authoritative figure would always be watching. As a result, only minimal watching needed to happen solely because of this idea that they could be watched at all times. The inmates would basically become self-governing, hardly needing any authority at all. In the book I read, the main character compared her boarding school to the panopticon, stating that everyone followed the rules because they felt like someone would somehow know if they didn’t, no matter how impossible. For example, the students were not allowed to leave campus, a rule that everyone followed despite the fact that the only thing stopping them from leaving was a low stonewall. This idea of always being watched also affected how they interacted socially with one another.

            “Someone is watching you. Or, someone is probably watching you. Or you feel like someone’s watching you. So you follow the rules whether someone is watching you or not” (Lockhart).

            This idea can definitely apply to many of my everyday thoughts and I think it can be applied to a lot of social situations. For example, maybe I don’t take that extra cookie from Commons after dinner because somehow someone will know that I already had one at lunch. Obviously that’s an extreme example and it wouldn’t be breaking any rules, but still I would be manipulated by the idea of someone seeing me.

            Basically this asks the question whether we follow rules (social or other) because we just think we should, or because we have this idea that someone would know if we didn’t.

#Subtweet

So, after about the 2nd email we received yesterday telling everyone that there was a lockdown and shelter-in-place, a friend who will remain anonymous said in a group chat "where are you guys? I'm outside commons in the sun". what?! uhh...theres a bomb threat and possible shooter on campus...but uh ok..

This, among other things yesterday, made me think a lot about choices. Like Lily said in her blog post, I was also thinking about the choices people made yesterday of whether to leave the lockdown or stay where they were. I was in the science center for 7 hours yesterday, and I decided not to leave until they sent out an email lifting the lockdown. Lily brought up two possible reasons people could have made the choice to stay where they were. Honestly, I think both of her reasons were accurate for me. I was genuinely still scared, and I was also scared of getting in trouble because I heard people were getting written up for going outside. Although in some cases we shouldn’t have to do or not do things because of a fear of authority, in this kind of situation, I don’t think it was a bad thing. The authority on campus yesterday were faculty, campus security, and all the police forces on campus. Their number one concern was for everyone’s safety. I think some people took that for granted yesterday when they decided to disobey authority and leave the lockdown. Yes, there was no real danger- but what if there was? Things of these sorts have happened at many other campuses, leaving many people killed or injured. I am so grateful that we got so lucky. Personally, I do not think it is worth the risk.

“Drove to work in an 80,000$ Mercedes, I’m driving home in a prop car from the Fast and the Furious.” -Ari Gold, Entourage Season 2 Episode 13.

Despite the fact that I think Entourage may be one of the best shows ever made, this classic Ari Gold oneliner always struck me as funny. SPOILER ALERT: Some context: Ari has just been fired from his job at a major Hollywood agency, and his company car was reclaimed by said company. Therefore, he gets a ride home from his assistant, Lloyd, who is driving a souped up street car.

What I find interesting is that while Ari’s Mercedes may have cost more than Lloyd’s “prop car,” why should that make any difference? I have personally seen lowered Honda Civic’s (not nearly in a Mercedes’ price range) that are faster or have better acceleration than Ari’s car. Furthermore, as someone who is familiar with the Fast and Furious franchise, I also happen to know that some of the cars to which Ari is referring to are described to have more than 100,000$ of aftermarket modifications, making them far more pricey than 80,000$ in the long run.

So why does Ari seem so down on the idea of a Fast and Furious prop car? This has manipulation on two sides, as both Ari has been manipulated by his car’s company, and Ari is counting on his car’s company to manipulate others. He has been manipulated into thinking a Mercedes shows off wealth and a lavish lifestyle, and is counting on that manipulation, and the widely advertised high price a Mercedes emblem carries with it, to carry on to others. Therefore, I think that this one line shows just how subconsciously manipulation can affect not only our decisions but our judgements (which car you buy vs. how seeing what someone drives effects your view of them).

Split Stories

Okay, I know we’re supposed to be paying attention to the things going on around us and posting about those, but I just read a story that really made me think about what we’ve been talking about in this course, so I’m going to write about that. Earlier this month I read a story within Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” titled The Bath. After really enjoying his type of stories, I ordered another collection. Upon reading this second collection today, I came upon a story titled A Small, Good Thing. The first five or six pages of this story read exactly the same as The Bath. For a bit, I was concerned that the two collection had some sort of overlap. However, as I continued to read, I noticed various changes within the story begin to take form.

I suppose at this point I should summarize the story. A young boy is hit by a car on his birthday. He falls into a deep coma, and the rest of the story is that of his parents, dealing with the aftermath and uncertainty. In the first version I read, the ending is ambiguous, leaving the reader wondering if the phone call the mother is receiving is from the hospital, or from a disgruntled baker. The reader has the choice of assuming the worst or hoping for the best. However, this ambiguity is missing from the second version of the story. The boy awakens, screams for a short while, and dies. This version ends, rather, with the boy’s parents being comforted by a baker in the night.

After reading the two stories I am left wondering whether I read one story told two different ways, or two stories, each with their own motivations and purposes, united by some common traits but ultimately different. I’m still not sure which it is, but I like the idea that Carver was able to create this world, and return to it later on in order to tell a completely different story with the same exact setup.

Manipulation by Technology

After thinking about manipulation for so long I concluded that literally everything manipulates us…or at least can be manipulated into seeming like it manipulates us (?).  The biggest form of manipulation I've paid attention to in the last week, though, is technology, specifically social media and communication. This idea ranges from a phone call that made our entire college campus shelter in place, to simple posts on social media portraying false emotions/identities. Technology creates a cloak of anonymity which breaks down inhibitions and fears because consequences have been eliminated. There is a world of bashing, bullying, threatening and more that is made so much more possible by the distance technology creates.  The bomb threat yesterday is a perfect example of technologies manipulation on people, as all this person needed to do was dial campo’s number and say bomb to freeze 2,000 people in their place. Technology does not just hide identities, it also creates whole new ones. Anyone can post false information, manipulating others on the internet into thinking they are someone else (catfish). People post what they want you to see and judge them for, creating false personas and manipulation. Sites like Facebook aim to portray full identities using features like “timeline”, which forces us to put together a full scope of our lives since birth with words, photos and pixels. Our world has become shaped by technology from the largest to the smallest of scales and in the best and worst of ways. It is, or seems like, the most prominent manipulator in my world today.

I'm really gullible.

If I’m being blunt, (which I usually am on these blog posts because I feel like the nature of this class allows me to do that) I’m bothered by how we have to focus so much on manipulation for the next few classes because it only elucidates how gullible I really am.

Here’s an example: I live in Dunham. This afternoon when I was walking back up to my room, I tried to go in the bathroom but was stopped in the hall by a friend who said “Ooooh, I don’t know if you wanna go in there, Sarah. Someone was in there before physical plant shut off the water and messed with the pipes so it overflowed and now there’s piss all over the floor.” I was so flippin’ annoyed, not just because I wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom for however long, but because I WAS ACTUALLY ABLE TO USE THE BATHROOM THE ENTIRE TIME. I walked by the bathroom again 10 minutes later and saw someone walk out totally not grossed out. Apparently, the water was shut off for a while, but there wasn’t pee anywhere… it was just water drainage from the sink area that was pooling up and I guess my friend was assuming the worst. The ACTUAL worst is the fact that I blindly believed her and was almost manipulated to take her word for it, for whatever reason. If all I needed to do was fill up my Nalgene, then why did the stall area even matter to me? Why did I let myself feel like I was dying of dehydration for those 10 minutes? I guess I was persuaded by her disgust and body language, but I feel like that’s hardy a valid reason. (Also I'm not completely sure how relevant this story was, sorry.)

In my defense, Dunham (AKA the dirty D) is nasty a lot of the time maybe it wasn’t entirely gullible of me to take her word for it but still, it’s the little things like this that remind me that I don’t always have to try to believe everyone, and that I can use my own senses to guide me instead of having complete faith in others.

What's Actually Happening?

This bomb/shooter threat has me wondering how much of what the faculty reveals to us is true.  The administration could be completely feeding us false information to keep us from falling into a state of mass hysteria.  As they siphon us information, I am trapped in my organic chemistry class without food or water, and am not allowed to leave.  I understand that they are taking precautionary measures, but they asked students to evacuate the entire dark-side of campus, which requires them to walk outside in broad daylight.  That can’t be very safe.  If they’re asking students to walk across campus on the dark side (where the actual threat is) why can’t I just go to my room on the light side from the science center?  Awfully suspicious to me.

Also, why would an intended criminal announce to the entire campus that he plans to act against the law?  No one that plans to commit crimes just announces to everyone that he will complete these acts.  Again, I understand this is a precautionary measure, but it’s 2015; this is ridiculous. Trace the goddamn phone call, find the person who called, and scan the “suspicious” bags.  The administration is acting strange in their handling of this issue.  I’m not saying I have better plans than they do, but I feel as though some of these actions are contradictory and mildly unnecessary.  I doubt anyone was actually seen making any threats.  The only suspicious activity is a vague phone call and a bag someone left on the floor of KJ.  Now I have lost the most beautiful day of the year (thus far) and valuable study time that I need for the excessive amount of work I have this week.

End Rant.

Food Choices

I know that when I was a highschooler, everything at a college seemed fascinating to me. So when the tour guide would say things like "we have a sushi bar," it would make me feel like "wow, this school's got everything." But in reality, the sushi bar only has two kinds of sushi. There's also a myth on campus that when families come to visit, the food just so happens to get a a lot better which may or may not be true. Even before we came to the school, we were manipulated.

At Hamilton, I would say that the food choices are decent. To be honest, I think that the amount of choices in food that we have are very limited. Sure, the salad bar and sandwich bar are alright and the pizza can sometimes actually be pretty tasty. But at dining halls like Mcewen and Commons, aside from those things, there really isn't much. The "hot food" section, minus the steamed vegetables which sometimes taste raw, usually only has around two to three main dishes that taste good.  Especially since the sushi bar at Commons and the global food section at Mcewen aren't very authentic sometimes, it gives the students few options to choose from. The diner is definitely on the higher end of the spectrum since it has a pretty good menu and the food actually does taste good. So the diner would probably be a good option but it can also be considered limited since it has set number of available options. So as students, we are manipulated sometimes to just settle for what food looks or sounds good.

I'm not trying to criticize the food here at Hamilton. I do sometimes actually like the food, but it's just that when you really look at it, the options are always limited. But it's understandable that at a school with a relatively small campus and population of students compared to other colleges and universities, we wouldn't really find it necessary to have 8 dining halls. Even if the food at both Commons and Mcewen isn't very good and you're not in the mood for diner, there's always the option of ordering out and even then there aren't that many restaurants around campus to choose from.

Manipulation In The Bunker

Although yesterday was by no means an average day, it was packed with manipulation. A few people have already touched on this in their posts, but I think there is a little more to say so I'll mention a few things... 

For one, it was fascinating to witness people's responses to the threats. I was locked among 80 others in the commons basement for 6 and a half hours, but I did not witness a single person cry. The most frazzled person I saw took laps around the cramped space and religiously got up and tried to hear the conversation the woman was having on the main commons telephone line whenever it rang. Mostly, people wanted to get the hell out of the basement- with no regard to what was happening outside. This could be interpreted as a way around the manipulation- the administration told us to stay locked in, but we said hell no and left anyway. (For the record I wasn't one of those that left... More on that later.) But were they really leaving at their own will? Or did the comfort of their dorms and the talk of their friends lead them to take a risk they would otherwise not have taken? Of course, in retrospect, there was no danger. But at the time, leaving a lockdown with a potential shooter walking around campus, is pretty dangerous. The police were sweeping the dark side, so yes, the light side was in theory void of danger- but, that also means no one was checking the light side for a shooter... And those that stayed, were they staying because they thought it was the best thing to do, or because they were being manipulated by fear of disobeying authority? 

Second, I found that a lot of people seemed to be inadvertently manipulating themselves to pass the time. I'd say at least 30% of the people stuck seemed to be enjoying themselves (myself included). Two friends and I befriended some strangers and played some trail bonding games and got to know each other really well (all the time texting everyone we knew making sure they were safe and telling our families not to worry.) We made jokes about how we were like from the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmit, "we met in and escaped the bunker!" I think we are all pretty good at distracting ourselves with television and entertainment, all in an attempt to avoid what is really happening. In fact, we all probably manipulate ourselves daily without even being fully aware of it. 

Make Tea for The Hounds of Hell

Just finished choosing courses for next semester, then spent a little more time replanning the courses for my Hamilton career.

2 labs and third term Japanese plus Socio for junior fall. Then there’ re bio-biochem, chem-biochem, linguistic analysis in anime and manga, psychology, genomes and another semester of physics. Bruh.

So, assuming work-studies and training remaining manageable, I can only wish to remain in one piece after getting a Biochem major and Japanese minor. Things wouldn’t have been this bad, to be honest, had I knocked down orgo and calc my freshman year. I think about that all the time you know. The hypotheticals. The could-haves, should-haves, would-haves. The easy road. The one where I didn’t spend weekend nights bunkering down in the library reading Buddhist scripts for Art History or re-watching Un Chien Andalou for Theories of Films. The one where I just stick to being the science kind of guy.

But then I wouldn’t have had no freaking clue of what to say when people start hammering questions about Buddhism. About why samurais and Zen could co-exist in feudal Japan. About why samurais withered but Zen evolved. About why dichotomy between avant-garde and commercial films exist and how useless it is to study each in isolation. I wouldn’t have had anything interesting to say to break the ice in awkward first encounters. I wouldn’t have had no experience performing under different modes of pressure.

So kill the Buddha, as one koan would often go, and make tea for the hounds of hell, as I would often say. Don’t have to if you don’t want to, really. It’s your choice. But you're already here at Hamilton, so as Will Ferrell has eloquently put it,

Enjoy spring while you still can.

The Future (UGGGG!)

I am one of the many who countlessly stresses about the future. Not just the next week, although thanks these so call “midtermish exams” that’s hell, but the real future. For example, what they hell am I going to do after college, what will be my career, will I get married and have kids etc. I feel this hovering pressure from the future constantly saying, “yo Kylie, get you shit together so you can be successful and happy.” What does that even mean? Is my life going to be measured in terms of how much money I make, or my general happiness, well no, but yes. Let me explain. I believe that we are all manipulated by the “American Dream.” We know what it means, that there is this path to infinite glory that we all have the potential to attain, but the problem is “this path” clearly indicated that there is only one path. We really have one/ no choice at all. We are pressured from parents, friends, and college, that in order to live a fulfilling life we need to have a good job, and be financially stable, of course that is important, but honestly that’s bull.  I feel that we have been trained and manipulated to believe that the American Dream revolves around money and power. So much of what I am deciding on what to major in is due to what will get me the best job in the future, not necessarily what I want to do. It is so hard to shake that pressure because it is so dominate. I just think people would be so much happier here and everywhere if they really started to find their own path and not the one we all so eagerly try to take, because for a lot of us that path only bring misery. Long story short, we all need to find what WE want to do and be the directors of our OWN lives.

Choosing classes for next semester

Choosing courses for next semester is a great example of how limited choice can be. I’m sitting here at my computer searching through the course catalog struggling to decide what to take. I only have to take one course for my major which most people would call a blessing, but I’ve found myself wishing I had more mandatory classes. I’ve found much of the course catalog to be uninspiring and part of me wishes I had someone to just tell me what to take. I’ve asked friends for suggestions and even had my parents look through the listings themselves. Even though there are dozens of departments with dozens of courses each, I don’t feel like I have many options. On the whole I can only take higher-level courses within my major. Many 200-level and above courses have prerequisites, which means I can only take courses in departments in which I’ve taken the introductory course. This forces me to find another department to focus on besides my major. Therefore should I be minoring? Minoring puts me on a predetermined track, which decides many of my classes for me. That’s what I was asking for earlier so maybe that’s a good thing. I started with a 200-level course this semester and I really enjoy it, but if I want to get the minor I need the intro-level course, which honestly does not excite me. Do I take a course I’m not that excited about to earn a seemingly arbitrary title or do I take another 200-level course that I think I will enjoy much more? Employers would like it if I had a minor, right? It shows focus, right? These are the questions that will continue to run through my mind for the next two days and I’m sure beyond. Right now I feel like I have huge choices to make and I won’t know if I made the right decisions until after the choices are made. This feels a lot like House of Danger. In the end does it really matter which choice I make?