Truth

Is it possible to have total, absolute truth?

What is knowledge but a set of ideas that someone else came up with because they based it off someone else's set of ideas, who based it off of someone else's ideas, who based it off of....

Are our attempts at creating notions of unbiasedness, of scientific objectivity, an exercise in futility? Every person, in speaking, thinking, creating, communicating, imparts on their creation apart of themselves. How naive are we to think that there can be some ideal, some "ideal type" as Weber calls it, of truth?

If truth, then, is a spectrum, who has the rigtht to judge what is "more true" and "less true"? Is who we deem has the right a reflection of our values in society?

Let's be a little more concrete here: Medicine. Who's account of a person's condition is more "true"? The doctor's diagnosis, or the patient's story? If within the discourse between doctor and patient during consultation results in an agreement of outcome, is that the ultimate "truth" that should be considered? If they happen to disagree, is it the patient's prerogative to believe in their truth, or the doctor's? Should we judge quality of healthcare based on happiness and satisfaction of the patient, or the seemingly "unbiased" diagnosis of the doctor? What gives the doctor, or the patient, the right to claim "truth"?

If objectivity is an exercise in futility, then is it the process towards objectivity that is important? However, if objectivity, or truth, is not even an achievable consequence, then is the process, the procedure, the pathway towards a perceived objectivity even worth trying?

It's a paradox really: my questions beg the truth, even though I claim there is no such thing.

**side note**
We're reading Foucault in theory, and studying medical research in Health and Aging. I can't help that these things are tossing and turning in my head. Haha. Maybe a real personal update should be coming up next. I do need to get in the habit of posting. Sorry for taking so long!

Collective Effervescence

I have to say, never have I been more proud to be an American. I feel like its really shocking for me to say this, since I've never defined myself as an "American" (side effect of living overseas), and have always felt comfortable to observe patriotism from a distance. I don't have strong political leanings either way, and am wary towards anyone with a strong fervor for their nation. But tonight...I don't think that anyone can deny the magnitude of what happened tonight.

What I just experienced was more powerful than any political figure, any piece of legislation, anything political. Tonight I feel like something transformed the political, and made it real.

Tonight I felt the spirit of hope and change. It sounds cheesy, I know, but I don't think I can compare what I felt tonight with anything else. People spontaneously rushing through the streets, waving the American flag, singing the Star Spangled Banner, hugging, kissing, and crying with everyone around them, honking their horns, shouts of "YES WE CAN"....to be a complete sociologist at the moment--a true vision of collective effervescence.

And then hearing, that this was happening everywhere. This is not a phenomenon that was isolated in the little liberal town of Ann Arbor...it was in Chicago, in Dallas, even all around the world! That a single man, and a single hope for change, can unite so many people, cut across all strata...what an amazing power...

Nobody thought it would happen. And look at tonight. Look at what this inspired. Think about all the possibilities. If we can harness this feeling, this hope, this optimism, perhaps that is the answer to all of our troubles.

I can post about so much more (the speech, the votes, the progression of the day), but I really just want to leave with one thought.

Think of all the possibilities.

Yes We Can.