The Anniversary of Last Years Election

Today is the day. It's the anniversary of the time when I took voting seriously. I didn't take it seriously because I am a female and there was a female runner, Hillary Clinton. I took it seriously because I was now thinking for myself. I no longer felt like I had to go with the majority of my family members. I was doing this for me. And even though I didn't vote for Hillary, I certainly didn't vote for Trump. I voted for the green party. Some say that I wasted my vote, but I don't think so. I voted with my conscious and that told me, after all my research that I shouldn't vote for either candidate.

I thought back to the research I did and the current political rhetoric. I also thought of the literary narratives being used by the POTUS. I remembered the Medium is the Message book. In there, McCluhan quotes Pope Pius XII. “It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of modern society and the stability of its inner life depend in large part on the maintenance of an equilibrium between the strength of the techniques of communication and the capacity of the individual’s own reaction.” Pope Pius XII stated this in 1950 and, like the text from the 70s it is still true. The reaction from the tweets of the President show mostly a sense of distaste and anger. This is the reaction of the individuals who either do or do not take the tweets seriously.

We have seen that over time the ways in which we use literacies indeed have an effect on how we react to the medium of literacy. Plato wanted his text for only his followers so that what he wrote, if challenged, could be defended. Whereas, the President wants everyone to see his texts, regardless if anyone challenges him or not, and most people do. And, like Plato he is ready to defend the writing, or tweeting. Which he does at any given moment. He is the most unprecedented POTUS in the history of the 20th and 21st centuries. 

I often wonder now, after a year later, what would be different if Hillary had one or even if a third party won. It would be the first time ever in history for both situations. Would we be in the situations we have now if one of them had won instead. Would we be where we are this year if the outcome had changed?   

Social Media and Politics

Hello again. I am still in the days before the anniversary of my political choice. I have gone over my thoughts from that week last year and found more from Plato and also modern day authors, Gee, and McCluhan. Gee states, “The most striking continuity in the history of literacy is the way in which literacy has been used, in age after age, to solidify the social hierarchy, empower elites, and ensure that people lower on the hierarchy accept the values, norms, and beliefs of the elites, even when it is not in their self-interest or group interest to do so.” 

A frown crosses my face as I think of last years outcome. I begin to wonder, like many others did last year, how did this happen? I then fast forward to the present and ponder on the words I studied before I made my choice. I realized that I could really relate it to the present day with the new POTUS (President Of The United States). Or, not my POTUS or MAGA (Make America Great Again) happy people, like my parents. My dad called it, Christmas in November. 

I realized that although Gee's text was written in the 1970s it still applies in the 21st century (today). For example, our recent Commander in Chief uses the medium of Twitter to imply that all classes, not just the lower ones, should accept his text or tweets, as official words from the office of the Presidency. Is this a form that can be undisputed like Plato suggested? Or, due to the comment feature, can the questions of “what do you mean,” be asked and then answered?