Anyways... onto the next question.
"How do you identify 'your people?' How is this identity formed by the considerations of ethnos, nomos, mythos, archon, and techne."
Well, my identity is something that I've long pondered myself. My people, specifically my family, is complex. We believe in strong family bonds, and yet, my parents are not on great terms with their family. Yet, their own failures only strengthened a new beginning. I was taught family dinners and supporting each other was important. I've taken classes in ROTC and have been trained on how to follow, and lead, but I prefer to avoid any responsibility because it tips balances and scales. I love to write, but I'd rather have a career in psychology and talk to people.
Ethnos is a little challenging because there is no specific way to measure it. I am open-minded, and love reading and writing. Through this, I hunt down old books, participate in learning everything I can get my hands on, and strive to enter new worlds at every opportunity. I like to think that music defines me, and that my genre of music is broad, like my goals and ambitions. An example of this would be that I've gotten my hair cornrowed and I wear slinkies as a sign of fashion style. This holds no relative meaning to nobody but me, and I enjoy this.
This identity is tragically not formed by nomos in any way. This is partially because my family cut all ties, in a sense, to create new ones. I realize that I am the first, as far as I know, to go to Clemson, to enter into Psychology, and to strive towards writing. This can be challenging at times having no specific help or advice through family, but I have support and that is good enough for me.
Mythos is actually a motivator for me. My mother and father aren't specifically bound by standards or roles. Both of my parents cook, both of my parents participated in raising my brothers and I, and each one has had various backgrounds in government jobs, traveling, making new friends, so on, and so forth. They have taught me that I should try to pave my own story, and to make a difference in my own way.
Archon is another one that is challenging. If you were to research me, you probably wouldn't find very much. It is true that I have a MySpace and a FaceBook account, but if you were to view it, you wouldn't find very much. I don't have any albums of music or photos posted. I don't have any stories or tales, and honestly, I would much rather be making the new adventures and creating stories than to be documenting and archiving tales of exaggerated feats. My life is something others have to choose to participate in. It isn't enough for my "friends" to sit on the sideline and comment on it.
Last, for techne, this is a bit problematic. All I own are my personal belongings. All I have is between my home and here at Clemson. And all I that I will leave behind are in the process of becoming "something". If you were to travel to Green Sea Floyds, you would find that I was a Battalion Commander for two years, and the only one who attained the level of Cadet Colonel. Unfortunately, this was in a school where my graduating class was eighty-one, so my legacy doesn't really live on.
Overall, I am not really complicating, I'm really simple. Complex insight may be required, but it's only to look at different angles. Why I get there isn't as important as how I get there.
In the meantime, stay tuned for next week's posting and enjoy this picture from my past. Not many people get to see it.
xD
William - expand on "ethnos" by asking "When I say 'we' - who is this 'we'?" This will help identify one particular community among which you create meaning though visual, textual, and aural ways of communicating. (You may indeed be a member of more than one community - but focus on one.) Then, among this 'we' community - how does muthos and archon and techne help your community create meaning?
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