Audri Swisher's Blog

A common theme emerged when I was looking over the blog posts of the last several weeks: change vs. tradition.

In our very first reading, calliagnosia presents a huge change for society – taking away our ability to judge a person’s face by its appearance. The author likely wants us to reevaluate how we have traditionally viewed people and consider what good might result from a change.

Cicero, in our second reading, compares how men had lived in the past (who had determined not by reason, but by brute strength) with the eloquent men of his time. He recognizes the changes in and history of eloquence, and much of what he said can still be applied today.

The authors of “The Televised Sports Manhood Formula” analyze and define manhood according to a range of different sports on television. This definition, for the most part, follows the traditional views of what it means to be a man: aggressive, gutsy, a fighter; someone who’s willing to compromise his own health to win. LZ Granderson, on the other hand, wonders if sports could eventually take a step ahead of the rest of society to redefine what it means to be manly.

In our fourth reading, we learned about fractals and their first pioneer, Benoit Mandelbrot. He flew in the face of classical mathematics with his discovery of fractal geometry. Traditionally, math was limited to smooth lines and regularity. However, in the 1970s, Mandelbrot pointed to the seeming chaos of nature and claimed that fractals could describe its patterns, as classical geometry described man-made patterns – a huge step forward in mathematical thinking.

Finally, we come to Vonnegut. Vonnegut discussed some of the changes that science brought in his lifetime and called for abandoning capitalism in favor of socialism. I believe he tried to change the world for the better with his satire.

My other tie-in for all of the blog posts has less to do with their topics and more to do with our discussion. It’s intriguing to me to see the different perspectives on these varied subjects. I tend to read the articles and have a certain expectation for what everyone else will think, and I’m always surprised where the discussion leads. So…I’d add “unexpectedness” to my theme.

(Re: title of today’s post – it’s from Fiddler on the Roof. Watch it. 🙂 )