Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Incredible People

In EDUC229 lecture today, Joanna Kidman introduced a phenomenon in sociology called "moral panic". Moral panic, in brief, is a phenomenon in which an outbreak of an event or a situation leads to a massive changes of a norms or beliefs in a society. Okay, that may not be the exact meaning of it. I made that definition on my own. Back to the lecture. Joanna also introduced us Stanley Cohen's theory regarding the phenomenon of this moral panic. You see, in learning these things we were exposed to a line of historical events as an example of moral panics around the world such as the emergence of Rock'n'Rolls era and the culture of binge drinking in the effort to highlight the role media - the music, filming and fashion industries - has played towards and against moral panic.

Okay, it wasn't my intention to discuss about moral panic or whatnot. I'm not interested in it. I'm not really interested in sociology, especially when it has a lot to do with economy and history. I'm a pragmatic person who lives on the moment and aims for the near future, though I sometimes look back at the past using my side-mirror. There is a need to look at the past and the incredibly outstanding thinkers who brought about changes to the world today. In EDUC229 lecture, those great thinkers and revolutionists didn't amaze me much. What amazes me the most is Joanna's incomparable ability in lulling me to sleep in almost each and every lecture (except the ones about anarchism and Summerhill). I'd like to refer to this phenomenon in which I become sleepy after five to ten minutes of her lecture as academic panic because her very speech brings about a massive changes to my ability to focus on listening and lulls me to sleep.

~p/s: Sorry Joanna Kidman for this entry. You're so incredible, and never ceased to amaze me with your ability to lull me to sleep. Take this as a compliment eh? Hee~

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