It's been over a year and a half since my last post on here... which isn't to say that I haven't been thinking about place and politics. In fact, I've entered graduate school now, to study more deeply in the area of geography, and particularly regional economic development. I felt it was time to revive this blog, as I can now use it as an outlet for all the many thoughts and theories that are flowing through my mind, as well as my personal interpretations of current affairs.
Another thing has changed in the last 18 months: my geographic place. I am now in Wales. Full circle you could say, after years in Canada and Iran. It's interesting to be back and to be absorbing myself in the mindset and the educational system of what was the world's most powerful colonial power until arguably only a half-century ago. The UK is a country with a far richer history one could argue, than Canada. As always, the transition to another country has given me more perspective on all the other places I've been to. As always, I feel I've relived my whole life through this new perspective again.
The place or places we occupy in life affect our views on just about everything. That is why I chose to title this blog the way I did. Some people might think that their thoughts, feelings, and opinions are uniquely their own, and a result of their own independence and thought. I think that perhaps this is never the case. We are, as human beings with the ability to communicate, to understand and absorb, always the product of our environments, our opinions and thoughts and feelings come about through systems of understanding that we are exposed to, taught or implicated in. All these things come to us through a the greater social context of where we live, but also where our families our from.
This is not to say that we do not have the ability to manipulate and reshape those opinions. Far from it in fact. By understanding the influences that have formed our frameworks of understanding, we are in the position to take them apart and to rebuild them. And this is something that I would encourage every thinking being to do.
These are exciting times we are living in. Times in which power has been decentralized so dramatically that suddenly the citizen is not simply a pawn in the political game of the elite, but is a player in that game, with a plethora of options, and with access (at least for those of us lucky enough to live in a country that provides this) to vast amounts of information and knowledge. Never before has communication, dissemination of information and perhaps mobilization been so accessible and possible. Knowledge is power. Communication is power. And today, we citizens have more power than ever before.
But there's a catch. It may be true that anyone with access to the internet can now publish a blog, an article, an opinion peice, but then what? The blog world, the internet world in general, needs editors. But besides that, it's more important than ever to be able to think for yourself. And if you're not sure exactly why you hold an opinion that you do, it's probably because it's been fed to you. Also, it's no good going out there with the intention of simply confirming what you've already decided. You need to seriously consider all the opposing points of view.
And so, those are my somewhat scattered thoughts for the day. I will leave it there to continue my studying for now, but will be back with more thoughts soon.
