Man Hugs

Urban Dictionary is generally regarded to be a source of amusement. Such concepts such as a Cleveland Steamer, Tennessee Log Jammer and Dirty Sanchez were brought into the public eye by the website. However, conceptually speaking, Urban Dictionary is an immense assessment of the English language. I have encountered individuals in my life who are offended by the word "gay". Understandably so, as this word is usually said with very negative connotations by people in the heterosexual community. However, the classical definition of the word is "happy". Why then, does nobody in our modern society use the word that way? Simply put, if 99% of the population which uses a language uses a word in a different way than it traditionally is used, isn't that linguistically accurate? Language is a living thing that grows and changes over time.

Urban Dictionary provides the following definition for the word "Bro":

Obnoxious partying males who are often seen at college parties. When they aren’t making an ass of themselves they usually just stand around holding a red plastic cup waiting for something exciting to happen so they can scream something that demonstrates how much they enjoy partying. ... They often wear a rugby shirt and a baseball cap. It is not uncommon for them to have spiked hair with frosted tips.

This is the common definition of the word bro. I live on a college campus, and therefore have a chance to observe the behavior of bros quite frequently. The other day I was forced to halt my walking down a particular hallway while two bros hugged very animatedly and obviously in front of me before laughing and walking in opposite directions. I laughed at them before I realized that was exactly their intent. The sole purpose of the encounter was to get attention and hopefully amuse those who observed it.

A hug, for me, is a very non sexual expression of affection. It also occurred to me that although women can hug other women and men without anybody thinking twice about it, men are unable to engage in such preposterous activities. It seems to me that there are only two types of men who hug other men. Those who do it for amusement and those who do it to legitimately express appreciation and affection. This is an extremely simple classification, but it is important to look at why each class chooses to act the way they do.

We have established that the bros do it for amusement, but they also do it because of society places a taboo on heterosexual men showing emotion at all. In fact, they cannot express their love for another man without being outcast by the other men who are afraid of the same fate. And thus the problem persists. Most men, and even most people in today's society lack the emotional maturity to observe such things in themselves.

The other group of people simply do not care about what society says about the action. This is composed primarily of the very young, and the elderly. They do not care about what society says.

In conclusion I hope that we can all take note of our basic feelings and express our thoughts and emotions as mature people. We all must coexist in the same world, why would we spend all our time worrying about what others think about us, when we could be working together to achieve happiness.

My Opinions Used to Matter When I Was Young

Today while I was in class, my instructor said something that spurred some thoughts from me. He was making a point and said “I remember I thought my opinions were important, because I was young.” And this made me wonder, why does society tell us that youth are unable to have intelligent and profound ideas and opinions? There is a great irony in this, because society is obsessed with maintaining youth was we age, yet as we age we express how we have gained wisdom.
Arguments can be made that age does generally equal experience. This is true, if we are only considering volume of experience. However; this is generally regarded to mean the same thing as age equals knowledge. This is not true, age is not equivalent to knowledge, even though obviously it is related. One could not expect a third grader to understand the finer points of quantum mechanics, but then again, just because somebody is 50, doesn’t mean they understand it either. We all have different experiences and therefore different reactions and understandings of the world around us.
Knowledge itself is also not related to age, 200 years ago, the knowledge that was available for a man to gain was seriously limited in it’s scope. Today, a man half the age of a scholar of 200 years prior can have just as much relevant knowledge. Because of this fact, it is important to ask why age is a deciding factor. If we can accept that knowledge is easier to accumulate because of the age we live in, then why is it impossible to accept that certain people may have had experiences that have given them more than adequate knowledge about some things? This means that we should be evaluated on mental capacity and ability rather than age.
We have all heard the story of the semi truck that attempted to drive under a bridge that was too low. The trailer got wedged underneath and would not budge. The fire department, engineers and police could not figure how to dislodge the vehicle. A mother and her little boy were walking by, and the boy looks at the situation and asks his mother “How come they don’t let the air out of the tires?”. This solution proved to be most effective.
It seems to me that age is the most common form of prejudice in this world. We set age limits on many things like driving, smoking, drinking, ect. However we all know somebody who abuses alcohol, or who is a terrible driver despite their age. There is nothing magical that happens to a person as soon as they turn a year older that would allow them to more effectively or safely engage in some activities. All I want to say is that we should all listen to what the other has to say, because you never know what you might learn.

Let's Learn Together

I have been considering starting a blog for some time now. I know many people who blog often, and I myself enjoy reading them. The biggest problem I have seen with these blogs that the average person writes, is the self righteousness of them. I understand that this is more or less the nature of the beast. We cannot write about things that we do not know personally. This usually means that we feel the need to interject our biases into the writing.

I want to explore the values and complexities that I experience in my somewhat normal life. For academic reasons, I would like to analyze and explore issues of life. Sometimes these will be moral, sometimes it will be aspects of living as a society, sometimes it will be about media. My primary purpose in this blog is to spur discussion in an academic way.

Let me give you some background about myself:
I am a 20 year old male college student, I am studying computer engineering, but am fascinated by society and people. I want to have a better understanding of the world around me. Because of this, I am a very open minded person. I have strong opinions and beliefs, but always want to hear from somebody else's point of view. I am presently enrolled full time at a university in Idaho, and work two part time jobs.

In conclusion, I hope that my age will not turn you off to my opinions. On the contrary, I fully understand that with experience comes knowledge, and I am always learning, so let's learn together.