Leadership Journal #6
Thursday. February 16, 2017. Douglas Hall. Class 940–11
During this time we finished up the spirits in the material world module. In this class period we made modern relations to the practice of portraiture. We were speaking of Alexander the Great and his stark control over her public image. Alexander the Great had an official image that he’d approved and only gave approval to one artist to create his likeness. We spoke about the way that we create and control a public image in modern day. I believe it was Bria that made the parallel to Social Media. I immediately thought about Alexander’s desire to control his public image and related it to how when people take a picture together to be posted on social media it is seen as discourteous if you don’t get approval from all the people in the picture before posting it. This is so that each person can approve of the image of themselves shown in the picture and through this control their overall public image. We were speaking about the ways in which people try to control their social medias. First, our “handles” or in my case “instagram name.” This is supposed to be some sort of short, clever statement of identity. My instagram name is “hervibesgood.” I hope to portray multiple messages just through this. First of all my identity as a woman, and then my focus on “vibes” to communicate my free spiritedness and what my father calls my “hippy-dippyness” through calling attention to my belief in energies and vibes. And then my saying I have good vibes as to be a selling point. Meant to communicate that my page, and my personality is positive in nature. Next and one of the most interesting parts of social media to me is a bio. A social media site asks you to summarize who you are in 100 characters or less. This bio is to serve as our “hook.” A hook in elementary school we learned was to go at the beginning of the introduction and it was meant to pull people's interest and get them to want to keep reading. In Bios we are trying to “hook” whoever happens upon our pages into following us or at least leave them thinking that we are interesting.
My bio is to communicate my name and my silliness and sense of humor through the Vulcan salute next to it. The “mix of melanin, shea butter & gold” is to express my pride in my blackness. The “I’m glad you exist” again to express my positivity and to send a positive message to anyone passing by my page. And the last line obviously to give where I am from and where I live now as well as to express that I’m pursuing higher education. Many people spend time thinking of a theme for pages, editing each picture to match the theme, and spend time editing pictures to make themselves look closer to some idea of perfection. I personally don’t have the patience for editing. I also don’t take the time to create and follow a theme for my page, partially I think out of a lack of discipline but also I get bored easily and think I’d grow tired of a uniformity. I also think that the random nature of my posts and page layout overall reinforces the message of a free spirited nature.
Also in class we analyzed the page photos for Donald Trump and compared it to the photo of Barack Obama .Looking at this picture I am pretty grossed out. His intense stare is meant to portray strength but the fact that he’s trying so hard to appear to be strong makes me question his strength. Also the orange tint to his skin and horribly wrinkled skin along with his pale and ashy lips makes him look extremely unhealthy and overall extremely attractive. He ran in part stressing the fact that he is not a politician and that was to work in his favor. But in this picture he looks like every other aged white male republican politician to me.
Overall during the class period we spoke about public image and the desire for people to put forth the best image of themselves. Dr. Sandridge let the class out leaving us with the question of what the best version of ourselves looks like.
For me the “best version of myself” means a version of myself that expresses my nature and personality. For me one thing that I know without question is that this picture would include my afro being out in full force and picked out at the root so it is large and voluminous in size. I’d want to be somewhere in nature looking happy and peaceful.
Sunday. February 19 2017 Douglas 5–630pm
During this time I went to my second meeting in preparation for my Alternative Spring Break trip to Lumberton. I’m getting more and more excited for the trip as more of the plans come together. I volunteer all the time but I believe this trip will be an irreplaceable one being that it’s an entire week dedicated to helping others. I believe this trip will help make me a more whole and well rounded person and a greater leader in my community.
Monday . February 20 2017 Home 7–1030pm
During this time I started the module “A Political Thriller.” On the opening page one a question is posed ,
“Modern Connections: Is rhetoric still a path to leadership?”
I do think Rhetoric is still the path to gaining power and leadership positions. Especially in American culture the way a leader speaks is thought to say a lot about the character of that leader. In our political debates, the points of leader hopefuls are criticized less than the actual delivery of these views and their choices of rhetoric. I don’t see how anyone could gain political power in American society without the use of rhetoric.
In the first step there was a video that would not work for me. The second video however
Tuesday. February 21, 2017. Class. Douglas. 940–11 am
During this class period we began our conversation on “A Political Thriller.” We took this class period to speak about the setting and stage for our current module as well as to speak about types of oration rhetoric and their explanations. We then went through as a class, the modules that we’d spoken about in the past and pointed out examples of uses of rhetoric that we’ve seen thus far.
Types of Rhetoric:
- Forensic:
Describes speech in courts. Characteristic of speech proving guilt or innocence. We can pull an obvious example of this from Socrates Apology as Socrates is speaking in a court setting and is also defending his innocence.
2. Epideictic:
Describes speech of praise or blame. Eulogies are epideictic in the form of praise. We see an example of this type of rhetoric in Nestor’s praise of Agamemnon and Achilles in attempt to pet their ego’s to get them to end their quarreling.
3. Deliberative:
Describes speech in a group or assembly setting. Takes place when a speaker is trying to get a majority of the group to agree with them. We find an example of this in our “You Can Go Your Own Way” module in the assembly called by Achilles.
Wednesday. February 22, 2017. Home 7–9 pm
During this time I worked on the specific task given to us by Dr. Sandridge. To go through Cicero’s Oration and pick out examples of and identify types of rhetoric used.
Overall the fact that this oration is given in a senate setting I would consider it to be forensic. I’d also consider the oration deliberative because in this speech Cicero is trying to convince the senate of Cataline’s guilt.
As soon as I went to this part of the module I found my first example.
“1. When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now? Do not the nightly guards placed on the Palatine Hill — do not the watches posted throughout the city — does not the alarm of the people, and the union of all good men — does not the precaution taken of assembling the senate in this most defensible place — do not the looks and countenances of this venerable body here present, have any effect upon you?”
This is very obviously an example of epideictic rhetoric. There is an obvious assignment of blame and scolding even.