Americans for Informed Democracy

So I've just returned from our first meeting of AID, which left me with a good feeling for its future at Trinity. AID's goal is to provide a forum for people to learn, debate, and better understand problems ranging from nuclear non-proliferation, the AIDS epidemic, U.S. foreign policy, to global climate change. Nationally and internationally AID organizes summits that bring academics, government representatives, and field experts together to talk about these issues, as well as put on town-hall style discussions at individual campuses. Here is the link to their website if you'd like to take a peek: www.aidemocracy.org. A friend and I are in the process of starting a formal chapter at Trinity, and so far have received a warm welcome and plenty of support. If you'd like to become a part of this new organization, please feel free to contact me and I'll put you on our mailing list. I'll be announcing future events here in the future as well. We're really an inclusive group and would love to have as many people involved as possible. P.S. They have a blog too!

Tonight we hosted Peter Beinart, who gave an eloquent and impassioned talk about the history of U.S. foreign policy, the underlying problems Democrats face in finding a message, and the importance of strengthening international organizations and NGO's, among other things. Peter is editor-at-large of The New Republic and author of The Good Fight: Why Liberals – and Only Liberals – Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great. He writes TNR’s weekly TRB column, which is reprinted in the New York Post and other newspapers. He also writes a monthly column for The Washington Post. And he is a contributer to Time magazine, where he regularly writes the “Essay” section of its back page. Peter has appeared on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopolous,” “Charlie Rose,” and “Nightline.” He has been a political commentator on MTV. In addition, he also appears frequently on on a variety of radio shows on NPR and has a regular slot every three weeks on Air America’s “The Al Franken Show.” For such a young guy, he has quite a few credentials. He even brought up blogging at one point as a new form of mass media, with a huge potential as a political machine. He did have reservations about tendency of the blogosphere as a whole to be overly partisan and less informationally grounded.

More important than the talk though, was the question and answer session. Students and professors were both asking thoughtful questions which indicated informed backgrounds about the topics at hand. Considering this is AIDs biggest goal, to encourage such conversations, this was a great indication for the future. It can be really easy to succumb to life in a bubble here at Trinity, and forget that there are still pressing problems as far away Darfur and as close as our doorstep. My hope is, through AID, we can make it harder to forget. If you attended tonight's event, I would LOVE some feedback about it. Always looking for ways to improve.

We're not sure what our next event will be, but I'd love to have some input about what issues people care about most right now. We'll be having a meeting next week to hash this out, though we haven't figured out a time. I'm really optimistic about the whole endeavor. Anyhow, that's it for now.

Memetics and Stuff, not necessarily in that order

The first posting seems to me an inherently intimidating one, since I take it to be an introduction to a beast that has not yet fully evolved. How do you introduce something that doesn't yet exist, and is ever-changing once created? My answer? I won't. My blog will probably reflect my fairly fractured thinking. You've been warned.

ANYHOW on memetics. I was thinking about how the nature of blogging seems to be somewhat narcissistic, and although its negative and grand generalization, I can't seem to reject that personal association with the word. Thus, memes spread through blogs are somewhat narcissistic by default. By latching onto a particular phrase or idea, you indicate that it has some kind of personal importance to you. Fair enough, you want to become part of a club, an aesthetic, or whatever, because that community makes you feel more right in your own skin. It's as if you're given liscence to spread a particular aspect of yourself because you're backed by a larger community. The survival and proliferation of that meme suggests that that aspect of you is also entitled to survive. As time goes on, you will evolve (emotionally, intellectually, socially...) and so your values and tastes will change, and the old memes you associated with will either die or evolve with you. It's the basis of successful branding. It's like t-shirts for blogs! The very term 'meme' has become a designer logo of sorts, suggesting that the site that brands it offers some kind of worthwhile information to be spread. And of course, that designer logo has created thousands of cheap and worthless knockoffs sporting the same brand.