Caloosahatchee Jit Times

Traditions are a rotary phone, because if someone has one, you think it is cool to look at, but it is not practical whatsoever and absolutely obsolete to today's society. I think that traditions, for example some Webb traditions are cool to show outsiders and show them that we have it and to establish credibility, but I feel like traditions do nothing but in the best case scenario put on a glamorous show for a grand waste of time. I do not disrespect anyone's traditions outright out of respect for the people/person practicing them but it is my personal belief that they aren't worth much in the world and that by focusing too much on the past, we limit our future potential. If we do something one way forever, we are perhaps either wasting time or closing out opportunities for new, better practices to come forward by shunning the progressive development as a break from tradition, which is stigmatized. I think especially as we get older people increasingly don't respond wel...

          I cannot know the answer to this question however in my opinion, simply put, they do not. I do not feel like these fairy tales shape any way women are viewed in society. I do not think that anyone in power with influence takes into account medieval fairy tale depictions of women, morals, and adages found in fairy tales into their professional decision making roles or opinions of women. What I am trying to say is that I do not think fairy tales are at all important to the identity of a people (women in this case). Fairy tales are obsolescent, if not entirely obsolete. And, they play an at most minor role in our American culture. I think that the professor was trying to read too much into a story where nothing is meant to be read in. I do not feel like fairy tales are important and the day where I see real life societal impacts on the social roles of women based on a three hundred eighty-five year old medieval tale designed to en...

 My favorite folk tale is that of Vasilisa the beautiful, or  Василиса Прекрасная out of Alexander Afanasyev's collection of Russian tales,  Народные Русские Сказки . I liked hearing it when I was younger as when I was younger I enjoyed hearing things of mythology and Baba Yaga is in this tale so I thought it was cool, yet also somewhat understandable because the protagonist Vasilisa can be compared to Cinderella from more Western European traditions. I would be the Tsar that Vasilisa marries in the end of the story because he has no relevance to the plot whatsoever and he just kind of comes in at the end oblivious to her trials.

The song I chose is "This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie. Two things I look at to consider something folklore is if the particular item or idea can be categorized as belonging to or being about a people/group of people/culture. The second I look at is whether or not it says something about, is in respect to the traditions of, or makes a statement with regard to particular values held by whatever aforementioned group it belongs to. Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land "  does just that. The lyrics support the idea American people have of America being for everyone of all walks of life. Then Guthrie also talks about particular regions and geographic landmarks of the country and saying that this is the land of himself and the listener, invoking a sense of pride in their country in those Americans who were listening. I personally hate this song because it sounds very much like a folk song. I've had to play it on guitar more times than I care to remembe...

1. I agree with this mostly. If we look at Lenin coming to power however, Lenin is an idealist. While one could argue he used his power in a corrupt manner, he was almost entirely devoted to his cause. where Stalin however is in fact the opposite. He tightened the grip of his regime with purges and laws (I know Lenin purged too but this is different as Stalin is Totalitarian) which I believe is the key here. Stalin was a totalitarian under the guise of communism. He used the government and his power to obtain more and hold onto power. The totalitarian dictators are the issue here and they are the ones that are obsessed with power, although it can be hard to not become power hungry when you taste power.

2. This is absolutely true. For example back when I was a kid I would always purposefully say some term I thought my parents wouldn't be familiar with so they would ask and I could tell them. and right after complaining about how whoever came up with these slang terms had too much time on their hands he would then say that a variant of this term existed when he grew up in the 60's and 70's. Another extremely common example is how every other generation alive right now would probably tell you the music my generation (Gen Z) listens to is terrible and that their day saw the best music ever created. however, if one could ask the generation before them what that generation thought about today's older generation, they would say the exact same thing, cursing these "classics" as "the devils music". This happens all the time in life and every generation believes that they are the best eventually whether or not they do now at my stage in life. 4. I agree wi...