Holiday Traditions

Two of my holiday traditions were very nearly lost this year.

The first is to be in a certain place at a certain time. The increasingly disruptive weather has threatened plans of this sort for thousands of people in dozens of countries. When I realised that this tradition was under threat my initial thought was not to panic. Other people realising that I may not be in that certain place at that certain time were far more unsettled about the idea. I understand this. But the reason that I was no panicking was because I knew that this was one day and that, symbolic though it was, it could be replaced by another with the same sentiments.

This tradition is in tact. The second tradition is under threat as I type this. Again, it involves me being in a certain place at a certain time and a friend of mine being in a certain place at a certain time. This is a younger tradition than the aforementioned one but it is observed on a yearly basis nonetheless. Another very unfortunate circumstance has seriously hampered our ability to fulfil this tradition. However, we are pursuing alternatives, knowing that it is not the specifics of the tradition that are important.

Holiday traditions are important. However, it is the emotions and reasons that have created them that are more important. The idea of a tradition is to recreate these original emotions and to show commitment to these emotions. While it is easy to identify these emotions with specific times and places that is not their basis. The thought really is what counts because it is the only thing that we truly have control over.

These traditions may well fall soon but so long as we observe their foundation their importance will be retained.

-The English Student

Travelling Anxiety

Travelling at this time of year is always an anxious experience.

The airports are jammed, the roads are bogged down and even sea routes become a chore as mass migration happens all over the world. Naturally, taking part in this experience is enough to make anyone nervous. When you couple this with the volatile weather that constantly threatens to disrupt holiday travelling the whole situation becomes a bit of a nightmare.

But I wonder if travelling anxiety is not something that is felt all year. There is something very unsettling about travelling, particularly travelling by air. You arrive at an airport, get in a plane and arrive at another airport. The movement while in the plane seems virtual. You can look through a window but at times this is more analogous to a television screen. The sights from an airport window are so unusual in our daily lives as to make them unbelievable. So, instead of a more tangible or usual journey by car or bus, plane journeys feel like teleportation devices that require you to sit in one room for a set period of time depending on where you are being teleported to.

This form of travel breaks up our internal spatial map. This is not helped by the factory packed, generic look of airports that is common around the world. We enter an airport, exit another and suddenly realise that we are in a different country. Surely the real anxiety of plane travel is the fear that it is not actually taking place. We must be naturally cautious that the whole process is a ruse or sleight of hand and that our understanding of the planet is absolutely false.

While none of this will comfort me while travelling tomorrow, it may make my travelling anxiety more cerebral and thus more tolerable.

-The English Student

More Wikileaks Backlash

"Backlash" has become the word of the week so I shall engage in a bit myself.

The backlash from the release of diplomatic cables has the website Wikileaks bouncing around the net looking for a safe haven. This backlash resulted in people like Joe Lieberman demanding that sites like Amazon cut all ties to the website. This backlash resulted in a coordinated attack on anti-Wikileak websites that caved in to political pressure. This backlash has caused us all to begin questioning the very core nature of the internet. My backlash does not wish to show support for any individual or group embroiled in this controversy. There is almost too much opinion flying around this situation. In fact, I would rather investigate the nature of the lash itself.

Cloud computing, blogging and global communications have all had a pretty easy time of it up until recently. Anyone clamouring for a reduction in what they felt was the pervasive influence of these media could simply choose to opt out. Or rather, they believed that they could opt out. This controversy has highlighted just how integral the internet is in society and it has done so in the guise of a major threat to the freedom of information on the internet. Again, I am not stating an opinion on whether information should or should not be curtailed on the net. The point I am driving at is that the honeymoon period is over for 'Web 2.0'. It is becoming increasingly obvious that it must now gain a political impetus in either opposition or agreement to global politics in order to protect its own existence.

Some critics seem to view two possible outcomes of this situation: the end of political influence on the internet or the end of the internet as we know it. A third, less exciting result is equally possible: the crisis will crumble without any resolution. The politicians will go back to their camp with Assange's scalp, the hackers will go back to theirs with a safe domain for Wikileaks. The world will keep spinning. However, to ignore the lessons and potential threat to both sides caused by this argument could be fatal to either one.

While this controversy may go away, it leaves the fundamental question of "who owns the internet and the content of the internet" utterly unresolved and increasingly urgent.

-The English Student

Stasis

I do not feel well.

A cursory glance at my last few posts on this blog clearly point to a fairly uncomfortable, cynical and depressive perspective that I am developing. I dare not even read these posts, for fear that I will find some kind of pathetic author that is either clamouring for attention or truly floundering. I am not even sure which would be worse. Regardless, I feel compelled to stand by these posts as I wrote them for a reason and know that they will not result in people judging me because they will not be read.

But I can read them and I am reading the usual feeling I get at this time of year. An unnerving creeping sensation that pervades my entire outlook on life, my social interactions with people and my opinion of myself. I felt the exact moment that it began. I was walking through a capital city on the first truly cold day of winter and felt suddenly and utterly hollow. I felt broken. While this has not been a constant sensation, it is one that surprises me with its ability to lay me low at almost any given time.

Over the week I did find some kind of possible cathartic method for dealing with this. It is surely not just the winter that has brought this mindset on, but it feels appropriate to blame the winter nonetheless. Getting some pleasure that is unique to the season may be a way forward. I enjoy planning Christmas parties, making snow 'sculptures', drinking mulled wine, eating winter food and sitting with friends in front of a warm fire. The senses can be treated in a way that is not possible at any other time of year. I need to harvest as much joy from these sensations as I can to defend myself from this crippling (if you will pardon the usual gross hyperbole) drain.

Perhaps I will survive another winter and perhaps next year I can do more than survive.

-The English Student