What do you think matters most?

[reminisce]

i think bad things sometimes, things i wish i wouldnt. mostly it's if i'm really mad or stressed- suddenly, everyones awful. but even then i know that i wouldnt normally think that, and i never act on it (unless you count being curt on occasion).

i guess what i'm saying is, everyone has those thoughts sometimes- it happens. i dont think that makes you a bad person, in any way. i think its more on how you make yourself act. when i'm feeling angry and i dont snap at people, that takes a lot of self-control. i dont think its right to fault me, or anyone else, when theyre trying so hard, at least in this case.

 

[STOPxmickeytime]

Okay, so sorry to bring the thread back from the dead...but I had a REALLY interesting expirience regarding this concept.
This is probably going to be a long story, but I figured I'd share it cuz it really made me think...


quick BG info:
So in my uni there is this theatre specialist program, it's really hard to get into and they have a really rigorous schedule and it's a small group of about 30 people who are always together. Well I'm not in that program, but I'm doing a theatre major, so I have alot of classes with them. In this one class we're doing really contraversial performances (i won't tell you the rest of the assignment cuz it doesnt matter)
ANYWAYS, our class is VERY divided between TDS (theatre program) and non-TDS (me) students.

In the performance today, the group was stopping people at the door and checking to see if peoples names were "on the VIP list" to get into the performance. The non-TDS students names were not on the list so we had to wait outside the theatre (there's only about 8 of us). They told us there was not enough seats for us so we'd have to stand in the back (there were tons of seats left, but they made us stand @ the back) They did a comedia Dell Arte performance of The Importance of Being Earnest, there was one person in he group who was a non-TDSer and they manipulated the text so that so that it was mocking him.
When they performance ended we were sent outside to complete a questionnaire, then the TDS stdents were led back in. The rest of us were told to stand in a straight line outside the door, they then put blindfolds on us, told us to hold hands and led us into the theatre---on stage. They put us in a circle facing out and told us to take off our blindfolds.
When we did, we were faced with the group of TDS students making an outer circle facing us.
They did the performance again, but during it the TDS kids were given lines by the group to say ridiculing the non-TDS students in the class. (saying that we were stupid or terrible actors or that we didn't belong there or that they were better than us etc.) Then the TDS students walked around us and were led back into the audience. The lights went down.

During the class discussion we found out that those were all actually things that were said about us by the TDS students at one point in time!

So, it got me thinking about the "line". I had NO idea these people were saying things like that about us, or that they had any sort of 'prejudice' (if you can call it that?) about us. I know that they all probably secretly thought they were better than us, but it was surprising to know these things were really said. It really hit close to home, and sort of humiliated me. (which, i believe was the point of the piece...but that's beside the point)

The point I'm trying to make is that during the discussion the TDS students tried to defend themselves saying that those things were taken out of context or that they were "joking", so if someone says discriminatory (racist, sexist, etc) and says they aren't racist/sexist and that they are joking...where is the line?

I dunno if you guys are at all interested in talking about this anymore, but it REALLY got me thinking and wanting to talk about it. And I immediately thought of this thread hehe

Wait, I'm not really sure that I understand what the point of the TDSer's assignment was. Was it just to mock and hurt you? I don't think I reall grasped the point.

And I think that jokes generally uncover a lot of a person's true feelings.
Excuse me for getting Freudian for a second (because the majority of his theories have been ruled out with the more accurate neuroscience that modern psychology now employs) but people tend to reveal their true feelings that society might not accept in a joking manner, because society is more accepting of it then.

Like you said, you had suspected the whole time that the TDS students believed themselves to be better actors.
If they said matter of factly, "Oh, those non TDS students are awful. We're vastly superior," then people would perceive them as pompous jerks (which they actually turned out to be, no?)
But by saying jokingly, "Look, he messed up. Must be because he's not in TDS!", they can reveal their true feelings without being judged harshly for them.

And by the way, that sounded like an awful experience.
I'm sure that you're just as good an actor as any of the kids in the TDS!

 

[DramaQueen]

Wait, I'm not really sure that I understand what the point of the TDSer's assignment was. Was it just to mock and hurt you? I don't think I reall grasped the point.

And I think that jokes generally uncover a lot of a person's true feelings.
Excuse me for getting Freudian for a second (because the majority of his theories have been ruled out with the more accurate neuroscience that modern psychology now employs) but people tend to reveal their true feelings that society might not accept in a joking manner, because society is more accepting of it then.

Like you said, you had suspected the whole time that the TDS students believed themselves to be better actors.
If they said matter of factly, "Oh, those non TDS students are awful. We're vastly superior," then people would perceive them as pompous jerks (which they actually turned out to be, no?)
But by saying jokingly, "Look, he messed up. Must be because he's not in TDS!", they can reveal their true feelings without being judged harshly for them.

And by the way, that sounded like an awful experience.
I'm sure that you're just as good an actor as any of the kids in the TDS!

Well, the assignment is to create a piece that has a political message. That particular group used the miscrocosm of our class to represent the bigger picture, so the segregation between TDS/non-TDS was to represent bigger things, such as racism/homophobia/sexism etc.

In the end, it WAS a harsh expirience, it's something that's been resonating with me all day long. But it was in the name of art and that particular class environment has been deemed a judgement free/"no hard feelings" space.
It IS hard to do these performances if people are going to walk out being offended so I just took it all with a grain of salt, and realized it was all in the name of art.
And as brutal as it was...the finger was ultimately pointed at them, so perhaps they feel as bad as we did?
It was funny, because I'm friends with a couple of people in the program and they would NOT make eye contact with me!!

I definitley agree with you about the whole "joking" thing, I mean, I'm sure I'm guilty of that sometimes as well, and I say "JOKINGGG" in order to cover any true "jerkiness". And I'm guilty of saying things about the TDS students as well sometimes...so there was no hard feelings.
And I can certainly appreciate a performance that sticks with me like this one has!

 

[DramaQueen]

and for the record...i got into a TDS program at another school but I chose to go to this school so I could study french as well. so, HAH @ them! lol