Even erudite flies get smashed now and then for sounding too ‘school smart’. As one of many AU students not immersed in an academic social sphere, Jason’s ‘Fly on the Wall’ column seeks to aid and abet the success of others in his cohort. We won’t always be understood when we speak of what we are learning in school but we can rest assured that our education still has value.
His lighthearted approach to sociological philosophy stems from conducting field research at bush parties and working his day job reforesting the mountains of BC. Born in the city of Vancouver and raised on a farm in the Fraser Valley and an orchard in the Okanagan, he attained a diploma in Horticulture in the Creston Valley and then returned to school as a Sociology major. Today’s he’s an AU Master’s of Integrated Studies student who spends his spare time enjoying nature walks, snorkeling and reading whatever philosophical and sociological tracts capture his fancy.
Jason is fascinated with the micro-sociological thoughts and interactions that frame and demarcate our experience of daily life as well as the philosophical realm considering essential questions about what it is to be a human. It’s dense brush but Jason seeks answers where murkiness holds sway.
A Few Theoretical Influences: Louis Althusser, Isaac Asimov, Jean Baudrillard, Simone de Beauvoir, Aime Cesaire, Carol Clover, John Cummings, Kurt Cobain, Jacques Derrida, Emile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Erving Goffman, Antonio Gramsci, Martin Heidegger, Thomas Hobbes, Agnes Martin, Karl Marx, Georg Simmel, Max Weber
In some sense, all that goes into making us who we are at the academic level cay be summed up in the immortal lyrics of the REM song “Losing My Religion”: “that was just a dream” they sang (REM, online). And what a wonderful dream it is; AU sets us off on a previously unimaginable… Read more »
Living out near the town dump is better than it sounds. There’re stunning views east to the rugged volcanic batholith of Giant’s Head mountain and, beyond that, an open vista with Okanagan Lake (and the mythical Ogopogo) out of sight far below. Along the horizon the line of mountains further away frames the picture like… Read more »
Birds, bees, plants and humans all love the onrush of spring as the life forces of growth gain momentum. Everything seems exuberant and energetic and, if you’re like me, you’re probably enjoying more outdoor activities as a pause from your coursework. I mean, we might enjoy AU but typically it still means we’re stuck inside… Read more »
Let’s put procrastination in perspective. It’s a nagging worry that can engulf us. Like being lost in a hall of mirrors, there are a lot of daily distractions to dissuade us from our studies. To take confident strides over the hurdles life erects we need a clear-eyed assessment of our big picture. Where are we… Read more »
Procrastination whispers through the hallways of our studying minds. With ironic and grim efficiency, it prompts a desire for flight from productive pursuits. We know that moments of aversion can add up to days of lost productivity. Nothing is easier to brush aside than a textbook, nothing’s quicker to minimize than a window on our… Read more »
Like learning our course material and then applying it to our lives, to understand something is to become part of the process of its existence. The answers may be in the back of a math textbook, but, in the broader plains of AU life, the answers are to some extent within us as we learn… Read more »
Let there be light, spring seems to say! More light, spring light, the light of the dawning of the furtherance of our higher education! Okay, ahem, please excuse this lofty language but doesn’t the oncoming reality of spring make any potential seem more plausible? This time of year, the subliminal becomes liminal in the light… Read more »
March for millions of students means one thing: spring break! The countdown begins as soon as the calendar switches but, for we at AU, our academic campaign grinds on with contract dates looming ever larger over our personal existential horizon. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar might have experienced similar strain when a soothsayer addressed him thus: “Soothsayer:… Read more »
Mutual Indifference; Dividing Difference from Diffidence ‘It Takes One to Know One: When Generational Differences Just Don’t Add Up’ Last week it became clear, with a little help from a script delivered by Sidney Poitier, that entitlement was alive and well a half century ago. Rebellious flower power and peaceful hippiedom combined palpable rage against… Read more »
‘Entitlement: Old as the Hills’ etc Nobody wants to be called entitled, even if it’s true. As university students we’re at risk of becoming branded with this pejorative term regardless of our age; protesting our innocence may seem of no avail. After all, only an entitled person would complain that the label was unfair! And… Read more »