As the intellectual and artist character Rabindranath Tagore, I believe the conference received our ideas favorably. My fellow intellectuals agreed afterwards that our mission was accomplished, which was to educated our audience on the benefits of an equal, synthesized, and balanced education. Unlike our religious counterparts, we remained firm and had strong opinions, instead of being over yielding and overly diplomatic. It was most interesting to see how different groups had different presentations of their ideas in the global conference, opposed to the conference held yesterday consisting of only diplomats. The ruling elite, for example, did well in assuring their people that they were doing what they felt was best for our nation, while in the conference before they came off as being argumentative and uncompromising. The religious group in the diplomat conference appeared to be very firm in that traditions should be upheld and changes should only be made to suppress immigrant cultures, while in their global presentation they claimed to be flexible, too much so in my opinion. I believe that a synthesis in cultures will bring a slew of radical ideas and inventions, however I was surprised that the religious figures now claim to be in favor for a synthesis. Confusing as it was, the more people in support of our synthesized culture and education reforms, the stronger our ideas are.
In reality, I found the conference to be extremely diverse and fascinating. I never grasped how widespread Industrialism was until the global conference today. It truly did have an enormous impact on every single class around the world. Industrialism reminds me of a tornado, taking everything in its path and turning it upside down, producing new, radical changes. Industrialism manifested itself in educational, religious, agricultural, political, and numerous other areas, so that the overall affect was the beginning of a technology dependant world. I thought the global conference was an excellent way to illustrate the massive movement that has shaped our world today. When someone mentions the Industrial Revolution, I first thought of dirty workers in a European factory, but after this global conference, I realize that it is much more than several lifestyle changes in Europe. The way Industrialism is part of so many different fields (classes, reforms, etc.) is very intriguing.
For my social class and country, I discovered that even though Beatrice Webb, Rabindranath Tagore, and Liang Ch’i Ch’au come from very different societies, they still are able to have similar ideas and come to conclusions about matters such as trade schools and cultural synthesis. I found this observation true from the other social class presentations today, because they too had similar experiences being on opposite ends of the globe. It is odd that completely different environments can produce similar ideas, even when individuals have completely different identities. If this remains true today, that people have similar experiences despite varying locations, then like the global conference, as nations we should be able to compromise and come to conclusions about issues we face today.
Global Conference Response
Bianca Mohn
2/25/08
Global Conference Response
As the intellectual and artist character Rabindranath Tagore, I believe the conference received our ideas favorably. My fellow intellectuals agreed afterwards that our mission was accomplished, which was to educated our audience on the benefits of an equal, synthesized, and balanced education. Unlike our religious counterparts, we remained firm and had strong opinions, instead of being over yielding and overly diplomatic. It was most interesting to see how different groups had different presentations of their ideas in the global conference, opposed to the conference held yesterday consisting of only diplomats. The ruling elite, for example, did well in assuring their people that they were doing what they felt was best for our nation, while in the conference before they came off as being argumentative and uncompromising. The religious group in the diplomat conference appeared to be very firm in that traditions should be upheld and changes should only be made to suppress immigrant cultures, while in their global presentation they claimed to be flexible, too much so in my opinion. I believe that a synthesis in cultures will bring a slew of radical ideas and inventions, however I was surprised that the religious figures now claim to be in favor for a synthesis. Confusing as it was, the more people in support of our synthesized culture and education reforms, the stronger our ideas are.
In reality, I found the conference to be extremely diverse and fascinating. I never grasped how widespread Industrialism was until the global conference today. It truly did have an enormous impact on every single class around the world. Industrialism reminds me of a tornado, taking everything in its path and turning it upside down, producing new, radical changes. Industrialism manifested itself in educational, religious, agricultural, political, and numerous other areas, so that the overall affect was the beginning of a technology dependant world. I thought the global conference was an excellent way to illustrate the massive movement that has shaped our world today. When someone mentions the Industrial Revolution, I first thought of dirty workers in a European factory, but after this global conference, I realize that it is much more than several lifestyle changes in Europe. The way Industrialism is part of so many different fields (classes, reforms, etc.) is very intriguing.
For my social class and country, I discovered that even though Beatrice Webb, Rabindranath Tagore, and Liang Ch’i Ch’au come from very different societies, they still are able to have similar ideas and come to conclusions about matters such as trade schools and cultural synthesis. I found this observation true from the other social class presentations today, because they too had similar experiences being on opposite ends of the globe. It is odd that completely different environments can produce similar ideas, even when individuals have completely different identities. If this remains true today, that people have similar experiences despite varying locations, then like the global conference, as nations we should be able to compromise and come to conclusions about issues we face today.