August Post

There are many different lessons that I have learned so far in this class. One of my favorites that I believe will be useful to recognize in my day to day life is Conquergood's Performing as Moral Act. This topic interested me because it brought up different reasons why some may engage with each other that I never really thought about before. It should be a more well-known topic of discussion because it would help people understand their dynamic of certain relationships with others. The four different styles are Custodian's Rip-off, Enthusiast's Infatuation, Curator's Exhibitionism, and Skeptic's Cop-Out.
The first style is Custodian's Rip-Off which is when people engage with others simply for selfish reasons. Basically, this style of communication is talking to somebody just to get something out of it. An example of this could be kissing up to your boss to get a raise or hanging out with the smart kid in class just to get homework answers. Creating a relationship for one's own selfish reasons could have negative outcomes.
The second style is Enthusiast's Infatuation. This style consists of when someone ignores all their differences they have with someone else and only focus on the similarities. An example could be sports fan that root for the same team and automatically think they're best friends. A more extreme example could be in relationships when they have many differences but overlook them. This could lead to a toxic relationship in some cases by not recognizing the differences in personality.
The third style is Curator's Exhibitionism which is when people only focus on the differences between them and another individual. An example of this is rival sports team. Just because two people root for two different teams does not necessarily mean they are not compatible or do not have many similarities and lots of times that is overlooked. This style could lead to people making judgments before getting to know someone and causing tension or bad relationships between the two.
Lastly, is Skeptic's Cop-Out. This style is when people refuse to engage with those that are different. This is a bit more of an extreme case from the last one because instead of just judgments, it is refusal. An example of this could be two different gangs who do not associate with one another. This style could be potentially dangerous and limits us from getting to branch out and meet more people.
Summed up, none of these relationships are ideal because there are downfalls in each situation. This was one of the most interesting topics we covered in class because I feel I can connect it back to my personal life since I see this on a day to day basis.