{"id":1432,"date":"2016-12-05T16:08:03","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T21:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/?p=1432"},"modified":"2016-12-08T15:40:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T20:40:48","slug":"bursting-the-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/2016\/12\/05\/bursting-the-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"Bursting The Bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While in one of my previous posts I wrote about how I was sitting outside in 70\u00ba weather, the flurries of snow currently falling outside my window make Colby feel less like a bubble and more like a snow globe. For the past two years, I have experienced the Colby bubble: not feeling up to date on current events, feeling extremely validated in all my opinions, and the strangeness of being able to drive\u00a0back to Colby after CCAK in a small, rural, poverty-stricken town. I simply\u00a0accepted the Colby bubble; I never questioned it- until now.\u00a0Through researching\u00a0elite schools,\u00a0I now feel as though I understand why and how the bubble exists.<\/p>\n<p>After the election, SNL made this clip, entitled &#8220;The Bubble.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1165\" height=\"655\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vKOb-kmOgpI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>This sketch highlights so many of the aspects of what\u00a0living in a bubble, especially the elite bubble, encompasses.\u00a0Here are some of the sketch&#8217;s most noteworthy and poignant lines:<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;The bubble is a planned community of likeminded free-thinkers&#8230; and no one else&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/State-Nobility-Elite-Schools-Field\/dp\/0804733465\">Bourdieu<\/a> notes that elite spaces are often &#8220;as internally homogenous and as externally heterogeneous as possible with respect to a number of fundamental criteria.&#8221; I remember that when I first read this earlier in the semester, I felt as though Bourdieu said exactly\u00a0what I had been thinking and struggling to put into words. The promotion of \u201cfree-thinking\u201d within elite institutions is ironic since 1) most of their members are like minded (internally homogenous), 2) they often prevent people with different views and backgrounds from entering.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"irc_mi ivdO5QVxHYbc-pQOPx8XEepE aligncenter\" style=\"margin-top: 0px\" src=\"http:\/\/images.indianexpress.com\/2015\/07\/lusion.jpg\" alt=\"Image result for exclusion\" width=\"541\" height=\"301\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Eliteness is built upon the foundation of exclusion, and the process of researching the Croft School showed this. There were a few scares this semester where we feared our access to the Croft School could potentially dissolve and we would be excluded from their world. Thankfully this didn&#8217;t happen and we remained on the inside. While I previously knew that gaining access to elite school was tricky, experiencing it for myself brought a\u00a0realization of the cyclical nature of needing to use your own elitness in order to gain access to elites.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Anybody is welcome to join us, 1 bedroom apartments start at 1.9 million dollars&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Exclusion doesn&#8217;t only apply to\u00a0like-mindedness, but economic capital as well. Over the course of this semester I have come to truly understand\u00a0that while economic capital does not encompass the entirety of social class or eliteness, it\u00a0is an extremely significant aspect. The idea that anybody can be elite if they work hard and make money is a singularly meritocratic viewpoint that doesn&#8217;t acknowledge the systematic forces working in favor of elite reproduction.\u00a0One of the most mind-blowing findings in researching the Croft School was that it has no financial aid. That automatically eliminates a large group of people from attending, leaving it open to only the most economically elite.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Join us, starting in 2017&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Clearly, the development and execution of\u00a0any major project takes a long time. I have never been involved in a research project that 1) has spanned months, 2) is so collaborative, and 3) is a contribution to a much larger work. Taking our time with the research, theory, interviews, case studies, and discussions allowed myself, my group, and I think the whole class, to deeply explore our topic from all angles. After dedicating\u00a0so much time and energy to the research, I feel not only extremely invested\u00a0in what I&#8217;m doing, but also highly knowledgeable. I thus find myself bringing up Bourdieu and the mindset of elites and reproduction into the most random conversations.<\/p>\n<p>While I&#8217;m definitely still in the\u00a0bubble, I now recognize both its comforts and harmful aspects,\u00a0and I&#8217;ve definitely pushed myself from safely in the middle to a place closer on the edge.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 352px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"irc_mi ihgzpJdsb4yU-pQOPx8XEepE\" style=\"margin-top: 31px\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CPjKdxjWUAAgz2_.jpg\" alt=\"Image result for living in a bubble\" width=\"352\" height=\"234\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">What living in an *elite* bubble feels like now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 264px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"irc_mi i8h_u8Eu3ors-pQOPx8XEepE\" style=\"margin-top: 0px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.keepitahundred.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/living_in_a_bubble_by_hoodiebear-d4vfoor.png\" alt=\"Image result for living in a bubble\" width=\"264\" height=\"176\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">What living in a bubble felt like before<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-1432\" data-postid=\"1432\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-1432 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While in one of my previous posts I wrote about how I was sitting outside in 70\u00ba weather, the flurries of snow currently falling outside my window make Colby feel less like a bubble and more like a snow globe. For the past two years, I have experienced the Colby bubble: not feeling up to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1527,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}