<ol>
<li><p>Politically I am a Liberal. Cutting the crap, I am the definition of a liberal. I support gay marriage, abortion, universal health care, stopping tax cuts for the weathly, etc etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Culturally I'm a SoCal kinda kid, used to Southern California and it's extreme fakeness and plastic surgery.</p></li>
<li><p>I am (seeming the only person) Jewish, and while I'm very active in religion, I don't have a set view on God. I guess I'm a practicing Agnostic Jew :-P</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Haha yeah I'm an agnostic half-jew. </p>
<p>I forgot to put culturally. I'm from the northwest and go to a small private school where most people have known eachother for long enough that nobody's trying to impress anybody else anymore. So I guess that's made me a little more down-to-earth perhaps. Plus in the northwest everyone's pretty laid back to begin with. My concern is that here, even the richest generally don't flaunt their money whereas I hear so much about the east coast culture and expensive clothing being directly proportional to social acceptance and what not. I've been on the east coast enough that I never really believed any of it, and still don't really...but basically I read this thread about preppy colleges in the "college search and selection" section and it really repulsed me. There were people posting there literally bragging about how preppy their school was and how "real preps" are different from those "wannabe preps" and how you can tell their social status not only by their clothing but their family name, blah blah blah. I really don't think that's how it is at Dartmouth (I've visited twice and have friends there.) But I didn't think that's how it was anywhere. It was pretty sickening. Sorry to go off on such a tangent, but the cultural stuff reminded me of how the culture gap between the east and west coast just made itself so much more pronounced to me yesterday. I know most east-coasters are not like those elitest people on that thread, but the fact that there is anyone like that is well...okay I'm done.</p>
<p>"(im into the artistry, not politics ie, lowry is a hack)"</p>
<p>Ah. In that case, I suppose you're right.</p>
<p>where in the northwest?</p>
<p>oregonnnn (needed 10 characters)</p>
<ol>
<li>political - Moderate/Lean left</li>
<li>culture - persian</li>
<li>non-religious, in my opinion spiritual life is not necessarily religion. I despise most organized religion.</li>
</ol>
<p>more conservative, both politically and socially, and Roman Catholic</p>
<p>Kit416,</p>
<p>just read G K Chesterton's "Orthodoxy," it was an awesome book.
Have you read it? As I understand it, he was one of the greatest Catholic writers of the last century...........inspired C S Lewis etc.</p>
<p>I'm not Catholic, but I thought the book was profound.</p>
<p>I would say that I'm spiritual in that I spend a lot of time trying to figure out who I want to be and how I want to go about living in this world. I see religion as sort of an outline on how you want to live your life. I've never been a big fan of organized religion (from anywhere on the political spectrum) because I always felt like someone was telling me what to believe. I love going on hikes in the cascades (I am from Seattle) because it is an excellent time and environment to just think about the world around me and ultimately how I want to fit into it. There are aspects of many religions that appeal to me, but no one that I feel completely comfortable in. Even universalism, which tries to look at a multitude of religious ideas is interpreted by someone else. I like the fact that what I believe in is truely what I believe in and not what someone else has told me to believe.</p>
<p>So I tend to think of myself as spiritual rather than religious.</p>
<p>Culturally, I come from the Northwest. Specifically, western Washington, which is the more stereotypical, laid-back, sort of "Northwest" that people think of. Eastern Washington might as well be Nebraska in that regard. Getting off topic... But what is different about me is that I come from Bellevue, a city of about 100,000 right across the lake from Seattle. Bellevue is very wealthy. The public school that I go to has two computer labs, flat screen monitors everywhere, smart boards in some classes, and luxury cars in the parking lot. The PTSA has coming coming out of its ears. One thing I've really tried hard to do is keep things in perspective in my life. It is really easy to get into this suburbian, "Bellevue" mentality that paints the world in a very unrealistic way. My mom is moderate, my dad is very liberal, and my stepdad is very conservative. I see the whole spectrum. My life is never dull.</p>
<p>When I consider the panolpy of religions, I often think of them as spiritual languages in which we speak of spiritual transcendence. Not as a militant discipline.</p>
<p>If I go to France, I'll do alright in English, but I'll get alot more out of the experience if I speak french.</p>
<p>Religious traditions express thousands of years of others trying to say things very similar to what I'm trying to say now. To me, their lives, desires, hopes and aspirations are connected to my own through time.</p>
<p>learnig from the past............</p>
<p>Interesting outlook fountainsiren. I think i agree. Have you read a book by F. Schoun, THE TRASENDENT UNITY OF RELIGIONS. i read it over the summer and it sounds as if you are saying something similar.</p>
<p>Do you think of yourself as a traditionalist?</p>
<p>Yes, i do consider myself a traditionalist--but always open to new ideas.
No I haven't read any Schoun, but I did read The Reign of Quantity (and wrote a paper) by Rene Guenon....Guenon, also a traditionalist, strongly influenced Schoun and another traditionalist who I have read, S.H. Nasr. Nasr wrote Religion and the Order of Nature, a book I would strongly recommend. All three, Schoun, Guenon and Nasr are all part of a circle of intellectuals who call themselves Perenial Philosophers.</p>
<p>politically: conservative
religiously: roman catholic</p>
<p>i've always had the impression that dartmouth was pretty much split but leaned to the right.. i suppose i'm wrong though.</p>
<p>Politically- leftie
Religious- agnostic</p>
<p>I consider myself a rational leftie and I am willing to compromise on some issues. Heck, I'm even a fiscal conservative</p>
<p>I am a devout Methodist libertarian. I have a more liberal attitude w/ social stuff (mainly live and let live) But I am fiscally conservative, and believe in personal responsiblity, to some degree.</p>
<p>I lean to the right</p>
<p>I was raised methodist but as soon as I got to college my dad converted to catholicism. (my mom was always a catholic)</p>
<p>Dartmouth definetly leans left - but the vocal right is much louder than the vocal left . Also, the administration leans left, although not as sickeningly as some places. Student goverment leans left especially this year when they are making the push for coed dorm rooms (which the administration doesn't seem to like).</p>
<p>As Dartmouth probably has the highest percentage of division one athletes in the country - you find, as is typically associated with this group, alot of conservatives. Also you find alot of new england liberals (probably the most dominant group on campus).</p>
<p>Dinesh D'Souza did go here, and C. Everett Koop is one of the most famous alumni (also a faculty member).</p>
<p>I was under the understanding that Dartmouth was more of a conservative school....i think the only ivy that can boast this distinction</p>
<p>its a conservative ivy but thats not saying much</p>
<p>Well it is certainly the most conservative Ivy - and probably one of the most conservative schools in the northeast. However, does that really say that much?</p>
<p>Someone looking for a bastion of conservatism will not find it at Dartmouth. What they will find is a place where they can express their conservative ideas and find lots of people who will agree with them.</p>
<p>Maybe relatively speaking it is, i.e. it leans farther to the right than some schools, but it is still well left of center.</p>