Week 1 // Two Cultures

I found Snow's description of the two cultures rather eye opening. I'm a Political Science major - a major that is at the heart of North Campus - and I have seen the complete divide that he talks about. Snow touches on the fact that there are two completely different cultures that influence everything. One being the natural sciences and the other being the literary intellectuals of the world. The detachment between these two worlds causes people to identify themselves with one side or the other. In other words, a person is either scientific or artistic, almost as if the worlds will never collide. I had a little bit of a problem with this statement, because I don’t think that they’re mutually exclusive - they can coexist. 

Which is why I really appreciated Brockman's interview. I thought what he had to say was so incredibly accurate. He talks about how there is some sort of third culture that lies somewhere in the middle of the two existing cultures. There are a vast amount of examples of these two cultures coming together to better society as a whole; they both use each other’s resources to have the most effective outcome possible. 

These ideas are so prevalent in the world I live. My world happens to be UCLA, and I see the systemic stigma of North vs. South Campus everyday. I often wonder if people ever consider that the two “campuses” actually rely on each other more often than not. It’s interesting to think about how divided the two campuses actually are. I think the first step in the right direction would be for the students to come together and break the stereotypes. 

Christopher, Williams. "Academy eBriefings." A Dangerous Divide | The New York Academy of Sciences. N.p., 24 July 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

Graham-Rowe, Duncan. "John Brockman: Matchmaking with science and art." WIRED UK. WIRED UK, 23 May 2016. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture." Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science, 13 Feb. 1998. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.

Snow, C.P. The Two Cultures: And a Second Look. N.p.: n.p., 1963. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.