Analyzing my Own Assumptions

This post will be an exploration of how my own values and beliefs relate to the article I've been analyzing, and possibly how that could shape my analysis in particular ways.

J. "Monkey in a Mirror" 8/23/3006 via flickr.
Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

1. What cultural or social values, beliefs, etc., do I share with the society or culture in which the text was written?

My own beliefs and values, at least the ones that are relevant to this subject, are the same as the ones that the text assumes the general public has. That is, I don't like it when people lie to me, get my hopes up (for nothing or very little), or, as it is starting to seem Mars One does according to the text, when people do those thing to solicit money. In my personal view though, these things are a bit more inappropriate, because it shines the whole field in a bad light. As Roche suggested, this could cause people to lose faith in space exploration, or even science in general, which would be really unfortunate. It also mentions the inadequate media coverage for something this important to the field. That is another value I share, as a.) I want more people to interested in this kind of thing, and b.) I don't want the little information people do get about this to be praising it, if in reality, it is a big rip-off. 

2. What cultural or social values, beliefs, etc., do I and the text not share?

In terms of different cultural values, I can't find any that I differ on from those the text expresses. It's pretty straightforward in Portraying Mars One as violator of a just a few social norms.

3 and 4. If the text is written in a different culture or time period...

It wasn't. Maybe it's a bit mundane, but this text is pretty darn relatable.

This is important, because this shows that I may not be a very good, critical judge of this text. I might be too much in agreement with it to analyze it properly, though I'll certainly try to. I will still attempt to critically analyze this text, but it should be kept in mid that I am in sync with the cultural values of the essay, and have that narrow perspective on the issue.


Reflection:
From reading Thomas' and Sam's posts, I noticed that a lot of us have the same cultural vies of the text we chose to analyze. This will probably make analyzing them difficult, as it is generally easier to be critical of things from which we are more removed. And we do need to be critical of these texts if we want to effectively tear them apart, finding the inner-workings or their rhetoric.