Reflecting on todays class..........

I've been able to travel to a couple third world countries in my life, I wasn't able to fullyappreciate the experience due to personal reasons and I would like to someday go back so I can really appreciate it, but was able to realize that we are verrrrry blessed to live in America. I think the ideals our country was built on are beautiful, we've done pretty shitty at times in our history in reaching these ideals, but all the same the ideals are beautiful. What makes the way this country is built, great is that we have the right to speak our minds, instigate change, rebel, revolt, protest, which in a lot of countries they don't have. I also think as Americans we are spoiled. We are whining about not being able to pay our credit card bills (which does suck) while there are children in other countries who are starving, living in war, and according to Ty in class, getting their heads bashed in by rocks. We have it pretty lucky!!! I know I'm kind of an idealist, but I like to think everything in life happens for a reason even if we don't know the what the reason is at the time. I think maybe our country is going through this economic crisis (I say going through because I believe our country will get through this) because as a country we need a change in conciousness, so we realize what's reallllly important.

Change & Choice

These past few days I have been thinking about our discussions in class regarding change and choice (free will) and I couldn't help but look up some of my favorite quotes to look share with the class.

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.- Maya Angelou

The shape of our lives is defined by our insertion into institutions and systems whose interlocking power generates the "virtual reality" we experience. Such 'knowledge' is so thoroughly a part of our worldview that it simply would not occur to most people to question it. Yet underneath this reality is another, subinstitutional reality in which very different responses are simply acted out. This is the reality in which everyone, until very recently, lived.
- David Schwartz

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. -Thomas Alva Edison

Our Emotions!

Do you ever find yourself full of reasons to breakdown and cry? Between all of your day-to-day stresses (getting to work or school, keeping your body looking fit and healthy, paying the bills, and lets not mention your lovelife) it just is simply too much. Everyday you will find that there is something out there that will attempt to hender you from your ultimate goal- Happiness. You can't allow these things to get the best of you. Life is hard, not just for you but for everyone who is living in this overwhelming society. Instead of looking at the world like there are no ways out, begin to think about these situations as tools to improve your life, while making you a better person. For instance; a person who is given everything without hard work does not know what it feels like to struggle, and work hard to make something work for them. It is possible that this person may never know how to handle extreme challenges when presented with them in the future. I strongly believe that everything that a person goes through is simply a developmental process which allows that person to build a stronger resistance to the bad, while mentally preparing them for the good. There is nothing wrong with crying. Sometimes you'll find that releasing your emotions with tears will allow space for newer and better emotions to surface.

Era of Change or Just a Slip?

President Obama represents physical and structural change in the Unites States. But is it because America is ready to see and treat all ethnicities equally? I don’t think so. Bush’s greatest legacy is to be the "one" who f_ _ked up so bad, it made the American people willing to try anything. In this case, the people elected a black man to be the Commander and Chief of the United States. Don’t get me wrong, President Obama is an awesome man who has charisma and intelligence. I believe he is the one to prove to America you don’t have to be white to lead the United States. I also believe that he is the one to unify the people regardless of ethnicity. However, I can’t help but wonder if this new face of America symbolizes a beginning to opening doors that have been closed for centuries, or will it be a standing pillar of tokenism?

Freewill or Fantasy?

I WAS VERY INTRIGUED BY OUR CLASS DISCUSSION ON FREEWILL AND WEATHER OR NOT IT IN FACT EXISTS OR IT IS JUST AN ILLUSION. WHAT I FOUND TO BE INTERESTING WAS THE VARIOUS OPINIONS OF MY CLASSMATES, SOME BELIEVED THAT THE UNIVERSE IS DETERMINISTIC AND THEREFOR FREEWILL CANNOT EXIST, AND OTHERS (LIKE OUR PROFESSOR) BELIEVED THAT FREEWILL IS SIMPLY THE CHOICES WE MAKE, WEATHER THEY ARE INFLUENCED OR NOT BY OUTSIDE FORCES, THEY ARE NEVER THE LESS A CHOICE THAT WE ALONE DECIDE IN OUR MINDS TO MAKE. I BELIVE THAT BOTH CAN BE TRUE. ALTHOUGH IT IN INEVITABLE FOR US TO BE INFLUINECED IN OUR ACTIONS BY MANY FACTORS SUCH AS FAMILY, SOCIETY ETC. WE ARE ALSO FREE TO THINK, DECIDE AND MAKE CHOICES THAT SOMETIMES MIGHT BE CONTRARY TO WHAT IS EXPECTED OF US. ANY DECISION CAN BE SCRUTINIEZED AND GIVEN SCIENTIFIC CONNECTIONS BUT I DONT BELIEVE THAT DIMINISHES THAT FACT THAT IT IS STILL OUR WILL THAT DECIDED THE ACTION. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?

A Proud American

I am so proud to be an American today.. It has finally come... an end of an era- or should i say an Error... it is now Obama's turn to lead our country into some what of an order that we can all follow.. I am so emotional, that a country like the US has to go through so much... We as a nation have failed to secure one another in this tragic time of need. WE steal, lie, hate, and cause other chaos just to survive, i can not wait until some peacefulness arises after the storm has settled. i do not know how Obama is gonna do it... but i hope he has the patience and power to figure out how the super power of the world is going to get back on its feet. He has made very big promises and i hope he will be able to at least accomplish some of them. this nation does not need another failure, but a president that is preaching about hope, change, wisdom... as Obama has been doing! i wish him much luck and success in his 4 years in office!

Choices Really?

As systematically put by Weber, "There is no Objectivity". As simple as it gets, one gets to wonder how Weber came up with that, and then using the phrase to understand life, and choices. It really begins to sink in; how free is the the idea of freewill if we live in a society that is molded by traditions and from that environment we develop what we like to think of as freewill, and claim to make choices. Further thinking of Weber's approach only makes me begin to think that, perhaps having no objectivity is Change. I say that because given the fact that every one else is so ritually trying to squeeze change out of the ritualistic perspective of objective, of freewill and choice that has become to monotonous that the harder they try to emphasize change, the more stuck they actually are to the ritualistic perspective that they sort to change in the first place.

Darwin, final para - 1-2-3-4 - and new Qs

It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being
1 - Growth with reproduction;
2 - Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction;
3 - Variability from the indirect and direct action of the conditions of life, and from use and disuse;
4 - a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less improved forms.
Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
Darwin left ROOM FOR "GOD" and ROOM FOR nature!
1-2-3-4:
Which is conflict consensus pattern change.
Which is peacock lion porpoise owl