Heh, again it happens!

So I was looking over Postman (since I so conveniently forgot it until now, which will be adressed at the end of the post!) and scanned the portion about how our Little Eva will be in a

...culture which has 260,000 billboards, 17,000 newspapers, 12,000 periodicals, 27,000 video outlets for renting tapes, 400 million televiosion sets, and well over 500 million radios... Everything from telegraphy and photography in the nineteenth century to the silicon chip in the twentieth has amplified the din of information intruding on Little Eva's consciouness...

Has anyone ever read the book "Feed"? Anyway, it's about the future when everyone has little microchips in their brains that constantly "feed" them commercials that market to them what the master computers have logged as their general preferences. It's about one boy (who has a feed)'s experience with a girl who has never had a permanent feed, only a removeable one becuase of her father's preference. He finds her to be the most original person he has ever met (becuase she has ideas beyond those that are "fed" to him) but she winds up dying in the end, because I think she has to have a feed implanted for some reason but her brain can't take it? Anyway, she starts to forget everything, so she records her memories in video form with her defunctive feed and sends them to the boy through a sort of telepathic e-mail (possible, in Science Fiction, if your head is a part of a very large computer.) Anyway, I thought that last sentence was a bit remeniscent of the book... Kind of like the affects of marketing on young minds, the way it makes everyone the same.

Anyway, about the argument we had going on consumerism, which everyone seems to have already addressed, but just so you know I was listening, it is the people's responsibility to decide when they have enough. Pretty soon those who just keep buying the new things will have a whole lot of plastic and computer chips with no life to put them in, (especially if we continue like the Feed book says! Which we won't, I'm sure.....)

Ah, about the forgetting everything comment. Well, I was cruising around Miranda's website (the band, not a person) and found a link to another band, Árbol. I youtubed it and found a video, which enamored me so, even while I could have been doing my homework. I realized that their main verse of the song (Enes) is me to a T... (that link is the video! so you know...)

"No me acuerdo bien que estaba cantando
Nunca recorde ninguna cancion
No recuerdo los días ni las cosas (¡¡¡yo!!!)
Nunca se por que, ya se me olvido"

And in English, for people who don't care for translating...

"I don't remember well what I was singing
I never remember any songs
I don't remember days or appointments (me!!!)
I never know why, I already forgot"

Which, of course, makes more sense in Spanish... -_-

Free Hugs Campaign!!!

Check out the Free Hugs Campaign. How cool! Can we go do that? Maybe I could try in Springfield... at least the people laughing would be people who already know I'm weird!! Jeje :D

I would...

feel much better about putting my opinions here if I knew no one was going to read them. But I'm going to put up this one, anyway.
When I read "La Línea", that I mentioned in a couple of posts back, so I won't link, I decided that a life lived solely for one's self was pointless. It seems so selfish to me. We're all on the same planet, living more or less in the same reality, we affect each other all the time without knowing it. So what I thought was that if you see something that's wrong, or something in society that needs to be fixed, saying that fixing it would be ultimately detrimental to your life and happiness is... wrong. Avoiding doing it because it seems impossible is wrong. At least it is for me. I don't think that I matter more than any other person, so if I am in a position to help another person I should do it. Because wouldn't I want someone to help me? One of my heroes is Simón Bolívar, and I don't know if anyone has read "The General in his Labyrinth", by Gabriel García Márquez? He had this crazy big goal, of uniting the present-day countries of Panamá, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Perú and Bolivia after throwing off Spanish rule. And he got rid of the Spaniards, but he wasn't able to unite the countries. In the end he wasn't treated very well, and he was in a miserable physical condition. But he had a dream, a big one, and a good one. And he kept going at it even when it seemed impossible. He didn't make it all come true, I know, but that's the sort of person I find truly amazing... It's the sort of person I would want to emulate.

Right, almost forgot! My thoughts on the discussion we had on the 20th...

First off, I know I forget everything, I'm just like that. This is the reason I always do everything at the last minute. I am, however, trying the list thing, which worked remarkably well LYIB (I have a trick! I tape it to the back of the book I'm reading! That way I never lose it -_-) Okay, so, what did we talk about... right! First he describes the "gods" (/narratives) that we dedicate our lives to and why we need them. I like the way he does this, he describes how humans give their lives meaning--by having a reason. And I guess the opposite of this is being completely nihilistic... Anyway, it makes sense. People generally find a reason for living--their kids, family, dreams, religion, just something they believe they should be doing--and then follow up on it until the end. And it was Barzun who talked a bit about when people kind of get to the end of where that dream can take them--what's left? Some of the gods are convenient, y'know, coz they go on forever. Sometimes I think people who keep following one thing are... what would the word be? Avoiding their responsibility? Or not responsibility, more like they're avoiding thinking for themselves. At least sometimes! I'm sure some people think really hard and decide to follow a certain way, but I think it's important to keep questioning yourself. I think that people who stay a certain way become stagnant, and in order to survive and do your best you have to keep changing and wanting to know more.
And I brought this up in class but maybe it wasn't that interesting, about Shinto and the kami? Ah, I don't know if you remember, but I'll tell you what it's about, all right? Shinto is the ancient faith/way of life of Japan, that's been there since the people had any sort of religious beliefs. It wasn't formalized in any way until the influence of Buddhism on the people. (Which I think is kind of interesting--before that Shinto was just Shinto "The way of the Kami" sort of thing. People didn't need a written history, or a definition of the tenents--of which there aren't really any-- because it was theirs, and it was just the way things were. Does that make sense? That they didn't need a way of identifying their beliefs until others held beliefs that didn't match up. But I know that Buddhism and Shintoism coexist wonderfully in Japan, partly because strict Buddhists see the kami as incarnations of Buddha, and the Shintoists see the many Buddhas as kami... At least it works.) But in Shinto everything is believed to have a spirit, or a kami, and you guys have heard of... let's say "Bushido", right? That's "the way of the sword", and there are a lot of those things in Japan. There's the "way of tea", sadou/chadou, like tea ceremony and such. You can devote your life to any of these things, but you never deny the existence of everything else, which is what seems people do in the book--you're devoted to technology, so spiritual doesn't make sense, you're devoted to the big God (and I know not all people are like this) and evolution goes out the window.
I don't know what you could say my "god" is. I know things that I want to do, though I won't list them here, I don't know who's reading this! And I know things I don't want to do. Maybe I want to be happy without comprimising myself. But I don't want to stay within myself for my whole life! I don't want to be an isolated phenomenon, if you know what I mean. O__O Hopefully...

el choque de las generaciones...

Lei un poco de la pagina principal de blogger--dice que hay algun error que no nos deja publicar las entradas automaticamente, por lo menos ahora no, pero que pronto se lo van a arreglar. Ah, no fue lo que quise decir!

Primero, llegue a springfield hace unas horas (3), y mis abuelos y yo fuimos a comer, como siempre hacemos. Bueno, la conversación se hizo una de la inmigracion ilegal. olvide lo que dijimos al principio--algo acerca del libro que estuve leyendo "La Línea", por Ann Jaramillo. Bueno, lo que paso es que abuelo me dijo que no (yo) pude cambiar nada--que fue mejor "comer, beber, y estar felices" Oye, ¿de que estuvo hablando? ¿como puede pensar que por seguir con nuestras vidad el mundo va a solucionarse? Me dijo que despues de unas generaciones el mundo cambiaria. Bueno, ¡gracias abulo mio!

Me dijo que venir aca ilegalmente es lo que enoja los ciudadanos. Le pregunte como pudieran venir, entonces. me dijo que 'es esa la manera que piensan ellos que pelean contra la inmigracion' Así le dije que quizas tengamos que cambiar las leyes. Entonces me conto algun cuento de Henry el VIII, cuando mato a Thomas More por no denunciar el papa, diciendo que su hija estaba molesa por sus leyes, y el rey le dijo algo como "preferia vivir en un erial congelado que en un mundo sin leyes" MAL EJEMPLO. En primer lugar obviamente fue una ley HORRIBLE. En segundo, ¿por que queria relacionar nuestro gobierno con el hombre que se casó con... 6 mujeres, y que mato a 4 de ellas. Asi le dije que si ellos que no quieren que los inmigrantes vienen aca pudieran saber la razon que salen, lo que quieren, y lo que sobreviven (y en muchos casos no sobreviven) para llegar aca quizas no estarian tan tercos, quizas querian hacer que algo cambie. No le gusto nada....

Creo que la cosa peor hacer con la vida es esperar por cambio. Cuando ves a algo horrible, algo vil, algo injusto mirar y pensar "Que mal" es lo peor que puedes hacer. Hace que nuestras vidas no valen nada. Nos hace como... bestias. Monstruos. Pequeños.

About Jaques Barzun & the Bread Guy

Okay, fist we hit Jaques:

I liked this speech! It sort of ties back into to Caleb Gallenmore's about the whole doing-what-society-expects of you, and then that concept of freedom in one's self. He says that once we reach that ceiling of expectations that society has given to us we are forced to re-examine our purpose in life, and the true composition of ourselves (not what we believe it to be, I suppose.) College does specialize us for a certain type of lifestyle in some ways--the whole training concept. It teaches us the basics of how to do the job we wish to take up in later days. But I think that people who go through college, get into the field they wish to pursue and then find themselves at the end of the figurative road must be... erks, ignorant? I mean, when people started talking about college as a way to find a job later I was thrown a bit off balance. I had never thought of it as such. I always thought it was a condensed way to learn things that were hard to learn on your own. Of course the majority of my lifetime has been spent in facilities devoted to education, not working, so I definitely have a different perspective. I always thought, though, when I would contemplate my life, that a job was just a convenience. It would give me something to do throughout the day, direct me a bit, but most importantly give me the money I needed to have a home to go back to where I can learn what I want, and do those things that I want to do...

I agree with his advice about reading. When you live your life wearing blinders, just seeing what you're expected to see, you start growing in just one direction, too. The up-your-butt direction. Somtimes it's hard to untangle yourself from your personal problems and see the bigger problems that we, as a people, share. But it's an important thing to do. It does give you perspective, and insight, to all sorts of things!! It makes problems easier to understand, and thus easier to find a solution for. That's something we need in this world--people who want to fix problems. And not just fixing them as they are now (like the church in Honduras...grr...), but finding the root problem that fouls up the rest of the system.

On the Bread Dude (Bill Moyer, Bill Moyer! :D)

First off Mr. Moyer says to us that their generation is sorry for the mess it's leaving to the next one. He says that our world is in peril and we don't know which way it'll turn: success or failure. I like the thing he says on page 2 of the print out, more that half way down that page, about how he "vacilate[s] betweeb the determination to act, to change things, and the desire to retreat into the snuggeries of self, family and friends." That's how I feel all the time! It's great to know that it's not a lonely feeling, even if it doesn't reflect anything good about our future. Especially in going off to college I feel very insecure. I see many bad things happen in the world--close to me and on a macro-scale--and I wonder what I can do to change those things. But it's scary, stepping out of yourself. Especially when you don't have a strong support system, cause then it could be you're just crazy. It's so much easier to stick your head in the sand and enjoy the quiet, and the warmth. It's so much easier to not be the one to change things. But I hope in our lives we can have the courage to stand up and be insanely uncomfortable. To put ourselves on the spot and challenge something we don't believe is right, or to try and change something for what we believe is the better. I think the worst thing ever would be to become a stagnant people.

Ah! And after he says that his generation has brought the next so many problems he goes on to say that his and the generations before his made the college the students attended, the systems of economics and education that allow said generation to live without many fears those of past generations had to endure (and still endure). I think there is an equal amount of good with the bad. Maybe if someday people were to stop growing they would just fix what is already there, but I don't think it's in their natures.

About the way we're all interdependent, one on the other, and the example with the bread... In Japan there's a religion (that's what it's called, but it's more of a way of life) called Shinto, or "The way of the Kami", sort of. It basically focuses on the harmony and balance between all living things that is vital to our shared existence. Everytime before we eat we say "Itadakimasu!" or, "I greatfully receive!" It also means "Thanks for the food!" It's sort of an acknowledgement of where the food comes from, all the hands and beings that were part of the process of it's growth and journey to the table, etc... That's what people who pray do, too, right? Thank you for this food kind of thing? Ah, and at the end you thank them again "gochisou sama deshita" , lit. "It was a feast"

Y empezamos con FORUM! Caleb Gallenmore + Neil Postman

As for Caleb Gallenmore...

He talks about the nature of human freedom in his graduation speech, or at least that's what I thought his main point was. How freedom is cultivated, or taught to be denied, and what the nature of true freedom is, outside of society's limitations on ourselves.

I know it's only an example (albeit a powerful one) of freedom and how it isn't just a personal concept, but his comment on illegal immigrants and their children living here today made me think about their current situations in our society. To begin with, they go through such hardships in their native country that they decide to uproot their lives to see if they can have a future in an alien one, but are then denied the right to freedom anyway. Once they get here they're classifed as "not us," and so don't receive the same rights we call basic. Why can't all kids have the opportunity to go to good schools? Or eat everyday? Why can't we share at least with the people who work so hard for the chance at a piece of what we have? Instead we impinge upon their freedom because they impinged upon ours. We're pretty vindictive...

(I had two friends deported just last year from my highschool! Why can't they learn, why do they have to go to their homes to work and perpetuate the system! Something has to change. We just have to figure out what...)

Another point I got from this speech was that freedom is a public concept. It doesn't just belong to us, it's given to us, which seems to go against the definition, since by being given it can logically be taken away. He talks about Descartes feelings on what is real--our thoughts--and comes to the conclusion that it is our minds that truly make us free. It's the possiblity of reaching something more than we're taught to reach for that gives us true freedom. He says that if we're not bound by the constraints of our society we achieve a freedom that can't be given or taken away, more or less.... Kind of like "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"? I dunno if the rest of you guys had to read that, but we did. In it the main character is in a gulag, and every facet of his day to day life is controlled by powers he can't affect. In our analysis of the book most of my class agreed that a moment of trancendence of the system for Ivan (though he's rarely refered to as such. Russian names. Confusing...) was when he didn't do what was expected of him, didn't just try to survive in the camp, but gave some of his precious food away to a religious man (whom Ivan couldn't understand) who wasn't expecting anything for his good deeds.

In short, Caleb seems to say that freedom is a tricky thing, and not just an individual one. It's all based on how you see it, though.

Ah, has anyone ever found the phrase "I'm giving you all my worldly goods." to be a very strange one? It always refers to money... Is this because of our capitalistic system...?

As for Neil Postman...

His speech says that there are two types of people in the world--those that create and those that destroy. He also says that those that create are interested more in knowledge and learning that anyone else, and that those who destroy only want for their own happiness, not for the good of man kind. (Is that bad grammar? Or is it just one of those oddities of speech?) I think that just for the situation of a young person leaving their place of "higher learning" and going out into the "real world" this is a good metaphor--will you use your knowledge for good or evil? Straighforward, all that good concise stuff. Okay, okay, but what if they're are more than two types of people in the world? What about the ones who try to help other people? They may not be furthering their learning, or furthering their own happiness, just trying to make the lives of others a bit easier, a bit more pleasant, especially if said lives are horrible to begin with! And then there are the more normal, dime-a-dozen kinds of people that are Athenians and Visigoths at the same time. I mean, they want to further their society and learn so as to make the world a better place, but, dude, they want to feed themselves and live comfortably and not have to walk to whatever money-making field they choose to go into. It's hard to be one or the other only.

Oh! Remember, everybody, when we were on the Machiavellia section of forms of government and he talked about being generous? I don't know if you guys are familiar with manga, or more specifically Fruits Basket. And first off it's not a comic like many tend to think of them, only for children and such. Actually in Japan most adults read manga, as well, just with differne themes, and plenty still read the adolescent-geared manga because of the issues it brings up... Darn, off subject again. So in Fruits Basket there's this story called "The most foolish traveler", or something, where this guy winds up giving everything he owns away, always asking those he bequeathes his posessions to to "be happy". Well, he winds up giving his body parts away to hungry oni in the forest, until he is only a head. Then an oni comes and asks him for his eyes, and the traveler says it's allright. After the oni has finished eating he says to the man "Thank you very much. For your kindness I leave you this gift." and he drops a slip of paper that says "fool" on it. But the man can't see it, and so he cries tears of joy (even without his eyes--it's a story) and says "Thank you, thank you! No one has ever given me a present before, I'm so happy!" And then he dies. And the question is: is the traveler really so foolish? Momiji, the teller of the tale, says that he thinks the traveler knew what he was doing, and that he had the right idea. He says that we can't focus on hardhips and sadness in our life, but continue with it and try to be happy. Uhm... you can find this on the internet, or at the link I posted above. It's a good story... the link has some screen shots from the anime, so it makes more sense than just the words. -_-

Agh!

I need lessons in HUMAN INTERACTION!!! WHERE IS THAT CLASS??

"podría ser que al final
rompiste el cristal en mi
abriste mi piel que estaba tan mal
quebraste el silencio que me hizo alejar
quizás seas tu quien me haga regresar
intuyo que sabes la forma mejor
y tienes el don que requiere curar este mal"

Es un gran mal, no tener el capaz de HABLAR CON OTRA GENTE. Ni hacer amigos... ni HABLAR, ya lo mencioné? Quizás mi problema es que encuentro mis propias palabras en las de otros...piensas? uy... -_- Ah, quien tiene el don? Je, mejor que no pregunte!

------
Olvidé!! las letras son de "Don", por "Miranda", si quieras saber!
-----
And the lyrics are as follows in my rough translation from Spanish...

"It could be that in the end
You broke the crystal in me
you opened my skin, which was so far gone
you shattered the silence that made me hold back
maybe it's you that'll make me return
i sense you know the best way
and that you have the gift that this illness requires to heal"... Urgs, it doesn't sound nearly as nice in English...

And, in English again, the song is by the Argentinian group "Miranda" and the title, "Don", means "Gift"