The Matrix - due 11/27/07

In the world of The Matrix, people are no longer in family units, children are not born through their parents anymore, but grown from embryos artificially and mass produced. This is similar to the ideas in 1984 as well as Brave New World. This idea reminded me of the technological advances scientists are making today regarding artificial insemination and stem cell research. The article, "Brave New Genetic World," talks about these issues, and goes on to explain that the world is increasingly moving toward not only being able to produce offspring outside of the human body, but also genetically determining them. This idea is apparent in Brave New World, when the leaders are able to condition the embryos and eventually children to any intelligence level they want, and subsequently place people in societal classes. The article states, "We're now closer than ever to the prospect of genetically engineering our offspring, thanks to the human genome." If the technology continues, we will eventually be able to genetically engineer people to be exactly who we want them to be, without the help of human beings for conception, and create a world with genetically "perfect" or even, identical, human beings. This is a scary thought when we read literature such as Brave New World and 1984, and hopefully these abilities never fall into the wrong hands.

http://catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0023.html

Descartes - Due 11/13

Descartes presents an argument in the beginning of his writing trying to argue the fact that God exists. Once he decides that if something can be doubted, it should be assumed, for working purposes, to be false. For example, our senses are sometimes deceiving to us, so they can be assumed as unreliable sources. After he went on and on disproving every "truth" in his life to be false, he assumed that the one thing that could not be disproven was the fact that he exists. "I think, therefore I am." Descartes argues that since he is an imperfect being, he must therefore doubt himself. He believes that the existence of God is self-evident in that He decides that since he himself is not a perfect being, there must be some kind of standard out there to hold himself up against, a person who is perfect, God. In an article from New Advent, a few key questions arise speaking to whether or not God exists, whether His existence is self-evident, and is it able to be demonstrated. One thing that was interesting about this article, stemming from the idea of a perfect being, was an objection made against the existence of God, where Augustine is quoted as saying, "Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil." It is contradictory that someone would allow evil to exist, or to say that this evil could somehow produce good.


http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm

1984 - Due 10/30/07

The New York Times published a series of articles and excerpts concerning the current social class system in America today. This reminded me of the portion of 1984 when Winston is reading his secret book, chapter 2, Ignorance is Strength. This description of Oceania goes through the concept of the upper, middle, and lower classes, and really how the system works. Basically, the lower class always stays low, because the high class does everything in it's power to stay high, and the middle class only includes the efforts of the lower class, by using words like freedom and power, to help themselves get ahead. And soon, when the middle class has increased in number and power, it will become the high class, replacing the existing one, and a new middle class is broken off from the previous high and low. It is a switching back and forth of the wealthy, while the poor always stay poor. This goes along with a statement made by David Leonhardt in "A Closer Look at Income Mobility." He states, "Mobility -- the movement of families up and down the economic ladder -- is the promise that lies at the heart of the American dream. Economists sometimes study mobility by examining what percentage of families move to a different section of the income spectrum over time. Some families do move up and down the income spectrum, but it does not seem to be happening quite as often as it used to." He explains that even though we have an "American Dream" to fall back on, that seems to be the goal of every American, and although the lower class may have the desire to move up in socioeconomic status, this is not greatly occurring anymore. In another part of the website, "Class Matters: An Overview," there are graphs depicting facts about all 3 classes in America. Overall, you can see that your class is directly related to your occupation, your income, and your education. The Lower Class is the least educated, subsequently have the worst jobs and the smallest incomes. The High class is on the opposite of the spectrum, having the most education, the best jobs and making the most money. Whether or not each person is in the class because of their education, or they received the education they did as a result of being in that class is to be determined on an personal basis, but does make a difference in the argument.


http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1192759989-SaeLp2ArbXqw7E7IeqQy7A

1984 - due 10/23/07

Throughout the first section of the book "1984" by George Orwell, you find a few themes and motifs that are apparent in every section of the book, establishing exactly the type of government involved in this particular society that lead the Revolution of complete control over thoughts, actions, past and future events, for the people of the present day. Because of the incredible restrictions this government, lead by "Big Brother," has placed on the people of this society, humans are no longer able to make free choices, become educated in any way, they are not able to recall past events because of the way the government tampers with the press and historical writings, and are restricted from living their lives in any kind of privacy or freedom. Big Brother's signature slogan reads, "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength." In this society, there is a constant state of war lead by "The Party," a group of infallible leaders strong in their loyalty to B.B. The Thought Police also exist to watch every citizen at any given time through things called telescreens, and to judge their every action and even facial expression, making sure they are never in a state of contemplative rebellion or excess intelligence. Lastly, there are 4 Ministry Administrations established to regulate and control every action of society. The Ministry of Truth controlled the news, entertainment, education and fine arts. The Ministry of Peace concerned itself with war, the Ministry of Love maintained law and order, and the Ministry of Plenty was responsible for economic affairs. In the article "Learning to love Big Brother," Daniel Kurtzman writes about a few significant similarities he finds between the Bush Administration today and the novel "1984." He states, "[1984] was intended to be read as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism -- not a how-to manual." Kurtzman compares our situation in Iraq with the state of current war apparent in the novel, because of Bush's statements that the war will continue "indefinitely." He compares our current administration and Pentagon with the Ministry of Truth, stating that our government is set on not only keeping valuable information from us, but also altering it in a way that it removes any shortcomings of our President, and washes over the mistakes of our country regarding it's leadership and initiative in war. He writes on the similarities between President Bush and the novel's "infallible leader" who keeps a watchful eye on every citizen, much like the liberties the government is taking presently to keep tabs on things such as phone calls and recording the events in public places at all times. Lastly, Kurtzman speaks to the action of the Thought Police in the novel, and the idea that someday, Americans may be faced with the issue of the powerful control the government can have on it's people's minds. The conclusion of his article states, "So powerful was the state's control over people's minds in "1984" that, eventually, everyone came to love Big Brother. Perhaps in time we all will, too."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/07/28/IN244190.DTL

Machiavelli: The Qualities of the Prince. Due 10/16/07

The current situation facing the state of Michigan's tax increase is interesting when compared to Machiavelli's: The Qualities of the Prince, especially the section called "On Generosity and Miserliness." This section describes the duties of the prince to maintain generosity towards his subjects and citizens, and how he must keep his reputation and stick to his word, because if he appears to be generous, and promises the people generosity, and then doesn't come through, he will be hated and mistrusted by them. For example, if he "burden[s] the people with excessive taxes" and raises funds, he will be hated because his "generosity" will have benefited the few, the rich, and ruined the poor. This reminded me of the current situation in Michigan because Governor Granholm has a duty to rescue this state out of it's financial struggles and economic disparity, but she must be careful, because even at the thought of raising taxes, the people of this state were up in arms, and looking past the fact that it may or may not be her fault that we are in the poverty that we are, our state is in dire need of money. But, no matter what the Governor does, she has already been mistrusted because of her generosity and then lack of, so, like the prince who is rejected by his subjects, she is being rejected by this state.

http://www.wwj.com/topic/ap_news.php?story=AP/APTV/State/MI/n/MI--Granholm-Legacy.1

Jefferson: The Declaration of Independence 10/09/07

When do the rights and privileges given to every United States citizen apply, and when do they not? Are there any situations where these rights should be taken away? It is easy to say that the standards written in the Declaration of Independence should always apply to every person, because they're a human being, and they deserve it, and no one ever has the right to take those rights away. However, things get a little touchy when things like crime and terrorism come into the picture. Then, we find ourselves, under the justification of fairness and law, able to take these rights away from people. I am not disagreeing with this system in the least bit, I simply think it's interesting that when you look deeper into situations like this, you find that there are always exception to the rule. We say that all men are created equal, and every person is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is when one human being tries to take these away from another that we take it upon ourselves to remove these rights from the person who committed the crime. This is the idea involved in terrorism and the trials resulting from the plane crashes into the World Trade Center in 2001, some of which trials are still going on. If you take these rights away from innocent human beings, essentially, you deserve to have these rights taken away from you.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007710080325

nussbaum: the central human functional capabilities due 10/2/07

The Capability as Goal section of Nussbaum's writing focuses on the idea that people's lives should be judged in quality by, "how well have the people of the country been enabled to perform the central human functions?" and the capabilites of the citizens are what should be evaluated. The goal would be to get "as many people as possible into a state of capability to function." We need to think about what we are willing to do, and maybe even sacrifice, to bring all people to the same ability level, giving all citizens equal opportunity to live a meaningful fulfilled life. Something this reminds me of is the issue of nation wide health care. Many citizens are for this idea, as well as against. The people of this country may need to ask themselves if we are all even given the chance to live our lives to the fullest, or are some people born already less fortunate with much less opportunity to grow. This artice discusses the issue of nation wide health care and how it would benefit us, to give everyone the same capability and enablement to live productive and fulfilled lives.

http://www.pdamerica.org/articles/news/2007-09-20-08-03-23-news.php

The Ethic of Compassion 9/25/07

http://www2.nurseweek.com/Articles/article.cfm?AID=21378


Some of the most important character traits someone in the medical field, such as a nurse or doctor, should always be striving for as well as incorporating into their constant care of any given patient are compassion and empathy. These are important for many reasons, such as making the patient as comfortable as possible, relating to them in order for them to have an outlet and someone to talk to about their problems, and getting to know people better. It is always easier to give proper and sufficient care to someone if you put yourself into their position, seeing it through their eyes. The Dalai Lama speaks to some of these issues in his writings, especially in the 10th paragraph where he addresses the fact that it is one thing to care for someone who is related to you or very close in some way to your own life, but it is another thing entirely to have empathy and compassion for a total stranger who doesn't have any impact on your life or well being at all. Sometimes it can be difficult to show constant compassion for someone so detached from yourself, and even more so for people in the medical profession who have to do it all the time. He basically says that even if it is out of duty or guilt, it's better than no compassion at all, but many times, this behavior can leave you with despair and ultimate failure if you are forced into these feelings on a day to day basis. It becomes more like a job and less like a caring personal environment. He says that the only way to have true compassionate caring for every human being, not just people that are important to you, it must be an internal personal change. This is easier said than done, because everyone is human and doesn't have the capacity to really love everyone they come in contact with, but it is an admirable goal to be as compassionate as possible when dealing with the lives of other human beings.

Brave New World. Due 9/18/2007

I chose today to compare the first few segments of Brave New World with Lois Lowry's novel, The Giver. I believe these two books have very similar themes. Initially, the theme I get from BNW is that it is a society in which the authority is placed on people who have a desire for world domination and complete control over the choices people make, the education they receive, social status, and anything else that would require individual thinking or variety. Each social class is not only determined in a set sequence and quantity, but every human being is grown mechanically and uniformly to develop into whatever predetermined social class the Directors of the "hatcheries" and authorities above would have them in. The Giver also has a similar theme of ideas, coming from the egalitarianism and predetermined uniformity of the society. In both of these books, the dictatorship type government has gone so far to control and regulate society, that all human rights, thoughts, individualism, choices, etc. have been removed from society, and people are just robots working toward the goal of "perfection" and the "purification" of the social order. I haven't read more than the first 2 chapters of BNW, but I seem to get the idea that this book might come under the same criticism as The Giver has, such as concerns with the overpowering horrific suggestions and topics such as infanticide, euthanasia, and the idea that society can determine a person's worth and value to the world. This article attacks the critics of these harsh concepts by bringing out the fact that it is more important to educate children and discuss the topics, while emphasizing the idea that "in order to be fully human, people must share this knowledge, must be forced to make choices for themselves, must revel in their differences not fear them, must feel pain in order that they may feel joy, must comprehend the horror of killing the weak and the different simply to benefit the many. In the most profound sense, they choose life for the community, the tumultuous, challenging, maddening, often incomprehensible, too often violent, life that is Man's lot until we can learn to be truly good. For the community is not good; it is evil. It is, in the truest sense, anti-human."

http://brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/455/Giver.htm

Due 9/11/07 "Of the Education of Children"

In the piece "Of the Education of Children," Michel Eyquem de Montaigne places much emphasis on the strictly detailed way of education that should be used when tutoring young pupils. He encourages things like giving the child all the information needed to make the correct learning assumptions, and to acquire sufficient skills and knowledge, but allowing the child to come to these conclusions on their own, as if equipping the children for every subject, but letting them learn personally. He also places emphasis on not just shoving information and facts into them using memorization tactics and repetition, but allowing them to explore and learn through things like life experience and creativity with structure. Reading this essay, and exploring the issues of education that we are faced with today, it is easy to realize the shortcomings of not only our education system here in the united states, but also around the world. If it's impossible for children to even have sufficient resources for learning, such as educated professors, supplies for teaching, adequate facilities and so forth (some things we might take for granted in the United States), there is no way for children around the world to even have a chance to experience the type of learning Montaigne suggests. Furthermore, if the children have any type of impairment where stereotypes and discrimination is involved, especially in countries that are less fortunate, they have little chance of succeeding. This article about changing the attitudes of children in Hungary with visual impairment, I believe, addresses this issue. It reminded me of the subject of education that Montaigne was writing about, and it speaks to an issue that is still facing the world today.

http://jvi.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/18/2/61