To get my argument across. A lot of people will agree with me that the American Education System currently in place is flawed and probably should be revised however impossible it may seem. The current education system is not a determination of how smart you are but on the contrary, it determines nothing in particular. It does however determine certain traits. The problem is, it's hard to distinguish these traits from one another with this current system. The one trait that this education system is aimed at is dedication. The point is that if you are dedicated to anything and you are a somewhat healthy human being, you will receive great grades and probably beat everyone in terms of grade point average.
The misconception here about the education system is that it grades you based on how "smart" you are. Smart is a very broad term that has no specific meaning. Smart refers to someone that excels in one particular field. As long as you excel in that one field, you can be considered smart without needing too much knowledge in the other fields. Intelligence is in basic principle the concept of being very adaptable. Adaptable in the way of being able to easily grasp concepts and to formulate "new" ideas based on previous preconceptions you may have had. This is not what the education system in America is actually grading you on. The American system only focuses on dedication. If you are smart and have no dedication, your grades will reflect badly. If you are not smart and have extreme dedication, your grades will reflect well. The optimum place people should be at is generally smart and more than average dedication. This is where people will get the most from their grades. Dedication will weigh much more heavily on your grade than smarts do. Even though smarts will effect your grade.
Another thing that people don't realize is that while our educational hierarchy preaches dedication, in the process of doing so, it teaches us how to be dumb. The primary example here is that the education system teaches us, "There is one right answer." When you apply this one right answer concept to anything else outside of school, it seems to collapse. As a result, after students leave high school, they still look for this one right answer. Their mind has been dumbed down and now has forgotten the idea of creative thinking and formulating unique thoughts based on previous information. A multiple choice answer always has one answer. This one answer concept almost never applies in real life. When in reality does one actually have to choose between right and wrong. Every single answer to a question has some right parts of it and some wrong parts of it. We just have to choose one and hope that there was more right than wrong. There in lies another problem. What's right and what's wrong, although this is another topic.
Do I believe that we can reform the education system today? No, it would not be possible. The education system works in this respect. While it does not grade us based on our intelligence, it grades us on our dedication. Dedication is what people want in the work place. Society works as an assembly line. People get created (Education), People are put through a trial to test if creation was a success(Grades), based on results, people get moved to different places (Jobs). If you have good grades, you will likely be hired because of this concept of dedication. While most workplaces don't realize it, dedication is what they look for. It's simply, getting people with good grades in our workplace makes it better, therefore if we get more people that have good grades it will work better. While some workplaces don't realize this concept, they are completely tied to the education system that we have today. While there are propositions to change it, such as getting rid of one answer questions in everything and teaching students to think from all viewpoints, it's not going to be likely to change anything. I believe even with the faulty education system, it should not change because it's still a working system. The problem I have with this system is it's name, why call it an education system where you are simply dumbing people down instead of making them smarter?
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Myths on the Topic of Religion
What I found most interesting about this was the concept that religion is actually a method of how to live life. Instead of why the universe exists. Great philosophers don't actually reply to the question being asked but instead asks the question in a different light. Religion seems on the surface to be an answer of why the universe exists but is actually a metaphor to explain a way of experiencing the world in which we are living.
From the way I see it, religion is a way for most people to assign a purpose into their life. Based on this story of the creation of how the universe works, people create goals for themselves to guide them on their path through life. The reason people create these goals for themselves is at it's root in human nature. To live one must have a goal. Without a goal we cease to live. Every second of your life there is a goal in your mind. If you don't have a goal you are dead. Life is the act of having a goal. As we are humans it's quite difficult to actually not have a goal and based on how you define a goal, impossible to stop having goals.
There is something that most people don't understand though because of a misconception that we carry. The reason why most people follow a religion is because we are all lemmings. What I mean by this is that most people cease to have individual thoughts. Everyone lives their lives based on something because we are simply incapable of generating new ideas. People are only capable of using what they know and learning something new. But we are not capable of generating new ideas. If there is ever a new idea it's simply by accident or the person that created it is mentally damaged. We follow the majority of people and the influences in our environment around us. If both your parents are Catholic, than you are most likely going to be Catholic. That is an example of environmental influence. People that seem lost in life tend to grasp on to anything they can. When one person is drowning, you throw a buoy out to them because of the fact that if you were give yourself as an object to grab, in panic that person would probably drown you along with themselves. The same concept applies to religion. When someone is lost they panic and latch onto anything they can. Religion is a buoy while people are people. Religion is something that can easily be grasped and held onto while people have a tendency of falling and making mistakes.
With this new grasp on an idea that people think is a goal, they abide by it and live for it. Without it, people find themselves lost and without a goal. In a sense they are "dead". This is why religion is not something easy to part from. It's a set long term goal that people follow. While there are people who live short term goal based lives, a long term goal is always more stable. Religion is in a sense human nature. The thing is, religion is always based on something. In the case of most religions, it's a certain scripture. This scripture is usually a story. It may also be a collection of scriptures. But the thing that needs to be argued here is that good stories will always have a deeper meaning or metaphor. With these scriptures, there is a meaning but humans in their simplistic nature never pass the gilded exterior of an object. The outside of the object is always the easiest to understand and grasp, as is a story in a book. While the deeper meaning and the actual mechanisms that run the device remain a mystery to most and are only revealed to elect individuals. This is the point that Campbell tries to argue.
In conclusion, almost everything that Campbell says backs up my original thoughts on religion and why people need it. With some adjustments I understand exactly what Campbell was trying to say and find the flaws in a 11th grade argument and mend them. I guess Campbell has added concrete in my dilapidated brick wall of ideas.
From the way I see it, religion is a way for most people to assign a purpose into their life. Based on this story of the creation of how the universe works, people create goals for themselves to guide them on their path through life. The reason people create these goals for themselves is at it's root in human nature. To live one must have a goal. Without a goal we cease to live. Every second of your life there is a goal in your mind. If you don't have a goal you are dead. Life is the act of having a goal. As we are humans it's quite difficult to actually not have a goal and based on how you define a goal, impossible to stop having goals.
There is something that most people don't understand though because of a misconception that we carry. The reason why most people follow a religion is because we are all lemmings. What I mean by this is that most people cease to have individual thoughts. Everyone lives their lives based on something because we are simply incapable of generating new ideas. People are only capable of using what they know and learning something new. But we are not capable of generating new ideas. If there is ever a new idea it's simply by accident or the person that created it is mentally damaged. We follow the majority of people and the influences in our environment around us. If both your parents are Catholic, than you are most likely going to be Catholic. That is an example of environmental influence. People that seem lost in life tend to grasp on to anything they can. When one person is drowning, you throw a buoy out to them because of the fact that if you were give yourself as an object to grab, in panic that person would probably drown you along with themselves. The same concept applies to religion. When someone is lost they panic and latch onto anything they can. Religion is a buoy while people are people. Religion is something that can easily be grasped and held onto while people have a tendency of falling and making mistakes.
With this new grasp on an idea that people think is a goal, they abide by it and live for it. Without it, people find themselves lost and without a goal. In a sense they are "dead". This is why religion is not something easy to part from. It's a set long term goal that people follow. While there are people who live short term goal based lives, a long term goal is always more stable. Religion is in a sense human nature. The thing is, religion is always based on something. In the case of most religions, it's a certain scripture. This scripture is usually a story. It may also be a collection of scriptures. But the thing that needs to be argued here is that good stories will always have a deeper meaning or metaphor. With these scriptures, there is a meaning but humans in their simplistic nature never pass the gilded exterior of an object. The outside of the object is always the easiest to understand and grasp, as is a story in a book. While the deeper meaning and the actual mechanisms that run the device remain a mystery to most and are only revealed to elect individuals. This is the point that Campbell tries to argue.
In conclusion, almost everything that Campbell says backs up my original thoughts on religion and why people need it. With some adjustments I understand exactly what Campbell was trying to say and find the flaws in a 11th grade argument and mend them. I guess Campbell has added concrete in my dilapidated brick wall of ideas.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Selflessness Does Not Exist
To summarize, there is no such thing as selflessness, there is only selfishness in this world. While you may think that there is selflessness, it is technically correct. I will elaborate. Selflessness is simply a type of selfishness. Selfishness is defined colloquially as the desire to benefit oneself. The rule of selfishness stands true above all else. Take the act of helping someone else. This is sometimes called selflessness. Say that you are helping them with their home work. This might be selflessness or it might just be that you want something in return. While this may not be evident in that specific moment, because you helped them, you expect them to help you back later on. This is the benefit of a co-beneficial relationship possibly called "friendship". Because you expect something back, you are actually not selfless, you are selfish. While other people might be thinking, hang on, I don't want anything back from them, I only do it to help them, I never expect anything back. Half of you are right and half are wrong. There are people that are unaware that they expect things back, so you still fit into this category. To address the others in this room, you help people because it makes you feel better. You are helping people to stimulate the reward cortex of your brain. This is actually benefiting yourself. You get that feeling of goodness about yourself because you helped someone. Do you see now why selflessness doesn't exist? We only do selfless things to help ourselves so therefore, they are not actually selfless. This entire conversation stems from primal humans which I reference a lot. In the days of hunter-gatherers, our goal was to live for ourselves and ourselves only. We want to live, this is survival instinct. That is the point of life, we strive to survive. Everything we do is selfish and there is no denying that.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Definition
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/consciousness-why-study-what-you-cant-define
Again this topic brings back the thoughts about relativity. This relativity is quite specific to definitions. The way we define things will effect our outlook and our actions. Say for example, define for me the word love. Do you consider kissing, a mutual relationship, marriage, dating, or hugging love? Different people will define love differently based on how they feel. Some might think that there is love between close friends while others will think there is love based on a marriage. While here in the discussion of consciousness, there lies the problem about studying consciousness. While this article talks about where the consciousness of a person exists physically, you need to define what consciousness. Some people believe that consciousness is a detached part of your body that doesn't need to live inside of you. It is similar to your soul, this is why out of body experiences exist. Other people believe that consciousness is actually in your brain and is the simple process of neurons firing, that's why when we suffer major physical injury we die.
Again this topic brings back the thoughts about relativity. This relativity is quite specific to definitions. The way we define things will effect our outlook and our actions. Say for example, define for me the word love. Do you consider kissing, a mutual relationship, marriage, dating, or hugging love? Different people will define love differently based on how they feel. Some might think that there is love between close friends while others will think there is love based on a marriage. While here in the discussion of consciousness, there lies the problem about studying consciousness. While this article talks about where the consciousness of a person exists physically, you need to define what consciousness. Some people believe that consciousness is a detached part of your body that doesn't need to live inside of you. It is similar to your soul, this is why out of body experiences exist. Other people believe that consciousness is actually in your brain and is the simple process of neurons firing, that's why when we suffer major physical injury we die.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Hesitation...
Hesitation is a natural instinct that happens when we remember the potential consequences of a decision. Take for example you are going to make a decision on whether or not to go to class today, if you choose to not go to class, there will be a brief moment where you consider the consequences of not going to class. This hesitation brings up both the choices again for our mind to ponder. As a survival instinct it usually means that we are doing the wrong thing. Although even with this hesitation, we do it anyway sometimes. Is that really the right thing to do I wonder? I'm thinking too much again. This post was basically fueled from my previous post. I spent a good a good minute paused before clicking the publish button. I didn't want to hurt someone's feelings so I was quite vague though, they might recognize it's them. I hope I didn't offend them.
I'm Invisible. Help
In all honesty this is a serious post. This has been an issue since around the beginning of the school year that I've never run into before. If anyone can spare some time to read and post a reply that will help a lot. To make it short, I'm asking for advice of what I should do. Normally I don't ask for advice but, I have to, I can't take it anymore. This is what's wrong:
Recently, I've run into a unique issue. I don't exist in the life of a certain person. It irritates me too much and I can't stand it anymore. I'll refer to this person as 'Person A'. Apparently I don't exist in the eyes of Person A. This isn't a simple issue of they acknowledge my existence but choose to neglect it. That scenario is where people don't talk to you normally but will cooperate when forced to. This situation is different. Person A will not talk under any circumstances unless forced to. When they need to, it's only for the necessary amount of time. There is no awkward silence after, simply a disregard for my existence. Person A will stop the conversation abruptly and stare off into the distance. In a more normal scenario, Person A has almost never looked at me or made eye contact with me. It seems as if the only time they do it is when it was an accident and they were staring off into the distance, and I happen to be there. They have managed to have conversations through me to another person and still manage not to make eye contact. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but to be completely honest, I want to be their friend. As far as I have observed, I'm the only person that Person A disregards.
I've come to the conclusion that I don't know what to do and that I need help, so please leave a comment on what I should do considering my lack of experience in this situation.
Recently, I've run into a unique issue. I don't exist in the life of a certain person. It irritates me too much and I can't stand it anymore. I'll refer to this person as 'Person A'. Apparently I don't exist in the eyes of Person A. This isn't a simple issue of they acknowledge my existence but choose to neglect it. That scenario is where people don't talk to you normally but will cooperate when forced to. This situation is different. Person A will not talk under any circumstances unless forced to. When they need to, it's only for the necessary amount of time. There is no awkward silence after, simply a disregard for my existence. Person A will stop the conversation abruptly and stare off into the distance. In a more normal scenario, Person A has almost never looked at me or made eye contact with me. It seems as if the only time they do it is when it was an accident and they were staring off into the distance, and I happen to be there. They have managed to have conversations through me to another person and still manage not to make eye contact. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but to be completely honest, I want to be their friend. As far as I have observed, I'm the only person that Person A disregards.
I've come to the conclusion that I don't know what to do and that I need help, so please leave a comment on what I should do considering my lack of experience in this situation.
Is Space Travel Viable?
http://bigthink.com/above-the-clouds/from-millennium-falcon-to-falcon-9
In my opinion, space travel is certainty possible, maybe it won't be reliable in our life time, but I believe that we will reach the stars one day. This article simply explains the complications behind space flight in our current day and age. I believe that anything is possible with technology, it simply takes time and effort for us to create such powerful devices. There is a saying that, "Extremely advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." This is one of the reasons why I believe we can reach such a high goal. While it may not be in my life time. As long as us humans look forward, we will always make progress because that's who we are.
In my opinion, space travel is certainty possible, maybe it won't be reliable in our life time, but I believe that we will reach the stars one day. This article simply explains the complications behind space flight in our current day and age. I believe that anything is possible with technology, it simply takes time and effort for us to create such powerful devices. There is a saying that, "Extremely advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." This is one of the reasons why I believe we can reach such a high goal. While it may not be in my life time. As long as us humans look forward, we will always make progress because that's who we are.
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