March 29, 2008 at 10:18 pm · Filed under Journal
I now see that life lived under a God requires the exercise of a will not entirely focused upon self-denial and guilt, but concerning itself with a flowering of its abilities, of bettering itself by such a process.
“But if it be any part of religion to believe that man was made by a good Being, it is more consistent with that faith to believe that this Being gave all human faculties that they might be cultivated and unfolded, not rooted out and consumed, and that he takes delight in every nearer approach made by his creatures to the ideal conception embodied them, every increase in any of their capabilities of comprehension, of action, or of enjoyment.”
-J.S. Mill, On Liberty
March 26, 2008 at 9:47 pm · Filed under Journal
Isn’t operating behind an veil such a fascinating thought? No one will know what you do, say, or look like. That’s what the Internet has allowed everyone to do. But too often, it brings out the worst side of us. Just take a look at any reasonably trafficked youtube video’s comments. I guarantee nine times out of ten it will have actively denigrated itself into a cesspool of insults and racism.
As a test of my theory, I went on youtube, closed my eyes, and clicked something. Sure enough, here’s what I found:
“stupid americans think they are the best EUROPEAN IS THE BEST.why we so better educated than u? and we are not fat, and we have a long history (with things like this bbooks) your just fat retarded stupid fat lardtubs!!! LOLolLolLOL”
March 22, 2008 at 1:09 pm · Filed under Journal
This just goes to show that Chinese people care far more about the here-and-now of living a prosperous life than they do about the finer points of “One China, Two Governments.”
March 10, 2008 at 10:08 pm · Filed under Journal
Have we forgotten? I would argue that we have. I recently read an article on slate.com which took the reader on a tour of modern-day Hiroshima. It seems sixty years can erase all the physical remnants of an atomic explosion. The metaphysical, too, has slowly withered. In a town where McDonalds, and Kinko’s and KFC reside happily alongside peace monuments, what is there left to remember? And when those peace monuments stand in such numbers, has the effect been dulled? There can’t be one single way to represent those whose unwitting sacrifice saved humanity from further tragedy, but the message becomes redundant and lost in the distance of the years. It’s not over. One day we will hear witness once again the power contained in the atom. If history has taught us anything, the lesson has been: we learn little from history.
http://www.slate.com/id/2187282/
March 8, 2008 at 8:23 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Draft 1 of a poem I am writing for class.
The Rules of Golf
My father was never a man of words.
He showed me how to play a simple game
against the course, the dirt. Against myself.
Most days I played like an unfolding wreck ,
but some days I rode the wind at my back.
Golf is beautiful when the going’s good,
when the fairways are fair and shots fly far.
My father was a stickler for etiquette.
On the course he followed the rules
just as he did in business and life;
keeping his cool through birdies and bogies.
The Rules of Golf might just as well be called
The Rules of Life. Play the ball as it lies,
play the course as you find it.
If you can’t do either, do what is fair.
I’ll live my life like a good round of golf.
March 5, 2008 at 10:06 pm · Filed under Journal
I find the life of John Stuart Mill to be incredibly fascinating. This is a child whose early life was an experiment at the hands of his genius father and his college, Jeremy Bentham, leading proponents of what is now called Utilitarianism. At the age of five young J.S. Mill was fluent in Greek. At the age of ten he could read Plato and Demosthenes with ease, and by his early teenage years he knew all there was to know about mathematics. It is not an exaggeration to say that the young J.S. Mill knew nearly all there was to know in a western civilization. At the age of 21 however, he had an enormous mental breakdown, due to the realization that he had been brought up to analyze everything, to question everything. This had reduced his capacity to truly feel down to nothing.
“It was in the autumn of 1826. I was in a dull state of nerves, such as everybody is occasionally liable to; unsusceptible to enjoyment or pleasurable excitement; one of those moods when what is pleasure at other times, becomes insipid or indifferent; the state, I should think, in which converts to Methodism usually are, when smitten by their first “conviction of sin.” In this frame of mind it occurred to me to put the question directly to myself: “Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?” And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, “No!” At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down. All my happiness was to have been found in the continual pursuit of this end. The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means? I seemed to have nothing left to live for.”
March 2, 2008 at 2:19 pm · Filed under Journal
“I am willing to admit out of love for humanity that most of our actions are in accordance with duty; but if we look more closely at our planning and striving, we everywhere come upon the dear self, which is always turning up, and upon which the intent of our actions is based rather than upon the strict command of duty (which would require self-denial).”
-Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Transition from Popular Morality to a Metaphysics of Morals
February 29, 2008 at 10:01 pm · Filed under Journal
Woo! got the job
You’re looking at a future Hopkins Symphony Orchestra Stage Manager..
only took me a semester and a half to find it.
February 27, 2008 at 11:51 pm · Filed under Journal
In the Mirror
Yesterday I saw a confident
alpha male snarling back - ready to tread
on mediocrity barring the way.
Today I saw doubt born of disbelief
An apathy of life hidden within
a scarred and pitted face.
A glimmer of hope remains.
February 26, 2008 at 8:23 pm · Filed under Journal
No matter how bad you have it, someone always has it worse. I learned that today while feeling sorry for myself over a botched exam. I met someone who has to commute to school one hour each way, pay for his own tuition, and work on the weekends. On top of that he is in massive debt from lack of financial aid.
What right to complain do I have? My parents pay for all my tuition, my room & board, and gladly cover the cost of any extra supplies I need. I have a nice little room to call me own, I get three square meals a day (more if I need them), and need only to concern myself with study.
Truly this is an honored life.
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