3/29/12

It's hard for me to not support the war but support the troops. What was said in class got me really thinking and logically it is correct to say that if you support the troops than you support what they are doing overseas and there forth you are supporting the war. But I want to support the men and woman that are dieing to keep me safe, I feel like it is the least I can do. I know a lot of people that have family and friends that are overseas and they support them because someone they love is in the army/navy/marines/coastguard. To me it makes sense why they are sending post cards and food and love to the soldiers; because every day there is a chance that they could die. How would you feel if someone you love went overseas and passed away in the name of freedom and you didn't support them? You would feel awful! Well I would at least. War makes everything complicated and very little has benefited from the "conflict" that we are currently in.

3/28/12

When saying that you are fighting for freedom, you are no longer fighting for your nations state but you are now fighting for the people of the world. But when you have that mentality you have to throw away the thought of valuing one life more than another. I have heard in my life that we should look at everyone as family and treat them as such. But think about it, if you see two people that need help, one from your home country and one from another, who would you feel more inclined to help? That is a type of racism towards picking which person to pick based on where they are from. This mindset isn't moral, we are all humans and our lives are all worth the same so how can we choose if we are faced with the choice to save one person over another? This is kind of a lose-lose situation but these flaws are ones that we as humans face every day.

3/27/12

When we think about wars and what we are fighting for, as Americans we tend to say that we are fighting to freedom. But if you think about it if another country is considered "more free" than another than shouldn't you be fighting for them if you are fighting for freedom? For example if you were to fight for the Afghan villagers against the U.S that are trying to suppress them but you are for the U.S and they are claiming to be fighting for their freedom, no one would say that you are fighting for the U.S even though the U.S claims that they are fighting for freedom. If we could judge out of all the countries are more free than the others, and it turns out the be Canada, should we all start fighting for Canada because they are now represent what are fighting for more than what America is. But we could never tell our soldiers that because than they would know that we really have no idea what we are trying to fight for or who we are trying to save.

3/26/12

Patriotism is the topic of the week and what it really means to "fight for your country. In patriotism there are conditions; to feel special affection for one's country, special concerns for one's country, a sense of personal identity though your country, and a willingness to sacrifice for your country. The "American Dream" is what we like to think that all soldiers from the U.S fight for, that we stand for freedom and are trying to protect the better good for others. Tolstoy thought this was foolish and immoral because if your government is acting immoral and you believe in your government than you become immoral. If you think about it he does make a good point, and brings up the bigger question, what makes the U.S.A? What is that makes people think that this is the home of the brave and that we are the "keepers of peace"? 

3/22/12

So I had a bad dream last night about hiding from a huge monster in the bushes outside my house and I woke up when the monster found me. I woke up in a state of panic and couldn't go back to bed so I had a lot of time to think about what we have been talking about in class. I am honestly interested in what that dream would mean and if there really is something that could be said about a dream like that. I also wondered what my unconscious was trying to face. I know that hiding and the scary feeling of being caught in a game like hide and seek but I haven't played a game like that in years. I know in the last couple weeks I have been going though a lot of mental stress due to picking classes so my mind has been running on overdrive. Could that be what causes dreams, the mind over-thinking something and it picks something that you have had to face at one point or another?

3/21/12

How can we make sense of something that we don't control? When we dream it comes from our unconscious, and even great minds like Freud can't make full sense of what's going on in our head without guessing. Really the only way that we could get any real data is to collectivity gather data by the dreams of a large group of people and have them write down what happened in their dreams as soon as they woke up and hope and assume that there would be some commonalities that could be compared. But even then, buy the way I see it is that people come from different places and different backgrounds so even if there are common events that happen in the dreams what do we really compare because everyone is different so what could we tell that person about what their dreams meant? I know that there are people that can tell you what certain things mean but that person knows nothing about me or where I am from so how can they tell me what my unconscious is trying to tell me?   

3/20/12

When talking about what is considered scientific, we talk about what is needed to prove that what you are claiming is true. And to prove something we need something called "proof". In every science class whenever I was trying to prove that an answer was right I would need proof that what I am thinking is true. But the real problem comes in when trying to prove something when talking about human nature. On the subject of social science, can we really prove human thoughts and habits. There are different truths in the human world and the science world but both types of scientists try to find truths in different aspects of the world. Mathematical truths are much more easier truths than humans because numbers are black and white, there is one scenario so there is one answer. With humans there are so many difference between all of us that it is almost impossible to find the proof to prove that we are what we are.     

3/19/12

In class today I learned that the concious life is like an iceburg. The concious life is what you can see, and as we all know most of an iceburg is what you can't see. The pre concious life is what is just under the surface and that can only be obtained after reflection. When we pull thing out of our mind that is something that we normally wouldn't have to think about is something that would be in the pre concious. And then there is the unconcious mind, which would be what is the bottom of the iceburg and what we can't see under the water. The unconcious is also most of the iceburg, also like on the iceburg most of the iceburg is what we can't see. These are things that we can not normally think about, or if we do think about it, it's not something we would pick up. This is the most unknown part of the thinking mind because it is something that we can not control or understand fully.

3/8/12

In most of the things in our lives we associate things as something that is feminine or masculine. One of those habits would be eating meat, when you think of someone eating a piece of stake you don't tend to think of a woman going to town on a t-bone. It is thought to be more of a womanly thing to do to eat something "safer" like a salad. But why should a woman be expected to only want to eat something safe when we are all supposed to be treated equal. A lot of this thinking is based on the belief of the way that things have been in our society and are now looked at as tradition. We are considered soft and fragile even though we are the ones that bear the children and most woman are single mom's now, that is far from weak. I know that times are changing so that is why most woman are looking to be looked as equals but I feel like we more than deserve it. If the times are changing shouldn't people's mindsets be changing to as to how we look and judge woman based on what was to be thought of us in the past?  

3/7/12

When we think of girls that we consider "pretty", usally they are the girls that have very little clothing and weigh about 90 pounds. If you think about it, that really isn't how it should be, look at all the great athletes that work hard for the bodies that they have and achieve things. And then woman get upset when men think of them as a "piece of meat" but yet we walk around with very little confidance and show little power when we belittle ourselves to that level. In the reading for this week it is said that men have similar pleasure eating as to when they see a naked woman. Woman are looked at as something to be "dominated" similar to when you are eating something. I feel that we sometimes bring this on ourselves though when we protray ourselves as "animals" that can't fend for ourselves and are something that can be easily dominated and controled. If we don't fight for the power that we rightfully deserve than we are going to continue to be treated as animals that should be treated and looked down to as animals.

3/6/12

I was thinking the other day, what makes someone feel so strongly about animals? To become a vegetarian you have to really push yourself to not fall victim to what society thinks of what you should eat. We have been taught our whole lives to eat meat, not only that but hunting and gathering is something that has kept us alive for thousands of years. No one likes to think of an animal dieing so I understand some of the driving force behind the will power of those who chose to not eat meat. I feel like this mind set doesn't effect more  people because we are not the one's that kill the animal or have to watch it die. I feel that if more people had to watch the animal that they were going to eat die they would not eat it. We no longer have to hunt for our food so we don't respect it the same way. Eating meat is something that is so common in American lives that we think nothing of the animal that died just so we don't get to hungry that day.

3/5/12

Today I learned what an eco-feminist is, the intersection of the domination of nature and the domination of women. They have the concern of individual animals while feeling that we should not be treated like animals. An example would be the feeling of that we should not be treated like animals, but yet that means that animals are expected to be treated a certin way. A really interesting point that was presented in the article was that it is harder to come out to society as a vegertian then to come out as being gay. Now why should that be if when you are chosing to be a vegertarian to be looked at differently then coming out as being gay, which isn't a choice. It is hard to come out of the social norms of eating meat because of the social pressures of what is considered to be normal. It is often looked at as a masculen thing to do to eat meat and a womenly thing to eat veggies, but why is that? What made it so strange for a girl to eat chicken wings at dinner?

3/1/12

Why do people decide to have faith? Is it something that we can decide? I know in my youth I was told to have faith in a God because he is all knowing and knows when I don't believe. Because of that faith I was required to go to church every week to show that I still am a believer and to show gratitude. Now that I am older I am l am seeing how that faith was and still is a part of my identity. When I am making a decision (either if it is free will or something per-determined) I am thinking if this is something that would be acceptable or looked down upon by a higher power. But feeling that I can't or shouldn't do something is affecting my free will if I have any. If I was given free will why would God give me the knowledge that  would make me feel bad if I don't follow his word? I should be able, under the idea of free will, to be able to make the considered a "mistake" under Gods eye and be forgiven?