Monthly Blog AP English 4 "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism"

            Moral, a person's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and isn't acceptable for them to do in their society. Morals are the strangest of things, because of how different they are across the globe. James Rachels wrote a very interesting article that was both shocking and eye opening, that discussed these very differences. His main topic of this long article, Cultural Relativism. This "Cultural Relativism" is, at least to me, a huge mess of contradictions and confusion, but overall makes sense.

            James makes amazing points in his articles, using stories from travelers, philosophers, socialists, and more, to back up his statements. He uses such examples as the Callatians, Greeks, and Eskimos. Each of these "societies" have a certain moral code, a basic way of living. The Callatians shocking method was the eating of dead fathers. Greeks being the cremation of dead bodies. Lastly the Eskimo's regard for human life in general, one example being the murder of one's children. Every single one of these morals are defined to a society, to which seems normal to them. These morals make up a moral code to this certain society, which have originated from ancestors. Anything heard that goes against this code of the society, is usually appalled and rejected. James' example of the Greek versus Callatian matter of death, exploits the obvious behavior of reaction between the two.

            The topic of morals is so crazy, because morals are changing as time moves along. I loved the example, provided by James, of how women's rights have changed over recent times. It is so strange to us now that morals of mistreating women were fine with the past society. It is mind boggling the very essence of morals, because it is so complex. Even I, an open minded young adult, can't rap my head around the insanity of morals to humanity. I want to accept everyone's way of life, but once something that goes against my morals of human life gets into the mix, then I can't fathom the idea of the certain ethic.

            Sure, we have to accept what others think, but once human life is disregarded, the majority of the world thinks it as wrong. James' point of wars, slavery, and slaughter, fantastically shows the impossibility to accept everyone's morals. The slaughter of the Jews is a perfect example of just wrong moral. Human life, even though it is bias because of my own view, should always be respected. Life is the most beautiful thing ever. You cannot just take it away for ignorant reasons. The majority of the world would agree.

            Something to demonstrate the topic of morals with this crazy, jumbled, and mind blowing read, is Hamlet. In the novel of Hamlet or any book of existence really, this just being one that I have read in class and popped into my head first, there is a certain moral code that seems shocking to us now. Dueling, was extremely acceptable in the civilization of Hamlet. People killed other people by challenging them to a sword fight. This was perfectly fine. What? Could you imagine what our society would be like if we had sword duels to settle ourselves? It would be interesting definitely, quite crazy.

            My main point out of all of this insanity, that agrees absolutely with James' "Cultural Difference Argument" is that everyone is different, right and wrong is an opinion, and these opinions differ between cultures around the world, but life should be taken into positive consideration. 

            Also, even though I loved this amazing article, I'd much rather express more freely and open, not discussing an article. Happy New Years.

Monthly Blog AP English 3 "Fear and Courage"

            Fear and courage are complete opposites. They exist in all of us, creating a personality  inside us. In modern society fear is viewed as weakness and unenthusiastic, but I view it differently. With fear, comes reason, good or bad, it is still reason. With courage comes foolishness, good or bad, it is still foolishness. Even though they are in constant battle with each other, creating a balance between the two is crucial to living a good life. One cannot be too fearful or too courageous in his or her approach to life's events, they must have both, in order to move forward with utmost care and determination.

            In modern society, fear seems to control us too much. Whether it be asking someone to prom or making a choice to change our country, fear chains us, preventing progress and movement. It stops us dead cold or in a scuffle to decide not to act. Along with the negative is the positive mentioned before, reason. Reason exists because there are downfalls that can result from these decisions. Such downfalls can be measly or drastic, but always life changing. Even giving into fear can lead to worse results, but we can never know because we don't know what the future holds.

            True courage is rarely witnessed today, but we always mark these people that have this courage as "heroes".  Stories of people saving lives in burning buildings or from other dangers of sorts, display bravery of certain human beings. However courage can get people either hurt or killed, trying to save those people in danger, or other dangerous events, that fear would rather prevent us from doing. Courage is the hardest to obtain because of this fear of pain or death, but usually helps the most in our lives.

            You have to have a balance, in order to survive or live the best you can. You have to tackle certain events with bravery, but analyze the possible outcomes, positives, faults, everything you can before making a life changing decision. These decisions can take seconds to months, even years. An example of a slight imbalance between the two is in the story of Hamlet. In this story, Hamlet wants to avenge his father's murder, informed by a ghost of his father. In doing so, he is justifiably hesitant, not knowing if what he was told was true or false. It could have possibly been a trick of a demon, so Hamlet decides to test the truth. He puts on a play in front of his uncle, the murderer, and witnesses his guilt. Up to this point, there is a great balance of fear and courage, he wants to murder him, but must know if he is the real culprit. Upon witnessing the truth, Hamlet goes to murder his uncle, but stops once he sees that his uncle has repented his sins. To their belief, now his uncle can go to heaven. In personal opinion, Hamlet should have just killed his uncle then and there, before other terrible events occur, but because of fear and reason taking too much control of his decision making, every main character dies. Even though most people think Hamlet is a coward, I think he was doing the best he could. Fear only beat courage by the smallest bit in his scale, and tilted in a horrific favor.

          This perfect balance between fear and courage is almost impossible to obtain, because nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, and we all achieve great things. What we must realize is that people have to start being more courageous, but be smart about doing so. Even I need to learn to tip the scale in the courage side, because fear has too much of a grip on me.

Monthly Blog AP English 2 "Life, Death, and Acceptance"

            Two things that nobody really knows about me is my viewpoints on life and death. Here is my philosophy, Life is a gift, and it's your decision what to do with that gift, not someone else's decision. Just because people, whether it be relatives, friends, or strangers, tell you what to do, doesn't mean you have to do it. Follow your own heart, mind, and soul. You shouldn't care what other people think, you have around 80 years on this planet, as long as you have good morals, live your life anyway that makes you happy. Everyone eventually dies on planet earth, there is no fountain of youth or immortal blessing, so make the best out of it.

             Sounds simple and heartwarming right? Wrong. Society has something else to say about what you believe in. Whether it be the corrupt individual or sad excuse of a human-being that likes to crush others, society always seems to be bringing people down. Like Frank Sinatra sang "As funny as it may seem, some people get their kicks stomping on a dream". What could be more horrible and cruel than crushing someone's passion and soul? That's the problem with our society, nobody can be their true selves, because they feel like they won't be accepted. Acceptance has always been a huge desire of people, no matter the cost at times, whether it is playing the part or losing your identity entirely. These ideas of life and death are always there, but acceptance is also found in almost every book or reading we have examined, and it's shocking when you realize it. Characters are always guilty of conforming their true ways to be accepted, because our social selves become more important than our real selves. For example in the novel The Fountainhead, Peter Keating revolved around acceptance, he even disregarded his passion for painting, just to please his mother.

             There is nothing more beautiful than an innocent child's mind, so carefree and unaware of the future that lies ahead. This somewhat magical concept dies so suddenly in our youth, because we have to grow up so fast, determine who we are so quickly, and it all flies by in a couple of years. Sure it would be easier if kids today just went to school, learned, socialized, and left, but there is more than that. There are a million ideas and concepts going on in a person's mind and life, like bullying, passion, friends, feelings, studying, exercising, social standpoints, the future, the list just goes on forever. I'm 17 years old and I still am not entirely sure of what I'm going to do with the rest of my life, but I know one thing for sure. I am going to follow my passion, marry a girl that I love with all my heart, have kids to carry on my legacy, and die with pride and happiness that I lived my life one-hundred percent the way I wanted to. I don't care if there is something waiting for me on the other side of death, just as long as I lived a good life and was the best person I could have possibly been, that is all that matters. I just wish more people would have that same viewpoint. One last comment to strengthen my entire speech here, I enjoyed writing this passage, even though its a requirement and will be eventually graded, I don't care what the grade is or what other people think about it, because all I care about what I think about my own work.

Monthly Blog AP English 1 "Independence" Free Written

    A word that means more than anything in this world is Independence. The importance of independence is extraordinarily significant. If someone can't be their own person and stand for who they are and what they believe in, then they are truly not an individual. The opposite of being an individual, who has their own independence, is a collectivist. A huge example to show this significance is the novel "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand.
    In the novel a character by the name of "Howard Roark" resembled the essence of individualism and independence. Roark believed in himself, and himself only. He didn't care what others had thought about his work, his personality, his choices, anything he decided. Almost everyone in the society around him rejected him for his work and how he was as a person, people told him that he was crazy and that he would amount to nothing because he was different. No matter what, Roark still pushed on, never giving in to society's conformation and cruelty. In the end Howard Roark was happy, he held his passion of building and designing, and  he was with the love of his life.
    Personally, this book spoke to me. Even though it is a little unreal at times, the message of the book screams out and hits me. I used to be a collectivist, not thinking for myself, trying to please others, being fake. Society changed me into this "fake self", because when I was myself, people didn't like me. I pretended to be someone I wasn't and lost who I was. Overtime I grew into the person I am now, the real me, an individual. Someone who thinks for themselves, prides in who they truly are, not caring what others think. I found out that this is the only way to achieve happiness and peace in oneself.