Class Anthology Part II

The second half of the Class Anthology was equally as interesting as the first. I was again able to compare my writing ability and style to others. There were several essays that I enjoyed. It was great to see how different everyone thought about the same essays. There were multiple essays written on Annie Dillard’s “The Wreck of Time,” but each essay had a different outtake on it. Another frequently used essay was “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” and the essays on this were all very different from each other.
One of the essays that I liked was “Life is a Gift”, by Will Callander. In his essay he discussed how life was precious like in Annie Dillard’s essay the “Wreck of Time”. Football was a frequently used analogy, and I thought this was a good analogy because it talked about talent. Talent truly is a gift that we are given by God, and it is unfortunate when it’s taken away in the blink of an eye. Heath Ledger was a very talented person that many people enjoyed watching in movies. However, when he passed away, there were many upset people because of his talent. I think that life is something I frequently take for granted myself, so I really appreciated this essay.
Another essay that I enjoyed was “How Do You See It,” by Chelsie Stevens. I like this essay a bunch because it spoke about significance. Leo F. Buscaglia does have a really good quote “Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance.” A person really does choose if their life is significant or not. There really is not a hard definition of significance because everyone decides what it means to them. For some people significance may be a measure of how people perceive them, or maybe having name brand items is what they feel makes them important. Significance is how important a person decides they are in other people’s lives. It is important to decide what significance is to you because it is very difficult to meet everyone else’s expectations for significance. With your own definition, life will be a lot better because you’re meeting your standards, so your life will also be a lot happier as a result.
All of the essays were very well done. There were good points in all of them, and I feel that I have learned something from each of them. One thing that I learned was that it is important to know your definition of significance is. With this class, I feel that I have improved my overall writing ability, and I think that it will keep continuing to get better the more that I write.

Class Anthology

I think that our class anthology is very interesting to read since each essay is something that I wouldn’t think about. The one essay that I liked the most was about character. This essay was written on Malcom Gladwell’s “The Power of Context”. The essay discussed the many factors relating to character and how the environment influences it.
The essay had several good examples of character. One of these examples was trash along a highway. I thought this was a good example because I have also cleaned up an entire alley in my town. I think that people are more prone to toss their trash along areas that already has litter lying about, and if there is an area that has no litter doesn’t become littered. There was a good point about this example which was that the litter lying on the ground could potentially cause a person to act out of character. The litter encouraged a person to throw their trash carelessly because someone else before them had, so they stepped out of character. This temporary change in character does not mean that the person is a litter bug, just that the environment had encouraged them.
This idea of having an encouraging environment is not out of the norm. A person’s attitude and actions do change depending on where they are at. This means that a persons’ character is not always concrete. I know that my character definitely changes when I go to the dentist. I become far more cowardly than I normally am due to the terrifying drills that lurk behind the receptionist’s door. This is definitely a character change for me, so it is normal to behave differently at times.
Overall, what I have learned from reading my peer’s essays was that we all think differently. The reason we all have different ideas is because we are all unique. We have different values, activites/hobbies, influences, backgrounds, etc. I think that it is valuable to read other people’s work because of this. Whenever I read someone’s opinion, I sometimes realize that I may be wrong, or just simply know what the other side of something is. Another valuable lesson that I learn while reading other’s work, is how to write. Whenever I’m reading, I frequently make a mental note of something I liked or didn’t like, and I use it for the next time that I must write.
The essays that I have read this year have greatly influenced my writing. My writing has been influenced because I have been exposed to new opinions and thoughts. These essays have also helped me to realize how I want my writing style to be. Writing is a vital part of communication because it spreads a person’s feelings/thoughts, and it is important for everyone to master this skill in order that they may be able to express themselves.

The Enhanced and the Unenhanced

Today’s essay was on the topic of improving the human race. The author Gregory Stock felt that in the future we will begin to choose exactly what our children will be like by having their embryos enhanced with better genes. We would decide on how our potential child would be, and the lab would alter the genes in order that the newly formed life would be exactly the way we want it to be. Altering our genes should potentially have the desired outcome of having an enhanced population. However, these enhancements for a “Superhuman” race have many thoughts to be considered.
Hitler was one person who desired to create a “Superhuman” race. I’m pretty sure that everyone remembers what happened. In his Mein Kampf , he discussed his racial views of eugenics, which is the encouraging of choosing who gets to reproduce. This meant that those people who had diseases and defects were discriminated against. Hitler even went so far as to pass laws that had those people sterilized, so that they could no longer pass off their genes. After Hitler’s movement, the only thing he created was racism and a tragedy.
Not only does trying to create a “Superhuman” race spawn racism, but certain defects may potentially come out more as a result instead. For every “Advancement”, there is also compensation elsewhere. For example, we have bred Thoroughbreds to run faster and weigh less. They certainly do run a lot faster than an average horse, but with the lighter build and frame they also break their legs more frequently than an average horse. This could mean that even though we make our child more mathematically advanced, they could be sacrificing in other areas, like maybe English. It is impossible that improvements can completely eliminate all possible defects.
Enhancing humans is first of all far more complicated than the author made it sound. In the essay the author mentioned cloning as one way of creating embryos. Well, it takes far more than just one embryo to finally to succeed in making a clone. Dolly the sheep is one example of a clone, and it took scientists 277 attempts to clone her. Not only is the whole cloning process vastly difficult, but altering the DNA is also very complicated. Some human traits are not controlled by just one gene, but several. Cloning and altering DNA is also not very practical since it is very costly, and it means that you are also killing potential life forms in the process of achieving the perfect child.
I do not agree with the concept of enhancing humans. Enhancing humans causes racism, discrimination, and destroys young life forms. I don’t think that humans are meant to be changed, and having defects causes competition amongst us. Competition gives us something to strive for in life, or a goal even. If I were to pick the child that I wanted, it would no longer be my child because it would not have my DNA. Therefore, no longer related to me, and it would no longer be as unique. Enhancing humans is a terrible idea, and I don’t think that we should do this in the future as the author suggests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

Dogs Snarling Together

I thought this was an interesting essay. There are many aspects about trade that a person must take into account. Trade is not just an easy “Black and White” area. The textile are one of many areas that are affected by trade policies, and depending on what way we’re controlling trade, there are both positive and negative factors.
After reading the essay, I realized that there were pros and cons to the decisions made towards trade. America likes to have free trade, but when American industries suddenly start hurting due to imports this causes conflicts. As mentioned in the essay, past presidents such as Richard Nixon made deals with textiles in order to gain votes. The textile industry is a huge part of the Southwestern part of the U.S., so the fact that the textiles remain there is essential for some Southern communities. The textiles provide jobs, and when they close, people have a hard time making ends meet in that community. It is essential to keep business in the U.S., but it is also key to allow foreign trade as well.
However, even though it is important to keep some industry in the U.S. for jobs, there are other factors that must be considered when allowing imports into the U.S. For example, relations with other countries must be considered. When making this decision, restricting trade from one specific country could potentially result in hard feelings leading to say a war. Or if you allow too much trade from a country over another, the neglected country could become angered. In the essay, it mentioned that trade relations with Japan were temporarily altered so that they would not fall to the Communists. In some circumstances, increased foreign trade with specific countries can be beneficial.
Another factor that must be considered is that by spending money in a third world country allows the country to improve itself. More money could mean that sewers and plumbing, which we take for granted, could be built in those countries. The overall life of a country could potentially improve as well with increased foreign trade because it creates more jobs and brings in more money. Creating more jobs, does however unfortunately mean that “Sweatshops” could potentially come about employing children. Having these children work has both good and bad results. The positive being that the children will be off the streets, but the negative could mean that they are potentially overworked. Buying the exports from countries increases their gain, and has some good effects.
Imports are a very touchy issue as the essay discussed. The pros and cons of trade are infinite as well as the results. Importing goods means that we are supporting another country which provides them with more money for improvements. Not only are we allowing other countries to improve, we are also strengthening relationships. On the other end of the spectrum, importing goods does mean that we are not keeping our money in the U.S. for our own improvements. I guess this continuous issue will never be resolved, and depending on each point in time the amount of imports will change depending on both U.S. and foreign needs.

I thought that today’s essay was a very intriguing read. I have never really investigated what Buddhism is about, but I still feel somewhat confused with what goes on in this belief. The concept talking about the “Selflessness” is a difficult idea for me to grasp. Despite some misunderstandings, I did however think that there were several thoughts in the essay that I could relate to.
One of the passages that I enjoyed the most was where Thurman was talking about finding your true inner self. The belief of finding yourself in most cultures is when you figure out what you stand for and what your beliefs are, but this is sort of opposite of the Buddhist belief. What Thurman thought about finding your “Self”, was that this is the realization of how your environment affects you. For example, he said “You will discover that you are part of the infinite web of interconnectedness with all other beings.” This to me is contrary to how I feel your inner “Self “, should be. Being connected to others to me means that you are following others paths, or tagging along with the “crowd”. I also don’t feel that I’m connected to everything around me because I probably don’t have a direct affect on most things. The things and people that I do affect the most are probably the ones I come in contact with most frequently, so I more than likely don’t have a direct affect on what is going on in Antarctica.
The one part that I thought was accurate was the mention of feeling alienated from others. Buddha said that when you believe in your rigid “Self”, you would feel separate and unique from others. I think that everyone should feel this way at times because of who they are and what they believe. I feel like this sometimes because of the beliefs that I hold. For example, when I was in high school I frequently felt isolated from a lot of my classmates because I didn’t drink, so I instead stayed at home and did homework. I don’t necessarily think that feeling isolated from others for reasons such as these is such a horrible thing. However, these feelings of alienation are posed as being the opposite of what is desired.
For the most part, I didn’t agree with the essay. The views that were displayed throughout the entirety of the essay were the opposite of what I think they should be. I think that finding your inner self should be more about figuring out what your stances on life are, and not how you’re connected to everything around you. Not only is it important to know who you are, but holding firm to your beliefs is the other aspect of being yourself. For me, my beliefs are the most important aspect that I possess, and that is what makes me “me”.

The Myth of the Ant Queen

Often times it appears that there are no patterns to life, but this is an incorrect assumption. For many aspects of life, there seems to be organization, but where does this come from? In both ant colonies and human life, there are many similarities, but how does this occur? How do ants know to build colonies, and why do humans build cities? Obviously in both of these complicated areas, there is organization.
In ant colonies there are many roles that each ant plays. However since ants are not the most intelligent creatures, how do these ants come to realize that they have a specific task? It appears that these insignificant beings magically seem to organize themselves. The organization of the colony has an already designated place where the dead ant carcasses are kept, and there is also a place for the colonies’ waste. The ants also make sure to keep the trash separate from the dead. Not only are these ant characteristics, but these characteristics are actually very similar to those of the human race. Humans also have a specific way of organizing themselves which includes the building of cities or towns, and this is similar to the ant colonies. There are also graveyards and landfills similar to those of the ants. However, there is still the question of how these systems of organization come about, and this can be answered by a couple similarities that they both possess.
What do the ants have in common with humans? Both ants and humans are able to communicate which allows for understanding amongst them. This means that what we think appears to be “magical” organization actually comes about through communication. Not only is communication important for everyday life, but the ones who are “pacemakers” also have an important role in organization. These pacemakers set examples in both the ant and human societies because they create models to follow along with. For example, a worker ant may learn what his job is about by following another worker ant, and a human may learn how to fit in with the latest fashion by observing those around. For both of these cultures, there are similarities in organization, and these similarities are communication and having pacemakers.
What do both human societies and ant colonies have to teach us? Both of them show that out of what appears to be chaos, there is actually organization. Some of this organization is that each ant in a colony knows its specific role, and humans also have a similar have quality as well. Both creatures also build, and this requires organization. In both cases of the ants and humans, it sometimes seems impossible that there could possibly be any system of organization throughout all of the chaos, but with the use of communication and pacemakers, trends of organization seem to appear as a result.

The Library of Babel

In the short story “The Library of Babel”, there were numerous similarities could be made throughout the text. The universe was compared to that of a library. In the story men were the librarians of the infinite hexagonal library, and their goal was to find the key to the library, or in other words “universe”. The story mainly was a comparison of the Tower of Babel which many us accept today.
The story talked about men not understanding the library around them because it was in a language that they did not know, so the decoding book was being highly sought after. This concept could be compared to the human life form constantly wanting to know what life is all about. There was a reference in the story about God which was “Man, the imperfect librarian, may be the work of chance or of malevolent demiurges; the universe, with its elegant appointments---its bookshelves, its enigmatic books, its indefatigable staircases for the traveler, and its water closets for the seated librarian---can only be the handiwork of a god.” This reference may have meant that the decoding book being sought after may be the same as what we call God.
One main religious reference made in the story is the title. The Library of Babel can be compared to that of the Tower of Babel which is in the book of Genesis. In the story about the Tower of Babel, mankind wanted to become closer to God by building a tower that would reach into Heaven. However, God did not let man build the tower, and to stop them from building the tower he confused their languages. Since man no longer understood each other, this caused all of mankind to spread across the world. This could be compared to the library having a vast expanse, large tower, and man wanting to know about the library through the decoding book, or in other words God. However, the library was not very useful because the language was not known like in the story of the Tower of Babel.
Both of these stories may still be applied to life today because we being curious humans still strive to want to know everything. Knowing everything includes how the universe and its contents were made. In both stories men both wanted to know more, as in “The Library of Babel”, men wanted to know more about the infinite library, and men nowadays desire to discover how exactly their existence came about. Why are these two points in the stories important? They are important because we as mankind feel that we will be far superior knowing more than others, and it will give us a higher status like being the best librarian or being more God-like. Seeking the most knowledge was a common theme in both stories, and modern humans are still striving to have more than everyone else now.

Tower of Babel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel

The Power of Context

The environment that a creature is surrounded by affects its behavioral attitudes, and this includes humans and animals. When an animal is forced into a new climate, a natural instinct arises causing the animal to change. As mentioned in the essay, the subway was one example of how the difference in appearance changed the behavior of people passing through. When the subway was covered in graffiti, the crime rate was high, but when things were cleaned up, the crime rate went down. This occurrence implies that surroundings affect the living beings that live in them.

The common person changes how they are because they want to fit into a crowd or survive a specific situation, and the only way to do that is to match the surrounding. Fitting into a crowd may mean changing personalities completely. For example, a smart nerdy kid may want to hang with the punk kids, but unfortunately there is a behavioral and outward appearance difference. The nerdy kid may have to trade in his pocket protector and good grades for a Mohawk and rebellious attitude. Obviously these two cliques have major differences, so it would be nearly impossible for the two to coexist without drastic changes. As a human, the way we act and look gives a brief look at who we are, so in order to give the wanted perception, a certain characteristic or trait may be taken on.

Animals are also frequently forced to change their characteristics also. This may mean for an animal that it changes its food source since it has more competition with another species, or even breeding for the best traits. The British Peppered Moth is one example of an animal adapting to its surroundings since these moths have different colors depending on where they live. When the moths were living in more polluted areas, they were black because the trees around them were more soot colored. Moths rest with their wings open, so when the moths were more of a gray color, they were an easier target for predators. Another example of animal adaptation is the Galapagos Finches. The finches on the Galapagos Islands bred so that the best suited traits were more prevalent, and from this new species of finches were created. The different types of finches adapted to different food types to lessen competition, and the bills of the birds changed as a result of this. Even in the animal world changes are made, but unlike humans these changes are made that future generations may survive.

Behaviors are not always natural to a living thing. The environment influences the actions and habits of all animals causing them to make changes on a daily basis. Humans, birds, and even moths even make these subconscious changes. Life is all about fitting in, whether it means for survival, or even just getting into the “In” crowd. Whether a person is aware of it or not, they make decisions every day about their behavior and appearance, and this is because they as an animal want to survive.

Galapagos Finches:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin

Peppered Moth:
http://http//www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/pap/malletgensoc03.pdf

Surface and Substance

Appearances seem to have much more of an affect than we think. The looks or styles that we are exposed to every day can cause us to view others or objects in a specific way due to associations we have made. Colors and graphics are more likely to spark interest in a consumer in order that they might purchase a product over another. Fashion is a large market that thousands of people spend money in hopes of standing out among others with their hip clothes. There are many fields of human interest that appearance has quite a pull on.
What is it that causes people to have the desire to stand out, or have the most stylish looking electronic gadget? In the essay “Surface and Substance”, a green pager was referenced. In the nineties consumers were willing to pay the difference in hopes of having a more unique looking device. Should it not be that people are more concerned with the quality of a product rather than appearance? As in the case of the pager, some consumers see appearance as more important than other characteristics of an object.
Fashion is an industry that plays a vast role on appearance. Both men and women are ruled by the laws of the fashion world since no one wants to be left behind with clothes that are out of style or strange. Even in the political world, fashion is very important. When Sarah Palin was selected as John McCain’s running mate, the Republican Party spent over $150,000* on her clothing and make-up alone. What does this say about modern Americans? Does this mean that we are more concerned with having only a good looking president or vice president?
Clothing is one way of trying to fit in with the crowd, but the actual body shape and size are also a huge factor in everyone’s daily life. In Hollywood, actors and actresses are portrayed as being thin and gorgeous which soon fills the American mind. While watching these sickly looking figures on television, women especially begin to have a want to attain a similar body shape. In fact one of the causes of Anorexia Nervosa is the “acceptance of societal attitudes toward thinness”^. In fact, if you look through a fashion magazine, one reoccurring theme is that of weight loss. If you are a reader of these types of literature, you may notice the numerous articles or advertisements about “Amazing weight loss” and slowly begin to think that your figure is not satisfactory.
Often times the media skews our perception through television shows, magazines, or even advertisements. These subliminal messages convince readers or watchers to think that the life displayed in the media is the best one. With these false images in mind, many misled consumers strive to achieve unrealistic standards of beauty. People should buy pagers that are better quality or higher functionality instead of the prettier color. People should realize that it is far more important to be healthy rather than attempt to look like someone they are not.

Here is a link to watch photoshop in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U&feature=related

^http://www.healthline.com/adamcontent/anorexia-nervosa?utm_medium=ask&utm_source=smart&utm_campaign=article_toc&utm_term=Anorexia+nervosa+risk+factor#causesincidenceandriskfactors&ask_return=Anorexia+Nervosacausesincidenceandriskfactors

*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/22/palin-clothes-spending-ha_n_136740.html

Wreck of Time

After reading this short essay, I was filled with several different thoughts. The most overwhelming one was that of being small and insignificant. I have never really thought about my size in comparison to many objects such as the Universe. In fact, the closest star outside our solar system is Proxima Centauri, and it is 4.2 light years away. A light year is equal to about 9,460,730,472,580.8 km, and this means light travels at an extreme speed of 299,792,458 m/s.

However, if humans were to one day travel at light speed, scientists would need to discover another means of space travel to overcome radiation. Another problem with space travel is that with our current technology, a humans’ miniscule lifespan is shorter than the amount of time it takes to travel to specific distances. Maybe someday someone clever enough will come up with a transportation device like in Star Trek, so that we might hear “Beam me up Scotty!”^ for real. Unfortunately, due to drastic distances between objects in space, I do not intend on leaving our solar system any time soon.

Distances to space objects are not the only way to experience a feeling of insignificance; one can take part in this by simply venturing out into the great outdoors. I have done this several times by traveling along the many snowmobile trails around my hometown. There have been many times that I have been able to ride my mountain bike high enough in order to have a spectacular view of the valley that my town is located. Every time that I have been able to do this, I realize how small my house, neighborhood, and town is compared to everything else. Not only is the size of the valley intimidating, but the thought of who created it is also overpowering. Yes, I’m talking about God, and I think it is incredible how much power he must have.

Overall, I think that many people do not take the time to take into consideration how unimportant they really are. I know that I often times get caught up in my own silly happenings. People are more concerned about what is going on around them close by, rather than caring about what is happening in for example Iraq or Afghanistan. Often times I neglect to take a moment to think about our brave soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for me. I think I am this way because the war seems distant, and I have not had any family members or friends sent over seas. When I watch the nightly news, these seemingly insignificant casualties are generally honored each night, but they begin to add up. The current American Military Casualty count is 30,960* which is close in size to the population of Bozeman (27,059 people according to the 2000 census)`, so think about it, the entire town of Bozeman is equal to the number of casualties in the Iraq war so far.

Since I have read Dillard’s essay and made my own personal comparisons, I have come to the realization that life is bigger than my own current little bubble. I’m not as big and important as I thought, and my problems are not as bad as they could be. Take the time to realize what is really going on around you, and live life to the fullest.

~Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri
*http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
^Captain Kirk from the television series Star Trek
`http://www.bozemanmontana.net/