A Start to My Third Paper

Our culture has changed significantly since the time of Socrates(late 400 B.C.).  The center of desire for the time in which Socrates lived was knowledge.  They wanted to know more about the world around them and were interested in exploring.  To them, knowledge was the epitome of "cool."  Everyone was intrigued during this time by questions and tried to learn as much as they could.  Today, knowledge has moved down the list of our desires.  The center of desire for culture today is instantaneous pleasure.  We want everything we can get, and we want it now.  A book may be pleasurable, but why read that book when you can watch the movie?(It is much faster) As a culture, it seems we worship celebrities, and some of us know more about a celebrity than themselves.  The style of reading has changed, and the reasons for reading have changed that is why the literacy rate has gone down.  We are no longer reading novels to gain knowledge, we are clicking on different web pages to gain information about the latest celebrity gossip.  We may be reading but it doesn't help to quickly scan needless information.  

tattoos

When I was younger I always thought that I wanted a tattoo, even so much that I was determined to get one.  I used to tell my parents that I was going to get one of our family crest and each time my parents responded in the sam way:  "If you get a tattoo, then you're on your own."  Wow I thought, isn't that a little extreme?  Tattoos have been apart of culture for as long as 5000 years ago, and up until recently have been respected.  Today it seems that tattoos are frowned upon(partly because there are a lot of "lower class" people who have covered themselves in ink.)  Why have tattoos become something which is generally frowned upon?  Shouldn't they be viewed as a form of expression and art?  I defiantly think that my feelings regarding tattoos has changed.  I can now say that I will probably never get a tattoo.  Why?  I'm not too sure, but it seems like I am afraid of being stereotyped into the category of someone with a tattoo, and today that really isn't a good thing.  Having a tattoo means one things today:  it is harder t get a job.  Do you think that our opinions of tattoos has changed for the better or worse?  Does having a tattoo automatically allow others to categorize you?

Free Will

I just learned something new in philosophy today.  I learned that there is no such thing as free will.  There is a view called determinism.  I'm not saying that I believe in it, but it does rais some very important questions in my mind.  Determinism basically says that there is no such thing as free will, and every action we take is caused by something else before it.  Take for instance stepping on a cat.  We would like to believe that we have the free will to choose for ourselves whether or not to step on the cat, but determinism says something different.  Determinism basically says that the choice to step on the cat or not is already determined because of other things that led up to the event.  As a child you may love cats, so your choice is to not step on the cat because you like cats.  On the other hand if as a child a cat killed your mother you would defiantly step on the cat.  It's kind of weird and eery feeling to think that everything we do is already pre-determined because of other causes in the past.  It makes sense though, all of the actions we take are based on our life experiences.  But how did it all start?  What was the cause before the cause and does that make us responsible for any of the actions we take?  Determinism raises an interesting question:  If there is always a chain of causes causing the causes, then should we have any moral obligation for our actions?  Some would answer no, and I might agree.  I think that even-though there is actually no moral obligations for our actions, we should act like there are.  What do you think?  Is determinism true?

Skinny Bitch

I commented on Almostfamous's post called : Skinny Bitch.  

Fat Tax

I commented on Katie's blog Fat Tax.  It is about whether or not there should be a tax imposed on fat people.

Scrapper

It has always seemed that cars are the one way that everyone gets to see your "status" and for people to express their personal identity.  It used to be that there was only one type of car and maybe two colors, but today with enough money it seems that you can make whatever you are able to imagine a reality.  People today sometimes put more money into their cars than they spent on it in the first place.  We've all seen "scrapers".  Cars which were probably worth nothing turned into monster trucks because the rims are so big.  It doesn't make sense to me.  Why would these people spend so much money on the same car when they could have saved up and gotten a nice, reliable car.  The rims even make the car worse off.  I think that everything has come to the point of excess no matter what is going on.  Every sport, idea, and now car is being taken to the next level as our society continues to consume more in-order to fulfill its growing greed.

Motorcycles

Are motorcycles a good thing to have and invest in?  Yes.  One good reason to purchase a motorcycle is  for fuel efficiency.  They have better milage than cars and can run much longer on one tank.  Another reason to get a motorcycle is to avoid traffic.  We have all seen it, a motorcycle whizzing past between cars while everyone else is at a dead stop.  Motorcycles are much better in cities and places where parking is hard to find as well.  They are a bette means of transportation, if that is all your are looking for.  I think that they should be used more than cars just like in Europe, because they are much more practical than SUV's.  Everyone should own a motorcycle or at least experience the thrill.

Spring is here!

So the one thing that is associated with college is Spring Break.  What kind of words come to mind when you think spring break?  Relaxation. Parties.  Friends.  Mexico?  That last word, Mexico, passed through my mind several times while thinking of a place to spend my time off.  What I really wanted to do was go to Alcopolco, but it seems my plans have changed.  Since I am not in a fraternity, I don't have a large group of people to go with from SMU so I was thinking about re-uniting with all my friends from back home, but most of them have decided to just go back to Sacramento.  Boring was my thought.  I've got to go somewhere and relax for a while.  

I was talking to my roommate and he said that most of the "pledges" in his fraternity are going to go to South Padre, Texas.  He told me that it was a dirty place, but is actually where Spring Break originated.  I told him that I would definitely go.  it seems like it will be a good experience to go somewhere I've never been and might never get to experience again.  But isn't it near the border?  I'm pretty sure that it is just a quick walk into Mexico, where all the trouble seems to originate.  I looked up things about South Padre and found interesting information about college kids being kidnapped in Mexico during spring break.  I guess I won't cross the border!  

Are there any better places to go in Texas?

If America is in debt, then isn't every American in debt?

This semester I'm taking sociology and learning about all of the social problems in America, including corporate America.  One thing that I have been noticing is the amount of debt that it seems like the middle and lower classes in our society are facing.  During this time, it is even more of a pressing question: How do we get out of debt? Oh!! and wait, isn't America as a whole in debt?  I believe was around $48 trillion in 2007.  How are the individual citizens of America suppose to get out of debt and does this mean that every American is in debt as well?

I was having this argument with my room-mate and he showed me an interesting perspective on this whole "money" thing.  The video is called Zeitgeist.

It's really long, but what it basically says is that money isn't real, it means nothing.  This boggled me.  How is money not real? Isn't that the goal that almost everyone in our society is set on accomplishing?  I'm not saying that I believe in this "Zeitgeist" video, but it did present some interesting arguments.  Now, Siegel would argue that this video is just the king of rubbish that is clouding the internet and causing the downfall of humanity, but isn't it just another idea that overall contributes to our society?  I think that videos like this one are necessary in order to have a truly free sense of "America."  Why shouldn't everyone be able to make a video just like it to present their ideas?