I think that I need to think less about what I’m going to get in the future, and how happy it is going to make me. I find myself alone just thinking about the stuff I’m saving up for. But compared to many people I think I do enjoy my current moment more than most. I understand that when things are boring or uncomfortable the best thing to do is not to linger on what you could be doing or how much better it would be if only you had this other thing, but to instead think about what is good about what you are doing, and how you can make it better. For instance right now in this class I don’t really want to be here writing this paper, I’d rather be thinking about parkour, or getting an iphone, or playing Assassin’s creed, or, well you get the point; But instead I’m thinking about how I’m warm and comfortable, have good music and will get a good grade for spending time concentrating on this paper. So I think that I still need to practice being in the moment, but I am defiantly happier than most of the people I know. I think that this comes from having such good parents that really spent time talking to me about these things, and how to make the most of your situation.
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
If given the decision I would walk away from Omelas, I feel that if I was in a world founded on some one else's pain I could not live with my self. Of course from the discussion we had in seminar it is possible that we could already be living in a world vary like Omelas, maybe not as black and white but still there. And if i am already living in a world like this what can I do to walk away. Just like the world in the story America has considerable wealth compared to the rest of the world, but this happiness is founded on the suffering of poorer countries like china and Africa, 3rd would countries who take all the blame and build all of the stuff for America. In Omelas she comments on how every one is always loving of each other, i would say that America is exactly like this but the description of the child “It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually.” is vary much like the way that some of the 3rd world countries live, people living in sewer, people starving in the streets. This is not the way I want to find happiness, And sense the article we read on McWorld vs. Jihad described McWorld as having a huge gap between the rich and the poor this reinforces my dislike for this world. This whole concept displays that Omelas represents a first world country and the child in the basement represents a third world country.
Now knowing that I want to walk away from Omelas meaning I want to walk away from the McWorld system of America, how would I go about it? Often rebels or punks of our society are considered outsiders and believe that they are not “part of the system” but these are in truth just trends. Companies like Quick Silver and DC have turned skateboarding in to a market. These “punks” are just shopping like every one else. Like in the last paragraph of the writing the people who walk away from Omlas are not burdened by the city in any way. “They go on.They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back.” So to walk away from McWorld America you need to be able to leave behind all of these trends and truly detach yourself from the culture. I think the way to do this is by simply not buying into the idea that you always need more, having just enough that you can live in happiness and by being kind and generous to others. If the problem with McWorld is people consuming than just consume products the have bean made with out the suffering of others. Vote with your dollar.
Jihad vs. McWorld
AQotWF
1 I found that it was extremely scary that so many people agreed that after war there was so little one could do with his life. To think that war completely erased an individual’s ability to interact with other human beings was incredible. Dose war truly make a human so completely lost that it would be better for them to die than to go on living? I believe that anything is better than dying; someone who has once lived must be able to someday remember how. I know several veterans who have been In terrible situations and have been able to find a way to let out the horror and fear caused from such things; for instance Tim O’Brien (Author of The Things They Carried) used stories to help him put his war into perspective, now he is not the boy he used to be, but he defiantly can go on living.
2 Reading this book has drastic changed my perception of war, I have read many other war novels but so far I have never had such a detailed idea of the emotional damage solders endured. It is hard to read a book ware every page you know will inflict more pain on the main character. For instance when Paul had to sit with the dieing solder that he killed, the writing was so descriptive that you felt in some ways that you were the one who had just killed another human being; you almost wanted to write a letter to the mother of the solder so that you could some how live with yourself afterward. I will never be able to fight in any type of war after reading this book, even playing video games makes me feel guilty.
I feel as if I have come to the conclusion that there is no truth to war, war is a lie. Recently I read a book called “War is a Force that Gives us Meaning”, in the book it discusses how war has always been a part of human culture for as long as we have evidence of human existence. So many people try to understand war and maybe like this book says it is not something that has any reason to it; it could possibly be just a horrible unnecessary aspect of humanity. Tell me has there ever been a war ware the countries involved came out any better? Has there ever been a solder in his right mind that enjoyed killing other people? What is accomplished? Nothing.
3 When we talked about the horses that were dieing from the shelling, it vary deeply effected me. Recently my dog passed away, he died at seven years from lung cancer. It happened vary quickly, we found out, and two weeks later, after an intense period of suffering he died. To watch an animal suffer for reasons they cannot control must be one of The hardest things I have done, it makes perfect sense to me that these solders were so deeply effected by the dieing horses.
4 “What great misery can be in two such small spots, no bigger than a man's thumb--- in there eyes!” pg 191. I chose this quote because it best represent what I took away from this book; the biggest income of war is sadness, hardship and loss. There is no truth to madness, no truth to mindless destruction, no truth to the absolute loss of humanity. If I had to do a project to represent my quote, I would do a photoshoped image of looking into someones eyes that were both beautiful and sad. I think the best way to experience some thing is to see it for your self.
Seminar reflection
During the seminar I found a comment made by sally interesting, she said, “ maybe Vonnegut wrote this story to motivate us to do something in our lives to to help people who have been in war or to stop war its self”. I think I found this idea interesting because I hadn’t thought about this idea before. I hadn’t really thought to much about what Vonnegut meant with this book, I was more focused on following the story line than deciphering the meaning. But when I thought about it, it fit into the story really well and made much of it come together.
Are you Billy Pilgrim? Yes, Billy Pilgrim is a metaphor for the human race. He demonstrates how the human brain reacts to things it dose not want to remember or feel responsible for. Of course people argue that they aren’t that flimsy and that they would run away if some on was shooting at them, But what they don't think about is that human instinct when faced with a difficult problem is to do what billy dose, simply blow it of with so it goes. Constantly during the book Vonnegut emphasizes that there is not free will, I quote, “we have studied 35 other planets and yours is the only one that believes in free will.”
When one sees to much or feels that they cannot be human because of the things they have done, they make up excuses for what has happened or why they were justified in doing what they did. Billy’s excuse was that every thing was meant to happen. This of coarse was not the case, I can prove this because in the beginning of the book when Vonnegut was explaining about billy becoming unstuck in time, he mentioned how billy would have to always be prepared to “act out” that scene of his life. This implied that billy actually did have control over what he could or could not do, meaning that there actually is free will and billy is making up this entire idea of aliens just to justify war and his participation in it.
The ideas brought up in this book about life not being something we control is something I have though about for a long time. Some times I look back and realize that if I hadn’t done something some thing else really bad would have happened. For instance if I hadn’t decided to stay home sick on Tuesday than I probable would have been part of the problem with computer hacking Nathan and Elija did that very day, simply because I like to hang out with Nathan. I have alwas thought about this and it was interesting to read a book about it.
S5 often reminds me of AQotWF. When the main character of AQotWF returns to his family he comments many times on how civilians don’t understand what it was like during the war and how hard it is for him to relate to them. In S5 when billy is talking to his newly married wife, she asks him questions about what WW2 was like and how the fire bombing effected him. He also could not relate and had trouble talking about the war. Also I think the massage was the same, both books agreed that war was a force that ripped humans apart and made them hate each other. The books prompted people to stand up and do something in the world.
