The human race is at a consist struggle of trying to make their lives as best as possible. This means that every single person born on this earth places their own lives and needs over everyone else. Hobbes is one philosopher who argues to this very point. He say that this is the nature of men and no matter what else is being done to the world our actions always are based off of our own self worth.
This quote from Thomas Hobbes talks about two main things. First it talks about how most actions that men take out weather they are positive actions or negative actions, men have the liberty to do those actions. The second things Hobbes discusses is that all actions that men take are based off of the necessity of something. Hobbes is saying that every action men take no matter what it is that action somehow is based off of some need of that individual. So this means that men are born with the liberty to do whatever is best for their own needs.
The statement that all of men's actions are based off of some sort of necessity is something that I strongly believe in. I think that every action we take as humans we take as a way to somehow fulfill this need. Whether it is a kind of physical need, like to stay healthy or a mental need to do what makes you happy. This then in turn means that people's needs will collide. To me this struggle of needs verses needs is the reason why all conflicts ever start. This is shown through Native Americans fighting for their own need, and the colonists need for more land and more money. In the end however both sides can be justified as being right in their actions because like Hobbes also says all men have their own Liberty.
This issue of liberty is also a major factor in all issues of mankind. Hobbes himself argues that all men have liberties that they are born with and no matter what laws are in place people still will act on their liberties as men. To me this statement means that the world will always resort back to some sort of chaos. By going back to what Hobbes says about all men are born with liberty and those liberties are to act on their own needs chaos is the only possible thing that could happen. This is because even when men make some sort of government like a Common-wealth they will only follow those laws as long as they fulfill their current needs. The second those laws are no longer helping them out they will disobey them and once again act for themselves. This is why in the end all governments will fail and also why the world will always be plunged back into the state of chaos.
As grim as this situation sounds according to Hobbes this is the end result of everything. I myself agree with Hobbes on this point a little but also hope that it is also somewhat false. I simply hope that man-kind will someday learn from there mistake and in the end hopefully will evolve into a less selfish race.
This sucked. It is almost impossible for me to organize my thoughts in only 1 hour without me going on random tangents that only make sence to me. But whatever.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Reflection Post
How do you think I did?
Well before I got my grade I thought that I did a good job on my essay. I spent a lot of time thinking about and writing the essay starting from my outline to the final result. I probally could have spent even more time though, because there were a few days when I did slack off. When I got my grade of a NP/LP however I was kinda shocked. I think it was because things like organizing my thoughts and not going off on tangents are some of my weakest things when it comes to writing and they were major things I was being graded on.
What have I learned about my writing process?
I don't think I really learned anything about my writing process. I still pretty much do it the same way as I always have which aparently is not good enough anymore. So now I somehow need to find a way to improve it which I am not sure how to do. I think the main problem is that it is really hard for me to put what I am thinking down on paper and I have not the fanitest clue how to fix that.
What have I learned about my writing philosophy?
I think I learned that my writing philosophy is all wrong. Writing to me has always been just trying to say my own opion on all matters. But I guess that this is not the right way to write. By my grade it seems that the more important things about writing would be to try and incorporate others veiws into my writing which I have never been acostomed to doing. But I think getting the terrible grade that I did just shows me that some how I need to Change pretty much everything about my writing because the way I used to veiw it is not enough anymore.
What have I learned about the difference between high school writing and College writing?
Overall I have learned that there is a huge difference between high school and college writing. I learned that first off most of the essays we write are going to be very boring which always lead to us writing boring terrible essays. I also learned that the level of writing that we used in high school is not enough at all. Somehow almost all of us are going to have and try to improve are selves someway. Hopefully somehow though Craig teaching us we will learned how to step up the level. The last major thing that I think I learned is that now that we are in College we can not slack off at all. We have to dedicate every second we have to our work if we ever expect to earn a higher grade.
What changes will I make for my next essay?
I think that there will be many changes for my next essay. I know that I will have to work a lot harder and dedicate more time to my writing. I also know that I will need to try and improve useing the They say/I say format cause I suck at it right now. I also need to work at organization appantly which I have no idea how to improve at all. And last I need to improve my own opion which I thought I did a good job on but appantly is not even a key factor in our grade.
Overall This sucks. Cause I thought I deserved a much better grade then I got.
Well before I got my grade I thought that I did a good job on my essay. I spent a lot of time thinking about and writing the essay starting from my outline to the final result. I probally could have spent even more time though, because there were a few days when I did slack off. When I got my grade of a NP/LP however I was kinda shocked. I think it was because things like organizing my thoughts and not going off on tangents are some of my weakest things when it comes to writing and they were major things I was being graded on.
What have I learned about my writing process?
I don't think I really learned anything about my writing process. I still pretty much do it the same way as I always have which aparently is not good enough anymore. So now I somehow need to find a way to improve it which I am not sure how to do. I think the main problem is that it is really hard for me to put what I am thinking down on paper and I have not the fanitest clue how to fix that.
What have I learned about my writing philosophy?
I think I learned that my writing philosophy is all wrong. Writing to me has always been just trying to say my own opion on all matters. But I guess that this is not the right way to write. By my grade it seems that the more important things about writing would be to try and incorporate others veiws into my writing which I have never been acostomed to doing. But I think getting the terrible grade that I did just shows me that some how I need to Change pretty much everything about my writing because the way I used to veiw it is not enough anymore.
What have I learned about the difference between high school writing and College writing?
Overall I have learned that there is a huge difference between high school and college writing. I learned that first off most of the essays we write are going to be very boring which always lead to us writing boring terrible essays. I also learned that the level of writing that we used in high school is not enough at all. Somehow almost all of us are going to have and try to improve are selves someway. Hopefully somehow though Craig teaching us we will learned how to step up the level. The last major thing that I think I learned is that now that we are in College we can not slack off at all. We have to dedicate every second we have to our work if we ever expect to earn a higher grade.
What changes will I make for my next essay?
I think that there will be many changes for my next essay. I know that I will have to work a lot harder and dedicate more time to my writing. I also know that I will need to try and improve useing the They say/I say format cause I suck at it right now. I also need to work at organization appantly which I have no idea how to improve at all. And last I need to improve my own opion which I thought I did a good job on but appantly is not even a key factor in our grade.
Overall This sucks. Cause I thought I deserved a much better grade then I got.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Bacon's Rebellion FINAL (edited version)
Picture a world that is so corrupt, that one group of people control the world economy. In this type of world the majority of people would be poor and unable to live successful lives. This type of government not only existed in the past, but remains present in some countries today. It is my belief, that this is the world’s future unless the human race works to change their ways and becomes less selfish. Economics was a major driving force behind Bacon's Rebellion which shaped the world as we know it today.
From the beginning of the Jamestown colony its main purposes were to develop as a well functioning colony with a strong economy. From the inception of life in this new land it was seen as a means to get rich quick. There were vast acres of fertile land ripe for farming unlike the environment in England where every piece of land was already owned. Initially the settlers were unsuccessful at farming and many of the early citizens died of starvation. Eventually they discovered a profitable crop know as tobacco. Once found it they began to grow massive amounts which in turn made the Jamestown economy flourish. Soon there was a huge separation between the rich tobacco plantation owner and the poorer farmers.
During this time of new settlements starting their own farms many economic problems started to occur. "These problems included declining tobacco prices, weather problems; including hailstorms, floods, dry spells, and hurricanes, growing commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas, an increasingly restricted English market, and the rising prices from English manufactured goods caused problems for the Virginians” (http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html,) as this source states these problems continued plaguing the colonist’s economy blow after blow. These facts demonstrate how there are so many factors that can cause the economy to fail. I believe that this was a major contributing problem that influenced the start of Bacon’s rebellion. These problems affected the large tobacco farmers dramatically, but poorer farmers like Bacon were the ones who really suffered the most economically. If the economy at that time was prosperous then I believe Bacon’s group would never have had a problem with the order of things. With this huge inequality Bacon and his men were forced to find ways to not only improve their own plight but to improve the whole colonies economy as well.
With the economy diminishing Bacon and his followers thought it was time to act and soon the rebellion began. It started with Bacon’s people trying to find a way to blame someone else for their misfortunes. The unlucky people they chose were the Indians. Instead of them trying to work harder on their own land they started to think that everything would be easier if they could take more land. So Bacon’s people started at first by just spreading over past the land that was theirs and into the Indians land. This caused the Governor at that time to intervene. Soon the colonist were fighting between following the land treaties and trying to just make everyone’s lives more profitable. It ended in Bacon’s people getting defeated. Our history book says “The ruling elite concluded that it was safer for the colonists to fight Indians rather than each other, and the government made little effort to restrict encroachment on Indian lands. (The American Promise page 93). I believe that the book did not go into how significant this decision truly was. It did not talk about how this decision came to be or what the aftermaths of making it would be. My opinion is that this decision was one of the most important ones in shaping the future of the Chesapeake society.
This Decision to break Indian treaties and do what was best for the colonies own needs, caused economy to improve not only in the Chesapeake area but all over east coast. As Joshua Cleveland says “Bacon’s Rebellion was a turning point in Virginia and in colonial history.” (http://www.wm.edu/niahd/journals/index.php?browse=entry&id=4124). As Cleveland states here this whole rebellion had much more effect on the world then just in Jamestown. It actually started to change the way in which colonists would take and use their land. This is because once the Englishmen started to break Indian land treaties they started to have even more land for which they could grow crops. In the end the new land they acquired made the economy only improve dramatically. Soon after the rebellion land started to be farmed more without any borders in the way. This caused Virginia and other east coast colonies to be one of the largest assets to England economy. This is one of those parts of history that people say was not morally right. But they simply need to understand that almost all of the actions of these early colonists were for economic profit and without a good economy the world is nothing. In my opinion I think that our world always has been based around creating this good economy and without one everything just crumbles to dust. So I think that even though the colonists broke their land treaties and killed many Indians, if the economy improved then it was all worth it
This style of do anything for the good of the economy is still present all over the world today. One example is how people in third world countries are getting paid slave wages making goods that the world depends on. While these people are getting treated terribly we must ask ourselves what we would do without these goods. The truth is that right now the way the world runs is based primary on who ever has the most money has the most power. This is the main problem with not only America but the whole entire world. The truth is that economy as it is now is based around making one group of people incredibly rich and the rest very poor. So we must accept that this is how the world works and there is no way it will change anytime soon so I say forget your morals and just do whatever is in your best economic interest. Now that you understand this we can go back and compare today’s world with Bacon’s rebellion. If you do this then you will obviously see that both in the past and still today the world is based off of one simple thing, that thing is economic profit. With out it there is no world that could exist.
Without economy there is no world. This is a statement that I have spent many hours contemplating over and over again. In the end I believe that I came to the conclusion that the world as we know it is doomed. I came to this conclusion by realizing that without money right now there is no way to live a successful life. With this being the way things are more then half of the population of the world is suffering. My hope is that some day the human race will evolve past their greedy ways, and then maybe we will finally have a world that I would be proud to live in. Bacon’s Rebellion was just one of these examples of economy causing people to turn into greedy monsters. Hopefully people will someday be able to learn from these past events and then start to try and change the world to a state of peace.
From the beginning of the Jamestown colony its main purposes were to develop as a well functioning colony with a strong economy. From the inception of life in this new land it was seen as a means to get rich quick. There were vast acres of fertile land ripe for farming unlike the environment in England where every piece of land was already owned. Initially the settlers were unsuccessful at farming and many of the early citizens died of starvation. Eventually they discovered a profitable crop know as tobacco. Once found it they began to grow massive amounts which in turn made the Jamestown economy flourish. Soon there was a huge separation between the rich tobacco plantation owner and the poorer farmers.
During this time of new settlements starting their own farms many economic problems started to occur. "These problems included declining tobacco prices, weather problems; including hailstorms, floods, dry spells, and hurricanes, growing commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas, an increasingly restricted English market, and the rising prices from English manufactured goods caused problems for the Virginians” (http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html,) as this source states these problems continued plaguing the colonist’s economy blow after blow. These facts demonstrate how there are so many factors that can cause the economy to fail. I believe that this was a major contributing problem that influenced the start of Bacon’s rebellion. These problems affected the large tobacco farmers dramatically, but poorer farmers like Bacon were the ones who really suffered the most economically. If the economy at that time was prosperous then I believe Bacon’s group would never have had a problem with the order of things. With this huge inequality Bacon and his men were forced to find ways to not only improve their own plight but to improve the whole colonies economy as well.
With the economy diminishing Bacon and his followers thought it was time to act and soon the rebellion began. It started with Bacon’s people trying to find a way to blame someone else for their misfortunes. The unlucky people they chose were the Indians. Instead of them trying to work harder on their own land they started to think that everything would be easier if they could take more land. So Bacon’s people started at first by just spreading over past the land that was theirs and into the Indians land. This caused the Governor at that time to intervene. Soon the colonist were fighting between following the land treaties and trying to just make everyone’s lives more profitable. It ended in Bacon’s people getting defeated. Our history book says “The ruling elite concluded that it was safer for the colonists to fight Indians rather than each other, and the government made little effort to restrict encroachment on Indian lands. (The American Promise page 93). I believe that the book did not go into how significant this decision truly was. It did not talk about how this decision came to be or what the aftermaths of making it would be. My opinion is that this decision was one of the most important ones in shaping the future of the Chesapeake society.
This Decision to break Indian treaties and do what was best for the colonies own needs, caused economy to improve not only in the Chesapeake area but all over east coast. As Joshua Cleveland says “Bacon’s Rebellion was a turning point in Virginia and in colonial history.” (http://www.wm.edu/niahd/journals/index.php?browse=entry&id=4124). As Cleveland states here this whole rebellion had much more effect on the world then just in Jamestown. It actually started to change the way in which colonists would take and use their land. This is because once the Englishmen started to break Indian land treaties they started to have even more land for which they could grow crops. In the end the new land they acquired made the economy only improve dramatically. Soon after the rebellion land started to be farmed more without any borders in the way. This caused Virginia and other east coast colonies to be one of the largest assets to England economy. This is one of those parts of history that people say was not morally right. But they simply need to understand that almost all of the actions of these early colonists were for economic profit and without a good economy the world is nothing. In my opinion I think that our world always has been based around creating this good economy and without one everything just crumbles to dust. So I think that even though the colonists broke their land treaties and killed many Indians, if the economy improved then it was all worth it
This style of do anything for the good of the economy is still present all over the world today. One example is how people in third world countries are getting paid slave wages making goods that the world depends on. While these people are getting treated terribly we must ask ourselves what we would do without these goods. The truth is that right now the way the world runs is based primary on who ever has the most money has the most power. This is the main problem with not only America but the whole entire world. The truth is that economy as it is now is based around making one group of people incredibly rich and the rest very poor. So we must accept that this is how the world works and there is no way it will change anytime soon so I say forget your morals and just do whatever is in your best economic interest. Now that you understand this we can go back and compare today’s world with Bacon’s rebellion. If you do this then you will obviously see that both in the past and still today the world is based off of one simple thing, that thing is economic profit. With out it there is no world that could exist.
Without economy there is no world. This is a statement that I have spent many hours contemplating over and over again. In the end I believe that I came to the conclusion that the world as we know it is doomed. I came to this conclusion by realizing that without money right now there is no way to live a successful life. With this being the way things are more then half of the population of the world is suffering. My hope is that some day the human race will evolve past their greedy ways, and then maybe we will finally have a world that I would be proud to live in. Bacon’s Rebellion was just one of these examples of economy causing people to turn into greedy monsters. Hopefully people will someday be able to learn from these past events and then start to try and change the world to a state of peace.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Bacon's Rebellion/Economics DRAFT
Picture a world that is so corrupt, that only one group of people controls all money. This causes the rest of the people to be left poor and not able to live any sort of successful life. This type of government not only was present in the past, but is still present in some countries today. It is my belief, that this is the future of the whole world unless the human race tries to change our ways to be less selfish. Economics was one of the major driving forces that resulted in Bacon's Rebellion and also started to then shape the rest of the world as well.
Since the beginning of Jamestown one of its main purposes was to develop a well functioning colony with a good economy. Since people first started to come over to this new land they viewed it as a way to get rich quick. There was just so much open land ready to be farmed unlike the environment in England where every piece of land was already taken. They started out without having the ability to grow any crops at all and many of the early citizens died because of starvation. Soon down the road however they discovered the wonderful crop know as tobacco. Soon after they found it they started to grow mass amounts of it which in turn made the Jamestown economy flourish. Suddenly there was a huge separation between the rich tobacco plantation owner and the less wealthy farmers.
During this time of new settles starting up their own farms many economic problems started to occur. "These problems included declining tobacco prices, weather problems including hailstorms, floods, dry spells, and hurricanes, growing commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas, an increasingly restricted English market, and the rising prices from English manufactured goods caused problems for the Virginians” (http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html). I believe that this was the true reason that Bacon’s rebellion started. These problems did effect the large tobacco farmers a lot, but the poorer farmers like Bacon were the ones who really lost most of there money. If around that time the economy was actually prosperous then I’m sure Bacon’s group never really would have had a problem with the way things were at all. So with this going on Bacon and his men were trying to find any way possible to try and make not only their own lives more profitable but to try and improve the whole colonies economy as well.
With the economy diminishing Bacon and his followers thought it was time to act and soon their whole rebellion started. It started with Bacon’s people trying to find some way to blame someone else for their misfortunes. The unlucky people they chose were the Indians. Instead of them trying to just work harder on their own land they started to just think that everything would be easier if they could just take more land. So Bacon’s people started at first by just spreading over past the land that was theirs and into the Indians land. This caused the Governor at that time to intervene. Soon the colonist were fighting between following the land treaties and trying to just make everyone’s lives more profitable. It ended in Bacon’s people getting defeated, but soon after Governor Berkeley decided that he did not want the colonists fighting each other any more so they started to break a lot of their treaties with the Indians if it meant all of the colonists were happy. ( in a reading somewhere that I need to find later.)
This Decision to break Indian treaties and do what was best for the colonies own needs, caused economy to improve not on in the Chesapeake area but all over east coast. Once the Englishmen started to break Indian land treaties they started to have even more land for which they could grow crops. This caused many fights between Indians and the Colonists which did result in many deaths and decreased the economy for a little while, but in the end the new land they acquired made the economy only better and better. Soon this new land that will one day be called America started to be one of the largest assets to the England economy. People may say that taken the natives land was not morally right. But at the same time what would the economy be today if we didn’t.? In my opinion I think that our world always has been based around creating a good economy and without one everything just crumbles to dust. So I think that so what if we broke our agreement and killed many Indians, if the economy improved then it was all worth it. I am sure people are reading this right now and disagree with this statement but you are wrong and I am right.
This style of do anything for the good of the economy is still present all over the world today. One example is how people in third world countries are getting paid slave wages making goods that the world depends on. While these people are getting treated terribly we must ask ourselves what we would do without these goods. The truth is that right now the way the world runs is based primary on who ever has the most money has the most power. This is the main problem with not only America but the whole entire world. The truth is that economy as it is now is based around making one group of people rich as hell and the other group of people living in the dirt. So we must accept that this is how the world works and there is no way it will change anytime soon so I say forget your morals and just do whatever is in your best economic interest. So now that you understand this we can go back and compare today’s world with Bacon’s rebellion. If you do this then you will obviously see that both in the past and still today the world is based off of one simple thing, that thing is economic profit. With out it there is no world that could exist.
Since the beginning of Jamestown one of its main purposes was to develop a well functioning colony with a good economy. Since people first started to come over to this new land they viewed it as a way to get rich quick. There was just so much open land ready to be farmed unlike the environment in England where every piece of land was already taken. They started out without having the ability to grow any crops at all and many of the early citizens died because of starvation. Soon down the road however they discovered the wonderful crop know as tobacco. Soon after they found it they started to grow mass amounts of it which in turn made the Jamestown economy flourish. Suddenly there was a huge separation between the rich tobacco plantation owner and the less wealthy farmers.
During this time of new settles starting up their own farms many economic problems started to occur. "These problems included declining tobacco prices, weather problems including hailstorms, floods, dry spells, and hurricanes, growing commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas, an increasingly restricted English market, and the rising prices from English manufactured goods caused problems for the Virginians” (http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html). I believe that this was the true reason that Bacon’s rebellion started. These problems did effect the large tobacco farmers a lot, but the poorer farmers like Bacon were the ones who really lost most of there money. If around that time the economy was actually prosperous then I’m sure Bacon’s group never really would have had a problem with the way things were at all. So with this going on Bacon and his men were trying to find any way possible to try and make not only their own lives more profitable but to try and improve the whole colonies economy as well.
With the economy diminishing Bacon and his followers thought it was time to act and soon their whole rebellion started. It started with Bacon’s people trying to find some way to blame someone else for their misfortunes. The unlucky people they chose were the Indians. Instead of them trying to just work harder on their own land they started to just think that everything would be easier if they could just take more land. So Bacon’s people started at first by just spreading over past the land that was theirs and into the Indians land. This caused the Governor at that time to intervene. Soon the colonist were fighting between following the land treaties and trying to just make everyone’s lives more profitable. It ended in Bacon’s people getting defeated, but soon after Governor Berkeley decided that he did not want the colonists fighting each other any more so they started to break a lot of their treaties with the Indians if it meant all of the colonists were happy. ( in a reading somewhere that I need to find later.)
This Decision to break Indian treaties and do what was best for the colonies own needs, caused economy to improve not on in the Chesapeake area but all over east coast. Once the Englishmen started to break Indian land treaties they started to have even more land for which they could grow crops. This caused many fights between Indians and the Colonists which did result in many deaths and decreased the economy for a little while, but in the end the new land they acquired made the economy only better and better. Soon this new land that will one day be called America started to be one of the largest assets to the England economy. People may say that taken the natives land was not morally right. But at the same time what would the economy be today if we didn’t.? In my opinion I think that our world always has been based around creating a good economy and without one everything just crumbles to dust. So I think that so what if we broke our agreement and killed many Indians, if the economy improved then it was all worth it. I am sure people are reading this right now and disagree with this statement but you are wrong and I am right.
This style of do anything for the good of the economy is still present all over the world today. One example is how people in third world countries are getting paid slave wages making goods that the world depends on. While these people are getting treated terribly we must ask ourselves what we would do without these goods. The truth is that right now the way the world runs is based primary on who ever has the most money has the most power. This is the main problem with not only America but the whole entire world. The truth is that economy as it is now is based around making one group of people rich as hell and the other group of people living in the dirt. So we must accept that this is how the world works and there is no way it will change anytime soon so I say forget your morals and just do whatever is in your best economic interest. So now that you understand this we can go back and compare today’s world with Bacon’s rebellion. If you do this then you will obviously see that both in the past and still today the world is based off of one simple thing, that thing is economic profit. With out it there is no world that could exist.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Sites for my Essay
All of these are links to sites about Bacon's Rebellion and will hopefully help my essay in the long run.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html
http://www.virginiaplaces.org/military/bacon.html
http://www.newrivernotes.com/va/bacon.htm
http://www.newrivernotes.com/va/bacon.htm
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/tm.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/bacon.htm
http://www.greattradingpath.com/native-american-indian-history/index.htm
http://www.britannica.com/search?ct=eb&query=Bacon%27s+Rebellion
Friday, October 5, 2007
The Evil Tobacco Corporation.
Tobacco is a product that brings in so much profit that it will keep on being sold to the general public no matter what the negative results will be. Tobacco was first shipped over to Europe in the 17th century. It was so popular that people of all ages and genders began to smoke it. Once the English realized how much wealth could be earned though selling it started to be shipped all over Europe getting people addicted. At the time these Europeans had no clue about any possible health problems that could occur though smoking so they just kept selling it making more and more money. Today however everything has changed for the worse. Now with sites like www.thetruth.com almost the whole world knows about all of the terrible health problems that are symptoms of smoking but still go out and buy themselves pack after pack of cigarettes. They do this simply because the evil cigarette companies will do anything to keep these cigarettes as addictive as possible. They will add chemicals like ammonia simply to keep the nicotine level as addicted as possible. Other know poisons are added as well like methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, and Polonium-210. Theses things are added to try and make cigarettes as appetizing to the general public as possible. So why is the government still making cigarettes? It is quite simple, just like the Europeans found out in the 17th century, selling tobacco can make a crap load of money. So even with the entire world knowing how deadly and disgusting cigarettes are, human beings are still too weak to change there nasty habits. So the question is how do we make people quit smoking? The truth is we have no power in this decision at all, and that the only hope is that eventually humans will be able to evolve past their stupidity.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
ARG
I am still not quite sure how these ARGs or alternate reality games work but I am sure that Craig will fill us in more latter. What I did get from the reading however was that these games can be very complex. They are not as simple as just clicking buttons but they require not only the online world but the real world as well. These games seem to have one person in charge who is called the Puppetmaster which right now I am thinking is going to be Craig because of that annoying e-mail he sent me. So this means that now Craig gets to mess with us and make us do lots of annoying things until we finally do solve this little game of his. As for how this game will impact me? I guess there are two possible ways. One is that I will actually enjoy playing this game and have a fun adventure with my classmates until we finally win. The other outcome however is that this game will really annoy me and then cause me to get really angry. But since Craig seems like a pretty creative guy I am sure it won't suck to bad. So now the only thing left to do is sit back and wait to see what happens.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Reflection on Commuity Service day.
Last Friday was PSEC's community service day. My group was assigned to help out this couple who lived in Kent. We started out the day by driving around in circles for half an hour until we finally found their house. The wife had a lot of allergy's and health problems and it seemed to me that the husband had to take care of her all the time. Because of this the house seemed to lack some basic cleaning so our fearless group was called to help out. I started helping by moping the floors and ceiling of their porch, and then spent the rest of the time pulling weeds and moving a refrigerator. By helping out this couple in need I felt very self-fulfilled, because when ever I do a good deed for others with no payment in return, I start to feel like I can actually make a difference in this world that we live on. I also think that this experience was a chance to bond with my fellow classmates, which is always a good thing to do. My group also had a ridiculous group leader named Craig who ended up being a pretty cool guy I guess. I also felt that by talking to him in a non-school setting I will probably be more comfortable in his class now. Overall I feel like these community service days are both great for our community and can also be fun if you try and make them that way. So I am defiantly looking forward to the next one.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Summary Of Spanish Conquest
A man named Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote about what he witnessed during the destruction of the Indies around 1474-1566. This man talks about all of the cruel and horrible things that he witnessed while the Spanish were taking over the native’s land of Hispaniola and talking all of their good and gold. He says that he witnessed first hand all of these terrible acts. These acts considered of not only killing the men but killing both women and children who were completely defenseless. They also made these wooden gallows that they would tie the natives to and then set them on fire until they were all dead. Bartolomé de Las Casas also said that all of these acts were viewed as ok because the Spanish thought it was all in the name of god. While all of this was going on a friar named Anton Montecino was trying to let people know that all of these evil acts were not in the name of god. He said that it is gods command to love them as you love yourselves and that by destroying these innocent people the soldiers and nobles in charge would all go to hell. Soon after Montecino told people this he then went to go tell the king. The king however decided that the conquest was justified and then wrote the Requerimiento to read to all of the natives before they entered combat with them. This Requerimiento basically said that all of these acts were approved of by the Pope and therefore god also would approve of it. Then it goes on to say that if the natives did decided to become Christians then they would be able to remain on their land but if they did not then the Spanish could do whatever they wanted to them.
In my opinion I believe that everything that went on in the new world was wrong. Whether it is against gods will or simply against every moral standard there is there is no excuse for the Spaniard’s actions. I believe that the only real reason the Spanish were there was for money and land. They may have wanted to turn people into Christians also but they would only care about that after they received the land and gold. Even when Montecino told the king this he refused to stop the meaningless murders. This just shows that even the highest Spanish ruler was corrupted and evil. Even when he wrote the Requerimiento it showed this. First by not translating it into the natives language there was no chance for the natives to ever even consider it. Also even if it was translated I don't believe the natives would ever be willing to change there ways so fast by being used to there own beliefs.
In my opinion I believe that everything that went on in the new world was wrong. Whether it is against gods will or simply against every moral standard there is there is no excuse for the Spaniard’s actions. I believe that the only real reason the Spanish were there was for money and land. They may have wanted to turn people into Christians also but they would only care about that after they received the land and gold. Even when Montecino told the king this he refused to stop the meaningless murders. This just shows that even the highest Spanish ruler was corrupted and evil. Even when he wrote the Requerimiento it showed this. First by not translating it into the natives language there was no chance for the natives to ever even consider it. Also even if it was translated I don't believe the natives would ever be willing to change there ways so fast by being used to there own beliefs.
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