Point Counter Point Blog Post

The character from the novel Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley which I would like to discuss with you today is Illidge.  Now for me, Illidge is a strange character.  He is described in the book as a red headed lower class individual, who uses his intellect to gain some sort of status in the eyes of his fellow compatriot for science, Edward Tantamount.  Illidge mainly remains close to Lord Tantamount, an has no real connection with the rest of the Tantamount family for he despises the upper class for their wealth.  Illidge also gets in a discussion with Walter about he he believes that the poor have a greater sense of neighborliness because they are all in the same situation, they all have very little money and hope to help each other achieve their goals of being successful one day.  He also states that the rich have no sense of neighborliness because their houses are so far away and they have literal physical separation between them and their neighbors.  "Neighbourlinesss is the touchstone that shows up the rich.  The rich haven't got any neighbours." (p. 53)  Base on this quotation from chapter 5 in the novel, I believe that Illidge is somewhat a pessimist.  He oaths the rich, probably because he isn't one of them.  He is envious of their wealth and how they treat people who are less economically stable than they are.  I feel that he hates whatever he can't have, and whatever he does have, he feels that he has a sort of entitlement to educate everybody about why his way is better.

Freewrite: What Does it mean to be Human?

What does it mean to be human?  Is humanity simply a gift, or something that needs to be achieved, such as an accomplishment?  I believe that Personhood is something that needs to be achieved, and not simply given or bestowed on a person at birth.  Personhood, however, I believe is different than humanity. Personhood cannot simply be bestowed upon a human being as they are born because being a person, is a special trait that needs to be established by the rest of humanity.  Is just floating through life and not doing anything productive being a person?  Yes, technically that person is still human, but only because of DNA.  The way we can divide the category of humans up, is the ones who try and make a difference or stand out, and the ones who go with the flow and have none of their own opinions.

The Stranger post #1

I believe that Mersault never truly evolves out of the first stage, or that would give his existence essence.  I believe that his decisions can bring him out of his one dimensional life, such as when he shot the Arab, but even then Mersault didn't really ever reach out into the essence part of existence.  Even in his jail cell, he goes over the same things over and over again until he get used to it.  He never ever reaches out of the existence stage of life and into the essence phase.

Walt Whitman Post

"Has anyone supposed it lucky to be born? I hasten to inform him or her it is just as lucky to die, and I know it." -Walt Whitman

As opposed to the overall conception of life and death, Walt Whitman believes that death is just as important as life.  Think of it this way.  If death were not here, this world would be completely be overpopulated, and one would live on forever, not knowing what it was like to do anything.  One would just wander around the globe, gradually getting bored with all the sights that the world has to offer.  He or she would eventually stop caring for material objects in this world, and things that give pleasure.  There would be no such thing as a bucket list, because everybody would have plenty of time to do everything before they die.  Many people just don't value the end to their existence as much as they ought to according to Walt Whitman.

What makes me, me

First off, there are many things that make a person who they are today, whether they be large incidents, or tiny things that just so happened to happen.  One major person, or people in this case, that shaped my life, was my babysitter and her son.  Now, my babysitter is Mexican, and I am still in touch with her today, and her son is now 26, so he was always a good deal older than me.  He was my older brother that I never had.  He always got good grades, but more importantly, he introduced me to soccer.  Ever since I could walk, we played soccer together with nothing more than our feet and a wooden ball.  It was all we had.  Now I play soccer like it's going out of fashion.  I couldn't give it up.  Ever.  The second huge thing that my babysitter and her son did for me, was introduce me to spanish. I can speak near fluent spanish now, with hardly an accent, because at the mere age of three, I was bilingual. This has been the biggest help yet, as I can cruise through my spanish classes with ease. Overall, no matter what happens in your life, there will always be those things, events, or people even, who will change your life forever.

Let's talk about evil.  Now, the definition of evil, is morally wrong or bad, immoral or wicked.  Now, no matter how much we all like to believe all of these things to be true, I believe that evil does not exist.  In my mind, evil is in the eye of the beholder, and a measure of selfishness.  Let me break it down for you.  Evil, can be interpreted differently by different people.  Something that my neighbor does may be seen as evil by my other neighbor, but not evil by me at the same time.  I may perceive it as a bad or immoral act, but to call something purely evil, is to say that the only intention of doing this act, was to inflict harm on another for my own amusement.  Also, the person who you may think had done an evil act, may not think it was evil at all.  If somebody has to kill somebody else for whatever reason, people may view it as evil, but the murderer may not. My second point, is that evil is only a measure of selfishness.  Think of it this way.  If somebody is to commit an act, and they were to do it purely selfishly, then the people around that person would lesser of this individual.  If somebody were to kill another person, it has to be for a reason.  They would only commit this crime for a certain gain that would prove to be beneficial to him or her.  People don't do something just for the sake of it, and more often that not, it is in their own self interest.  The more the action is considered selfish, the more the action will be considered evil.  One more thing to add, is that people who have gone mad do not fall under the category in my opinion, because they cannot help their condition.

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.  Everything we see is a perspective, not a truth." -Marcus Aurelius.  To an extent I believe that this quote is true.  I believe that the truth to this quote, is generally what we see is a perspective, not a truth.  I believe that this part is true, because often times what we see, can be perceived different ways depending on where you are standing, or what your beliefs are.  I remember one time, my science teacher did this magic trick, where he tapped a quarter with a pencil three times.  On the third time, the pencil disappeared.  I was astonished, until he turned and looked at me, and it was behind his ear.  It was just a matter of perspective.  My half of the class was on the side where the pencil was not visible, so it appeared to vanish.  The other half of the class was able to see it, because they could tell that it was behind his ear. There was no truth behind the pencil disappearing, just a matter of where you were in the classroom.  Now, moving onto the first half of the quote, I believe that there are certain things that are facts, such as 2 + 2 = 4.  This can be told to you when you are a child, and you may just accept it just because.  If you were anything like me, however, you would always want to know why things were the way they were.  If somebody who told me that 2 + 2 = 4, they would have to count out two groups of two, and then group them together to create a group of four.  Sometimes things that are said to you are opinions, but often times, there are facts as well.