It is peculiar how in our society we live shut inside out own minds. To this day in our world there are multiple worlds created by the use of technology, though all of these are closed away d to fear, fear of judgement and regret. This is why we live blind bumping around in the dark, hoping to bump into what we look for.Question is how long can we continue to use closed minds to hide our essence from this world, what are the repercussions? If we go back in history to the world wars, why were they started? People talk about it's inevitability, how two people who are different will always end up subjugating one another, but I cant help to think how that is wrong in my eyes. Let us take an example: Say if you were to take an hour of your life to comprehend all that is around you, you might find that there is more to our every day life than meets the eye. Look at your fan and just observe how so many people must of held it before reaching you, think about the man who created it, the worker that crafted it, his boss, the boss's kids, the kids friend etc. There is so much history and ideas that surround us, i find it so hard to understand how we just blindly walk around as if it weren't there, as if it was just naturally given to us as a gift and not the result of blood sweat and tears. Maybe if we just looked around and saw it for more that just a fan it could help us understand how the world is. If we understand people and the world through this than there can not be any more wars, people fight due to lack of understanding.
On looking seems to really empathize this idea, n
ot the stopping war, but the idea of observing and paying attention to everything we do and don't do in our every day lives. That crack on the street, the mailman and the car that must 've almost hit you is part of a bigger imagine. The problem is that you can focus on both, to pay attention to one thing involves you ignoring rest of the world while you dedidcate yourself exclusively to that as if it was normal. If we observe just one thing we miss out on the rest, we cant just focus on both at once. Though I believe we can take turns n it, every day seeing something new in our monotonous life.
Going to the original idea, I had mentioned technology, I think it has become potential bridge to the minds of people, people who want to be observed and understood. I think that the reason the author wrote this is to show us how many details we miss on a daily life, it is slowly teaching us how to take control of the most
important part of us, our life.
It is quite ironic, usually humans stop to think upon who they are and all they have are temporal answers since they immediately change in a fraction of a second. One day they are a socialist, another day they become a capitalist, one day they want to wage war and then they want peace. It its rather strange, the fact that in such a short lifespan we change so much from one second to another, I often wonder if its the same with animals, do they contemplate the changes in them or just let it pass by since they wont live long. Why do we develop identity? Maybe it is just a comfort, a justification to our individuality in a world or nation that seems to foment collectivism, which in itself is an identity, everything itself is an identity and it is up to us to choose which ones fit and which ones don't.
Now going to the main part, who am I? I often ask myself that, every time I look in the mirror I find myself questioning my existence and its importance to the world. The problem with that is it makes one feel like an insignificant ant in a city. Back to the question, there is so much about me that makes me who I am really, I cant really put it to single small details for they are huge. To put it a bit more coherent, I am the result of all the influences and decisions made by me or for me, which means everything in my life is my identity. If I can find the main things that are part of the current me, let's start with the cornerstone, Buddhism. I follow the path of a Transcendentalist Buddhist, this was of my own decision and it means that I mix a lot of different beliefs in my Buddhist practice. I believe right and wrong are relative to the person and every one of use establish that. I use this concept to craft out what I think is right and wrong, but also respecting what others thing is right and wrong so long as they don't force themselves upon me or try to subordinate me. I respect and cherish individualism, what defines me a lot is my individual way of being, I enjoy being on my own and experiencing different things while I discover what I like and don't. I am also extremely pragmatic I firmly believe in the words of Niccolo Machiavelli "The ends justify the means" and I
am willing to risk my life for my goals and ideals. For me, knowledge is power, so i spend my days reading and learning everything that happens in this world. I believe that we can not close our eyes to this world and just be indifferent to the problems that happen, it is our duty, as citizens of the world, to learn about what happens and draft out our perspectives based on it. There is so much to write about that even my mind is having trouble putting in single thoughts for me to type, what else can I say? I enjoy freedom and being able to make my own decisions, I care little to what anyone tells me about what I do since it is my life and I chose to live this way. I find art in everything, I believe for everything there should be passion and that is what makes it an art, when we feels passion we create worlds.
To sum this all up, the result of all these influences give birth to who I am. I am a man of steel and fire, who walks upon this path I have chosen with a goal and ideal that pushes me forward. I take on life head on and use my fear to challenge myself, I constantly learn from this world as it from me and I cherish every second I am alive. If I fall I will always rise back up and keep fighting, I keep moving forward and give it my all. I often believe that we are what secrets we choose to show and that is how I am. So this is a small fragment of who I am for the reader. If you(the reader) feel the need to know more, then simply watch me, not as small grains of sand moved by the wind, but as a dance of sand and wind. Observe me as I move about in this world and proceed to make my name known to it, maybe then you will know more of me, maybe then will you find a way to grasp my identity. Until then,I await you reader, just who are you? A nightmare movie I found related: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3042408/
This short story wasn't really what I thought it would be diferent, I mean when you read something saying: "The Use of Force" well one can think its sabout war, hate, power or malice due to how the mind works. Instead of that what I saw in this story was the fight or resistance between modernization and traditionalism. Though it's really hard to see, that is what i perceived.
Now, why do I see that in the story? If we take it to a modern day example, right now in the U.S. there is a general uproar with vaccination being mandatory and how it's a disgrace to freedom. We see how there is a resistance the new things science, more like medince, brings to the people in the way that they resist and try to destroy it for it being 'harmful' to their health. Also another example is how people, some not all, when they are being attended by their doctor they try to correct him at every turn. Ironically they dont have the studies nor preparation and they try to not follow the instructions given to them by a person who spends roughly almost 15 years studying and sweating blood to be able to help them get better. I find this to be a complete disrespect towards someones effort and intention to live their dream, sure there are doctors who dont know what they are doing, but it is a minority. I find that its just like you question your barber on the way he cuts your hair and you criticize him for it when you did not take the preparation to be a barber yourself. Going back to the short story, the way the example associates its in the manner of how the little girl resists the doctor, she didn't know what was going on but there was an impulse of resistance in her that made her not want the doctor to even get near her. She did not knew for sure if he would harm her, she did not want to be treated, with ought knowing the consequences of it. It is like she was happy being not treated, as if death was the naturally cure of illness. While the doctor, the man who was to treat her and make her get better was being attacked by her ignorant fit. This is why I say it is a pure fight between tradition and modern ideals.
Now, if we take it from another perspective, how does the modernist feel here? Given that the modernist is the doctor, he at first felt happy as if a bliss of joy from it. Maybe he liked the challenge and the chase or maybe it was just the fact that he has never been resisted before, he did want to help for it is his job and he swore an oath. Though it doesn't change the fact that he was enamored by the hateful ignorance emanating from that child, but after a while it became frustration and even hatred for her since her ignorance did not allow him to perform his task. In the end he resorted to violence in order to fulfill his duty as a doctor, he used force, as a representative of modernist ideals, to repress traditionalist ignorance and fulfill his oath, his identity. In the end the problem was solved by a violent effort that could have been avoided should the child have let go of her idealistic tether to tradition.
The irony of all of this, is that when we were young we were taught how violence solves nothing, how it cant be the solution for anything at all, but then in this story we see how a violent act seemed to be the only solution towards this matter. Does this mean violence and chaos can be solutions? Does this mean we were taught wrong? or was this just a circumstance where subordination was necessary in order for progress to happen? The answers to those questions I leave it to you reader, for you are the interpreter of my piece. It is you who will be the one who will grasp my message created in this painting of words, see it and embrace it so maybe one day you will answer these thoughts. Until then, I will wait for you reader. analysis of the story: http://www.enotes.com/topics/use-force/in-depth
This week in English I watched the movie Running Brave. It was a biographical movie about the life of an native american track runner by the name Billy Mills who won a gold Olympic medal. The whole story centralized on many historical subjects like: racism and segregation, but what I found most important was the concept of identity. Billy faced many troubles due to this, his dad told him he wasn't completely native american due to his mother being white, so this means that he was trapped between two worlds that considered him an outcast. This can be observed in the way Eddie treated him and when his room mate asked him what he was, as if he was an alien to everything. In psychology when a human feels isolated from the world they lose notion of who they are and lose purpose, this happens directly when Billy identified himself and three different entities but neither were him. It's quite strange in fact, due to me being Puerto Rican and also with most of my family coming from Europe, I feel as if an alien from this world, but the trick is to always remember who I am and what I want to do. Billy along the way forgot who he was and lost sight of his goal, but later corrected himself and achieved greatness. Also related to this subject of identity I included the video, due to it's message.
Going to the original idea, I had mentioned technology, I think it has become potential bridge to the minds of people, people who want to be observed and understood. I think that the reason the author wrote this is to show us how many details we miss on a daily life, it is slowly teaching us how to take control of the most
