Blogalization

Though it's natural to fear the unknown, the globalization of society is usually a change I can accept with more enthusiasm than apprehension. The drawbacks of a globalized society would most likely be a deterioration of unique cultures as well as the obvious outsourcing of labor and its effect on the economies of the industrialized nations doing the outsourcing. However, all of the benefits of a globalized society seem intuitive; a more peaceful world is to be expected when every country has a vested economic interest in the well-being of every other country, and a supposed downside of globalization, a loss of nationalism, would very much serve to bring about world peace. Without nationalism, that basis for hatred and oppression would cease to exist. In the current world economy it is reasonable to fear globalization's ability to undermine unions for the sake of achieving the cheapest possible labor but that is only because we are in a transitional phase. When workers' unions become globalized as well, the laborers in third world countries will have the same claim to superior working standards and human rights as those in progressive nations with the highest quality of life among workers. The benefits of this far outweigh the drawbacks; I have no doubt we will inevitably see transnational cooperation among workers around the world. Sweatshops will reside in antiquity and the disparity between the salaries of the upper class and those in poverty will dwindle as fair trade will supercede free trade; a reasonable, global minimum wage, once established, would eat away at the ridiculous profit margins of the Fortune 500 and an educated middle class would emerge and thrive. Once we reach such a point of globalization, the benefits are self-perpetuating and will constantly improve; never will any governmental or corporate entity overstep its boundries in a world where there was such a risk of a revolt from a capable people, nor will they have the abundant power necessary as they do today. Globalization might very well be the best thing to ever happen to us as a society.

The Lack of Sports in My Life.

Sports are actually relatively insignificant in my life. I’ve never been particularly athletic or even very competitive for that matter. My involvement in playing sports competitively has been limited to a few local activities that I never really maintained interest in. Watching sports has played an even smaller part in my life. I’ve never truly seen the appeal; it has always just bored me. It’s actually kind of difficult to write 250 words on why sports don’t interest me, so this will probably be a short blog entry. It always kind of annoys me when some sporting event causes traffic, which makes commuting more inconvenient. For right now, the extent of my involvement in sports is the occasional swimming I do for fun.

Thankful for Peers

I really am thankful for the classmates I have and have had throughout my time in school. Every one of the ones I’ve known, even those that never became more than acquaintances or those that I have ceased to be friends with, has played an integral role in shaping my development as a student and even more as a person. I am certain that with a different cast of classmates my entire schooling would have been very different, and as a result of those different experiences I would be a very different individual. I am very grateful that I have had the friends I’ve known, I do not take them for granted. I know that a school is a profoundly lonely place when in isolation, and there are many students that never quite come by acceptance, so I’m lucky to have found it. As well as being able to talk to someone in school, it’s nice to be able to have people to spend time with outside of school, even without any particular objective. Having classmates allows someone to grow as a social being, to develop skills necessary to understand those around them and sympathy for fellow humans. Such an association opens doors for every student; it allows them access to the culture of their generation and allows them to play a role in shaping it. The impact of the community on an organism is significant, and should the organism be out of contact with the community, the community cannot possibly exist. Our day to day associations and friendships play a role, however small, in setting the tone for all human interaction.

Crime and Punishment (of Candide)

I’ve avoided this entry because I have no idea how to fill 250 words with my answer to the question of whether or not Candide’s punishments fit his crimes. They very obviously and intentionally do not. Voltaire specifically makes Candide suffer comically disproportional consequences for his minor wrongdoings. He went for a walk and was therefore a deserter of the Bulgarian army and deserved the execution he narrowly escaped from by pardon! My original plan was to play along with Voltaire’s comedic theme by justifying everything that happened in the story, but I found myself uninspired, and I still doubted that would fill the word requirement. Did Candide’s punishments fit his crimes? Of course not.

My Open Letter to Cormac McCarthy

Dear Cormac McCarthy,
I have recently read your novel, The Road, and I must admit I was fairly disappointed. Aside from the Pulitzer Prize and other accolades your novel has achieved, I’d heard good things from friends. Contrary to their recommendations, I thought it was very much overrated. I will acknowledge that it was significantly more enjoyable than the movie based on it, but that is only because the book lacked everything that would allow for a good movie adaptation. Movies are very dependent upon character and plot development. Your novel was almost entirely devoid of both. I understand that the purpose is to convey complete bleakness and pointlessness in the post-apocalyptic world of the novel, but it just doesn’t make for good literature in my opinion. While it is possible, if unlikely, to get by on excessively elegant and lyrical prose, you did a poor job of this as well. While there are a few good examples of adept use of language, they are few and far apart and are in no way justification for your story’s lack of story. Also, just to make it clear, utter neglect for syntax is not a stylistic choice. A fragmented sentence is almost always simply incorrect, and while they do have a unique impact when used sparingly, your merciless use of them leaves the reader desensitized to that impact. I’m sorry you found quotation marks and apostrophes injurious to your creativity, but they do play important roles and any novelist that intends to have their work taken seriously should use them. I also found the formatting of dialogue and superfluous spacing between paragraphs strangely disingenuous, as if trying to conceal the actual brevity of what is actually probably a novella by some standards. However, that’s really not an important or very serious criticism, as I acknowledge that probably wasn’t your intention at all if you even played a role in the formatting. I hope you found my criticisms somewhat constructive despite my perhaps more malicious intentions in writing this letter.
Regards,
A reader

Poet Defense!

“Go to Tibet

Ride a camel.

Dye your shoes blue.

Grow a beard.

Circle the world in a paper canoe.

Subscribe to The Saturday Evening Post.

Chew on the left side of your mouth only.

Marry a woman with one leg and shave with a straight razor.

And carve her name in her arm.

Brush your teeth with gasoline.

Sleep all day and climb trees at night.

Hold your head under water and play the violin.

Do a belly dance before pink candles.

Kill your dog.

Run for mayor.

Live in a barrel.

Break your head with a hatchet.

Plant tulips in the rain.

But don't write poetry. “

- Charles Bukowski

I find myself unable to defend Charles Bukowski, as he has broken his own dictum of abstaining from writing poetry. This poem was intended to be friendly advice to a lot of young men, but instead it appears to be a schizophrenic to-do list. However, it is genuinely hysterical, so perhaps this bizarre advice is permissible. Really, it seems very few people take him seriously in my experience. I haven’t read much of his writing at all aside from Dinosauria, We, but based on that, I would imagine he doesn’t actually warrant the kind of disapproval he seems to get.

A Direction for the Class to Be Directed in By Direction.

Before deciding what direction is appropriate for the class, the goals of the class need to be clearly defined.  Because everyone intends to gain something different from the class, setting a direction for the entire group and expecting everyone to follow is impractical. The unified goal of everyone in the class would most likely be to pass the class, but since that can be done without meeting the goals of those in the class that intend on learning something, perhaps it isn’t the best goal on which to base the direction of the class. On a more serious note, I would enjoy going over more of the schools of thought of the Age of Enlightenment as well as classical and Eastern philosophies. I think that the more modern (or even perhaps futuristic in regards to thoughts on a post-apocalyptic world) thoughts we’ve gone over need perspective only granted through knowledge of such things. On a less serious note, I think the direction the class most needs is left. Left is a good direction.