~My Random Thoughts~

I think responsibility comes from many different places. I think an individual can have responsibility because of their age and the society they live in, but they can also have responsibility because of the advantages that they have because of what other’s left for them. The article, ‘The Next Generation’ talks of descendants of famous peace-keeping people, such as Martin Luther King and Pierre Trudeau’s children. Such individuals probably feel the responsibility to try and improve society more than the average individual. They would have been brought up with knowledge that other’s must strive harder for. This moves more into the advantages column. Such individuals would have responsibility because of the age and state that society is in today, but also because of the advantages that their ancestors left for them. It would be easier for them to introduce a concept or idea about bettering society because everyone knows their ancestors so many would assume that the children/grandchildren could just continue on the peace-keeping tradition. Such responsibility could prove to be a hardship, but in this article it seems that everyone involved has the ability and desire to step up to the plate.

I found a video that talks about how men killed themselves and the animals had taken over the world. It’s a cartoon so I just couldn’t resist, and it brought across the point of why peace on Earth is so important for society. What I found even more interesting was that on the page a comment was made that only a few years after this video was made (It was made in 1939), the atom bomb was invented, a whole new way to wipe humanity off the Earth.

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I think that everyone can only do what they believe they can do. I think that everyone is capable, and the only limit is their doubts. Self doubt is a very strong tool that can be used for good or bad. People can rise above their station in today’s world and strive to better society. I have a cousin who was raised with a small family in a city, had a regular education and a normal Political Science degree in University. He worked for the Canadian government briefly before going to New York City to work for the United Nations. I believe that everyone can rise to better society if they truly want to. Working for peace in our nation and around the globe is not an unattainable goal. People need to remember that it isn’t the age where no one can rise above their station. Everyone can rise if they truly believe. There’s a poem I’ve always enjoyed entitled ‘Everybody, Somebody, Anybody & Nobody’. It talks of how so many doesn’t act because they are sure someone else will and I believe this happens a lot in society. Everyone believes that someone else will help society, that they couldn’t possibly do it themselves. (To read the poem, click here.)

I believe that it’s important to worry about what goes on in our own nation according to poverty and health problems before turning to those in other countries. If our country can’t help them, how can we be expected to help anyone else? I’m not saying that we turn a blind eye to the other countries, just that we worry more about what’s going on inside before worrying about what’s going on around us. Once our country is stable, we are more apt to help others. How can we go around pointing fingers at others not taking proper care of their citizens when we don’t either? It’s my belief that this country should be first and foremost with the rest of society a very close second.

At one point or another, everyone doubts themselves. It’s a part of human nature, but it’s also a fact that some do it more than others. Maybe it’s a part of who they are or maybe not. Some people seem more confident; while other’s continuously doubt themselves. I know that I often doubt myself. I’ll be proud of an assignment or a goal I’ve reached, but when I suddenly see something that a friend has done all of a sudden none of that matters. All of a sudden, I start to feel that I truly cannot do it. Another reason that I often doubt myself is the fear of failure. I find myself contemplating the reasons that I can’t do it, until it gets to the point that I truly believe I can’t. Self doubt goes hand-in-hand with procrastination. The more a person doubts themselves, the more likely they are to procrastinate. Personally, this is one of the largest reasons that I procrastinate. I become scared of the possible consequences and decide that it might be better not to do it at all. Self doubt causes a series of problems, ones that just increase and build upon one another. One of the results is failure. Those who continually doubt themselves often fail, maybe because they never start or maybe because they don’t do their best. This only feeds upon their self doubt. The more one fails or even thinks’ he/she fails, the more one starts to think that they can’t do anything right. It’s a vicious circle, one that can have dangerous consequences such as depression, feelings of self-worthlessness and more. However, it is a cycle that can be broken. I’ve been told that positive thinking can break one out of the cycle of self doubt, and I’ll admit that I was skeptical to say the least. I mean, how could positive thinking help at all? But I found that the more positive one was, the easier it is to be positive. It’s like the common adage that by saying ‘Can’t; you’re closing off your mind and preventing yourself from success.’ I was once told that instead of thinking why I can’t do something, I should think of how I could make it work. Many don’t realize it, but solutions people deem impossible are found because that person refused to believe there was no solution. It’s like Henry Ford said “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

Below is a video concerning the power of self doubt. It talks about how one can bring upon feelings of self worthlessness. It’s supposed to be an ironic video because most show how one can bring about positive feelings. As I was reading the comments, a couple mentioned that as they listened to this video they heard the opposite. Only the positive. (I contemplated whether or not to put this video on my blog because it was kind of opposite of what I was looking for, but I thought the ending was quite funny. So here it is!)

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Maybe if everyone could learn positive thinking, self doubt would seize to exist. (Click here to read an article regarding overcoming self doubt.) However, I do believe that it plays an important part in small doses. It causes people to think twice and choose the wiser decision.

Despite beliefs that empathy and sympathy are closely related, they aren’t. I can sympathize with Hamlet’s character, but I cannot empathize with him. He comes home to mourn for his father only to discover that his uncle has married his mother, no one is really mourning anymore and Denmark has become scorned by their neighbors. I understand his anger and sadness because of the whole affair. They are common human qualities that everyone has; his reason’s for them not so much. I’ve always been a fairly sympathetic person and can often feel another’s pain, embarrassment, shame, etc. I find that I can sympathize with Hamlet, especially his secrecy. He feels like he has no one to talk to, the only one he has is Horatio. I understand his need to feign madness and think that I would have done the same. There’s always the ever-nagging question in this play: Is Hamlet really mad? (Click here to read an article concerning the belief’s of many critics on Hamlet’s madness). I can even understand if he has gone mad, keeping a secret like the one he does would be enough to drive anyone crazy.

If put in his place, what would I do? I’ve always found this to be a somewhat stupid question. When I try to answer a question like this, I always end up with more questions than answers. I mean, how I can really know what I would do. I’d love to say that I would have killed Claudius at the first possible moment and have saved all those innocent lives, but I can’t say that. Everyone would love to say they’d do ‘this’ or maybe ‘this’, but how can one really know until they’ve been put in the situation? A common comment is ‘To walk a mile in their shoes’, but I’ve always thought that even when you do, you still don’t truly understand that person. So how can I truly know what I’d do in Hamlet’s situation? I’ve procrastinated more times than I can count, but never have the result of my procrastination’s been so deadly. However, when my soul is at question like Hamlet’s was, would I have been able to continue? It’s a question that bothers everyone at some point in their life, their ability to continue, and probably always will!

Below is a video of Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy, “To Be Or Not To Be”. It summarizes the reasons that Hamlet procrastinates in his choices, but not everyone has reasons like these. Hamlet, at least, has true reason to question his path!

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Procrastination is defined as the ability to put off doing something, usually out of habitual carelessness or laziness. The most famous line from a procrastinator is ‘I’ll do it tomorrow!’ The problem always ends up being that tomorrow never comes; it always ends up being today. Procrastination proves to be a large problem when it comes to fate. In the play Hamlet by Shakespeare, the main character ends up dying as a result of his tendency to over-think and talk himself out of his plans. Hamlet considered that he may have been destined to die while killing the King, but many of the innocent people shouldn’t have. If Hamlet hadn’t killed Polonius, Ophelia probably wouldn’t have gone mad, meaning she wouldn’t have fallen into the river, meaning that Laertese wouldn’t have felt the need to avenge both his father and sister’s death’s, meaning that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern would never have been sent to England with a note employing their immediate death’s, meaning that the Queen wouldn’t have taken a drink from the poisoned wine, and finally Laertese would never have been stabbed by his own anointed sword. In this play, Hamlet’s procrastination caused the death of eight people, including himself, instead of just the King.

So, if procrastination causes such a huge problem, then why do we do it? Why can’t we learn from our mistakes and learn just how harmful procrastination is to us? I think one of the reasons is because of our being human. Because we’re human, we’re terrified of failure. The best way to avoid failure is to not do what we’ve been commanded to, whether by ourselves or others. As we contemplate failure, our mind comes up with other reasons why it’s such an awful idea to continue. Hamlet is a perfect example of this; if Hamlet could only have forgotten heaven/hell, the consequences of what he’s doing, and everything else that plagued his mind at the time, it would have been no problem to kill Claudius. Hamlet also ties in with the cause of indecision. Humans spend so much time trying to do the right thing that it ends up being too late to do it at all. They start something, and then change their minds. Common excuses are “It’s not the right time”, “It’s not good enough, I could do so much better”, “If I wait longer, things will fall into place” and so many others. But the problem is that procrastination never helps, it only makes things worse. Yet, no matter how hard humans try to grasp this idea, procrastination still occurs on a daily basis. (Click here to read an article titled ‘The Problem of Procrastination’.) The video below is comical encouragement for us to stop procrastinating and do what we should now! Maybe this is who we all need with us when we contemplate procrastinating again.  

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Human relationships are one of the most important aspects of life; everyone wants to be loved and accepted. However, I’d say that human relationships are far from predictable. So many factors can affect a relationship status. A family can fall apart over something as simple as an argument that no one is willing to bend on, or as complex as a death. A relationship between man and wife can fall apart over something like money matters, or adultery. Human relationships take work to keep together. Lover, trust, respect and the ability to compromise are needed to keep a relationship alive. So many marriages and relationships fall apart because the foundation they thought was stable turns out to be nothing more than lies and deceit, especially in today’s society. When a man and wife first get married, they expect to spend their lives together. ‘Through better or worse; until death do us part.’ But look at the statistics; one in three marriages eventually ends in divorce. There’s also the relationship between father/mother and their children. When a parent has a child, he/she is never expecting that when that child moves out, he/she will never talk to them again. But in some causes, that’s exactly what happens. With so many factors playing a part in keeping a relationship whole, how could anyone say that they are predictable?One of the main reasons that relationships are unpredictable is the people involved in them. Many find themselves falling in love with those they never looked at twice before. Or sometimes a friend will all of a sudden become more. In the video below ‘Teardrops on my Guitar by Taylor Swift’, she falls in love with her best friend and wants nothing more than to be noticed by him. However, he doesn’t notice her so she’s left watching him in relationships with other girls, wishing she could be them.

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Another great example of the people involved in relationships is in Twilight, the page-turner by Stephenie Meyers that I’ve grown to love. Bella, being human, and Edward, being a vampire, hardly seem the ideal couple and because of it their relationships is highly unpredictable. One moment they both doubt the other’s love, the next they’re happy in bliss, yet in another heartbeat Edward leaves Bella because he believes that it’s what is best for her. Unpredictability in relationships is the reason that so many romance novels sell, so many chick flicks have countless numbers of young girls sighing over the ‘perfect guy’ and so many songs hit number one. The perfect story always seems to be the one that ends up with the couple ending up together despite obstacles and the unpredictability for their relationship. However, some stories tell a sadder tale; of the relationship that didn’t make it. The lyrics of ‘The Dance by Garth Brooks’ happens to be one of my all time favorites because of the story in it. The music is beautiful, the piano adding a sadly, romantic note to the song. (To see the lyrics of this song, click here.) Some relationships make it, but others don’t. Is it this unpredictability that makes so many happy in their relationship, looking forward to what the future might have in store for them, or is it an individual’s ability to hide behind illusion, believing nothing will change?

What’s more important to protect? Society’s Rights or the Individuals.

 I’ve always been a little unsure when it comes to this topic. I mean there’s no doubt about it that societal rights need to be protected for the safe-keeping of all individuals, but at the same time if individual rights are to be violated all the time, what kind of society are we living in? For this debate, my partner Aaron and I had to defend societal rights. Having done so, I do believe that societal rights are important, but the main defense for them is that sometimes the individual must be sacrificed for the greater good. I believed in this old-age adage until I found a video talking about Collectivism vs. Individualism. The first video below was introducing the topic while the second video below was the second part of five and had most interesting arguments, especially for individualism. The one defense for individualism was that all individuals are part of the whole and through sacrificing one individual, the group is being sacrificed. All that a group is would be individuals who are united for a common cause/belief. Without these individuals, groups wouldn’t exist. So how can group rights be more important to protect than individual rights?

CLICK HERE TO VIEW INTRO VIDEO

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SECOND PART VIDEO

However, if we don’t protect society it will fall into chaos. Sometimes individual rights overstep themselves and those who could be dangerous to society are allowed to roam free. How can this be allowed? If we allow all those rights to prove as a defense against court trials, arguments and such, then imagine how society will take a turn for the worse. If those who are dangerous to society are allowed back into it, then the group is being potentially sacrificed when it is they who are innocent. How does one balance individual rights against those of society? In doing this debate, I discovered how truly difficult this task is. I found an article that talked about ‘Individual and Societal Rights Colliding’ in regards to treating mental illness as a crime. (To read this article, click here.)This article talks about balancing individual rights against those of society. It also mentions how this balancing act still hasn’t been mastered in many places, the United States and Canada included.

Everyone would like to be able to do what is right, truly right, but not many can say that they do. In this story, Orwell’s reaction is very similar to that of almost every human in the Universe. Peer pressure/the pressure of a crowd are very intimidating factors that can cause everyone, but the strongest individuals to end up doing what they would rather not. The fact that Orwell did what he disagreed with does not make him a weak individual, but rather human. Comparing my reaction to Orwell’s is more difficult than I initially thought. Thinking about it in the beginning, I said that I would do what I believed to be right, no matter what, but now I’m unsure. Sure I’ve caved to peer pressure, I mean who hasn’t, but it has never been anything as serious as Orwell’s situation. Shooting an elephant that is not doing anything is something I strongly disagree with. When reading the story, I believed Orwell to be in the wrong. (Click here if you would like to read the story.) There is also the factor of identity versus duty. If my sense of identity demanded it of me I think I’d be more willing to continue than if it was just duty that demanded such a thing of me. But by doing something I so strongly disagree with, I’d be changing my identity and, in my eyes, not for the better. There is also the factor of endangering my life in a situation where I felt it would be wrong to continue. In the story, if Orwell hadn’t shot the elephant what would the people have done or what if the elephant had charged him? I strongly believe that a person should follow their gut instinct, but in a situation where that particular individual’s life is in danger, would I really have followed my gut instinct either? But if I hadn’t, in a situation like this, would I rather that I had and be left dying? I know that sounds extreme, but I believe in some cases that it’s better to die than to compromise your identity/personality so greatly that you can hardly live with what you’ve done. In writing this, I haven’t really answered the true question. What would I have done in Orwell’s situation? And I don’t believe that I can answer the question until I am in such a situation. I as an individual do truly believe that some things are worth dying over, which is why I can almost understand suicide bombing. Not that I believe in it, but I can understand the reasoning behind those that do. I honestly believe that in some situations the right choice is to endanger yourself rather than to go against what you believe in, but like I said, how can I know until I’ve been in said situation? One situation where duty demands indivdiuals to continue is the Canadian soldiers in the Iraq war. They may disagree with their jobs, but they are forced to continue. Below is a video of Canadian soldiers. In it, citizens are petitioning to bring the soldiers home. I believe this showed that sometimes an individual has little to no choice.

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All humans have common qualities; those that make us human, such as love and hatred, compassion and apathy. The fact that every person in the Universe has so many common qualities would make it seem that we are more alike than we are led to believe but in my opinion it’s how one acts upon those qualities that make us different. Its strange how differently people can feel about the same human qualities; let’s take love for example. When a woman is being abused by her spouse/boyfriend, she can manage to convince herself that he is doing it out of love and that is the reason that many women won’t leave him. But at the same time many a child grows up to become unbearably spoiled because his/her parent’s could not possibly raise a hand to spank him/her or utter a harsh word, once again done out of love. Another quality I believe to be a most common one is hatred. Some show hatred more obviously than others, but it is still there. Someone who bombs the U.S. Embassy because they hate the fact that the U.S. is continuously interfering in their affairs is showing this very human quality as much as a person who is unwilling to forgive a sibling for a past hurt. Honesty and dishonesty are another equal and opposite pair of human qualities. Some are more honest than others, maybe for the reason that they can’t manage to lie convincingly or because they don’t want to trick anyone. There isn’t a single person though who is completely honest or completely dishonest; everyone flips between the two eventually. Guilt is another common human quality that everyone shares. At one point or another, everyone will feel guilty about something. I know that I feel guilty about anything countless times throughout the day; whether it’s holding back from a friend or hurting a family member. Guilt is one of the characteristics that make us human. Without guilt, we would be like animals. Guilt makes us reflect on what we’ve done and how we could do better. It helps us to improve who we are and who we may become.

The video below, composed of father and son moments, is from the movie Click. This movie follows a hard-working husband who only wants the best for his family and buys a universal remote, but his remote starts programing itself according to his behavior and he ends up missing some of the most important parts of his life. I found it to have expressed many human qualities. Michael shows love, regret, sadness and shame. All emotions that every human being experiences throughout their life.

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These are only some of the basic human qualities that we all share. Some are better than others; we may strive for some, while we try to avoid others. I found a poem that shows  how an individual always strive to improve themselves, showing how he/she often wishes they could be the better person having only positive qualities, but that’s not possible. Where there is positive, there’s also negative. Everything in nature must balance out. (To read the poem, click here.) Other human qualities include acceptance, kindness, frustration and shame. Joy, respect, anger, patience, and jealousy. There are also qualities like tolerance, courage and insecurity. No matter a person’s identity, no matter who they are, all individuals have experienced the same human qualities. The things that not all individuals have experienced are the many different reactions to each and every quality. It’s what makes us unique.

Everyone measures their identity against something different. Some compare themselves to friends, idols or parents. Others may compare themselves to T.V. stars, models or artists. Still others, though more rare, hardly ever compare themselves at all, but instead accept who they are. I am, sadly enough, not in the latter category. I compare myself and, as much as I hate it, almost all the time. I’ll look at someone else and wish I had her hair, her personality or her wit. I’ll wish I had her charm, her easy-going nature, or her natural take-charge attitude. As a child, I used to measure my identity, or lack thereof, by how many people seemed to like me. If lots of people liked me then I must have a charming personality, but if only a few people liked me, then clearly I was lacking in some area. And the problem with this was that the more I analyzed myself, the less I liked myself. I started to wish I was more like my friends, my cousins, actresses on T.V. or just about anyone, but me. And in today’s world, this is how many young people measure their identities; by comparing themselves to those who aren’t real, such as T.V. stars and heroines in books. I know because I was one of them. As a young child I always had my nose stuck in a book; I read during class, I read on the bus, I read in the car, I read while on horseback (Not even joking; if the book was good enough I’d take my most trust-worthy mare out and let her decide where she wanted to go!) and anywhere else I could manage. And when I was young, many said that this was a good thing. It would help me to learn and grow, but the problem no one seems to foresee is when the child starts to think that they should be more like their heroine. Sure this may appear a good thing to many, depending on the book or movie, but when a child starts to compare their identity to a heroine who has all the perfect qualities everyone looks for, the child is left lacking.  And this played a large part in my life when I was younger. I always wanted to be like the heroine in my books, the one that could solve any problem no matter how large or who could seem to ‘whisper’ to horses, and I felt their was something wrong with me when no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t be as charming or as hard-working as her. Now as a teenager, I realize that the heroines in books or movies aren’t the same as real people. They will almost always come out on top, while the real world does not always work that way. As much as I’d like to say that from that experience I’ve learned to accept myself as is, I cannot. I only learned that I cannot compare myself to fictional people, I can only compare myself to those in the real world. Although I still often find myself lacking, at least striving to be more like who I think has a ‘better’ identity than me, is possible. The poem called ‘Finding Your Identity’ (Click here to read the poem) displays an interesting theory that only when an individual finally stops comparing and contrasting themselves to other can they discover their full potential. Maybe there will come a day when people do not feel the need to compare and measure themselves, but maybe that is a part of realizing a person’s identity and how they are different than everyone else. I found a video labeled ‘What If We Didn’t Hate Ourselves?’ and believe that it brings across the message that comparing and measuring oneself to another isn’t doing us much good!

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Many people get their sense of self from the labels that others give them. When someone is told long enough who he or she is, they begin to believe it. Maybe this is how some people believe that they have more than one identity. When someone works long and hard to make others believe who they are is this, then it’s probably easy to fall into that particular identity even if in reality they feel that they are someone else. Recently, in the English B30 class, the students had to do an assignment on the labels they gave themselves and the labels that others gave them. When I was struggling to find labels for myself, I realized that many labels I gave myself contradicted those that others gave me. But I realized that many times I’ve struggled to fit into the labels that others give me. Instead of forcing others to accept me for me, I’ve subconsciously tried to force myself into becoming what others believe I am. I don’t doubt that many people do this; it’s the easiest way to ensure to be accepted by a group of people. By forcing oneself to fit into a particular label, a person is playing a large part in influencing his or her own identity. But forcing oneself to become someone different is not the only influence on a person’s identity. Influences on identity are infinite; every small factor playing a part in shaping that person, molding them to be the individual that fate may or may not have chosen for them. Maybe one of the largest factors on a person’s identity is the parent. Whether the parents’ realize it or not, they are influencing their child every minute they spend with them. As a young child, an individual will either strive to be like their parents’ or strive for something that they consider to be better. A parent can also greatly sway a child’s personality. By forcing responsibility on a child, the individual may become more responsible. By forcing them into difficult situations, the individual may learn that life isn’t fair and learn to help themselves. Children are born with a personality individual to each of them, but it is the parent that can help the child to make the best of it. A good example of identity influenced by parents is given in the poem ‘If a Child Lives With’. (Click here to read the poem.) Another large influence on a child is their learning environment and those in it, including teachers, classmates and the community. A child learns a lot from peers and teachers; depending on where the individual is and what he/she is allowed to get away with. A child that grows up in a smaller community has a limited number of possible friends and could end up closer with those he/she has because of it, or he/she could end up being quiet and shy. However, a child that grows up in a city is more likely to find friends that share their interests and values because they have so many more classmates. Another large influence in a person’s identity is their physical surroundings. Many may disagree on this one, but I believe that a person’s physical surroundings can play a large part in their interests and beliefs. I know that where I grew up played a large part in shaping and building my identity. Because I lived on a ranch I wasn’t into partying, constantly socializing, talking on the phone or gossiping. I enjoyed horseback riding, exploring the land and taking care of the cattle. I became accustomed to having to work for what I got instead of just having everything handed to me, like others. The final influence I will mention is the media. T.V, the radio, movies, books and magazines that all play a part in an individual’s life from childhood all the way to adulthood. The media sends children a message; that beauty is only skin-deep, that marriages don’t need to last, and that being skinny at all costs is important no matter what anyone tells them. Instead of going on, I found a video ‘Influences and Identity’ that explains how the media has become as large of an influence on the children in today’s society’s as any other. 

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I only briefly mentioned these influences that can greatly affect a person’s individuality, but they are infinite and it would be impossible to mention them all.