Blogging Around

Harrison Marick - An Inconvenient Truth: Adult Superiority
Harrison discusses how elders do not take advice from him or listen to him even though he's right, and he gives an example where he called a limo company and they laughed that a 16-year-old was booking a limo.

My comment:
I think this is a very valid point you made. I used to feel the same way, as my parents and elders also hesitate take advice from me. I feel I am right a lot of the times and although 'they are older and wiser' and they know 'much more than me', they refuse to listen to me and regard themselves as my superior.

And then I realized how they felt because I had conversations with kids younger then me who believed they knew what was right, for example my younger brother. He thinks he is right most of the time, when in fact I know I am right and later I find out that my assumption was correct. Now there have been a few times that he has been capable of doing things that I was not able to do, or if I was able to do it, he could do it slightly better. But sometimes you ignore a younger person in order to establish your superiority and acknowledge your own wisdom/intelligence.

Altogether, through years of trying to argue with my parents, I've discovered that when it comes to adult situations (for example dealing with money), their decisions usually triumph mine because they have more experience in that area. But we are the younger generation, and when dealing with a lot of other situations, we may have more expertise than our parents. And as you said, this 'class' between adults and children is inflexible, as parents are meant to be the wisdom-givers and not the wisdom-receivers, and I don't think it's going to change anytime soon.

Ben Wolch- Best of Week: Cliché
Ben discusses how even though clichés have a negative connotation, they sometimes are dead on. The utility of clichés outweighs all negativity. He uses the metaphor that just as a movie has music, a novel has clichés; they're crucial to putting the reader in the situation.

My comment: This post brings up a really great point. It's a cliché on clichés. And after reading this, I began to think: isn't all of life just a cliché. Everything we do, someone else has been through the same thing. Life is just a routine, passed down from generation to generation. Take the book Our Town for example, which wonderfully portrays this concept. Life has three 'milestones' birth, marriage, and death. Aren't these all clichés, done by nearly everyone? Happiness, obstacles, relationships, life passing and going, enemies, etc.; they're existent in everyone's life. Sure, a cliché is an overused phrase or opinion, but whether or not you use a cliché phrase, the overlooking notion is cliché in and of itself.

As you mentioned, clichés generally have negative connotations, but they are sometimes dead on. They are used to express events in a more general concept. So why do we use clichés? Well, an author wants to connect to his/her reader, right?. I think that a cliché purposefully has this trite meaning because it assures the author that the reader will be able to connect to that feeling. Even if a person is not aware of a certain cliché, the general idea embellished upon by the cliché is usually familiar to all. So clichés are sometimes necessary to express a feeling in the simplest of ways.

It Matters: The Taliban

In class, while reading the Kite Runner novel, we discussed Afghanistan's history. Russia invaded Afghanistan, but the Taliban was able to rid Afghanistan of Russians and won the allegiance of the Afghans. Contrary to local belief, conditions did not improve but instead worsened after the 'Talibs' came to power. And when foreigners attempted to save Afghans from the harsh conditions, as fictionally portrayed in the character Amir, they met fierce resistance and their life was put a huge risk.

This situation is oh-so-familiar; as this recent article mentions, the Pakistani Taliban are planning to attack foreigners helping with flood relief efforts in the country, according to a senior US official. But this concept isn't exclusive to Afghanistan. As with many genocides such as the Holocaust or the genocide in Rwanda, other countries and the UN have tried to send help but the situation there is so hostile that people do not want to put their lives in jeopardy to save the victims of the genocide.

When a powerful figure comes to power inspired with negative ideas, he can change a country. Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taliban, believed that he could end the lawlessness in the country and make a positive effect on the country. In fact, he has done just the opposite. As of now, the US is sending thousands of dollars into Afghanistan, along with many troops teaching Afghans how to defend themselves from the Taliban. The US is trying to set up a stable government in Afghanistan, since the Taliban is the only major power there. In the Kite Runner, it was almost impossible for Amir to adopt Sohrab and bring him to the US because Afghanistan had no legal records. This is all because there is no central government. This shows that in order for a country to remain peaceful, there needs to be a strong central power with no corruption, especially at the head of it. Afghanistan has fallen into this hole, and it may take years to get out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11092868

Best of Week: The Worth of Blood

This week we had many discussions about the book Kite Runner, and there seemed to be this recurring idea of the role of 'blood' (or bachem in Arabic) and lineage and familial honor in the book. In particular, our class came to a conclusion that blood played a bigger role in the Eastern world than in the Western world, especially when it comes to marriage.

Amir's wife Soraya complained how she had to stay abstinent until marriage or you would be looked upon as a 'whore', whereas in America it is not uncommon to have sex before marriage. As Baba mentioned, in the Eastern world women try to marry a wealthy husband, and although Amir propositioned the idea of marrying Soraya, arranged marriages were not uncommon during the time.

I believe that marriage is a right, and you should marry out of love and not out of greed. I find it ironic that in America, where marriage is conducted based on love, the divorce rate is much higher than in other countries where there are arranged marriages. A lot of times divorces end up being because of economic problems.

Blood was also brought up in reference to familiar honor. Baba was known throughout Afghanistan as strong, powerful, and influential; so when Amir could not stand up to his father's name, Baba was disappointed because Amir would hurt the family reputation. Baba refused to take food stamps in America in fear of being seen by a fellow Afghanistan for precisely the same reason. Amir longed for a child who shared his blood, because he wanted his name to carry on. In the Western world this familiar honor is present, but not as prominent as in the Eastern world.

Through many of our discussions this week based on the novel Kite Runner, I learned that blood is interpreted as various things in different areas around the world.

What If?: World Peace

What if there was no discrimination in the world, no wars, no violence, no hunger, and no people dying from the lack of health care? I hear a lot of people wish and dream for that, but is it really what we want? What would we gain from that? Would our society be even more advanced as a whole? Would it be Utopic, bland, morbid? Or would it actually be as people imagined it, where every one is content and satisfied? It seems like world peace is the ultimate goal that will never be fulfilled, but people will always strive for. A lot of times it seems to me that when you work hard for something and finally accomplish it, you get a false sense of temporary happiness, but eventually you feel that there is nothing left to endeavor. For example, when you finish reading a book or beat a video game, you sometimes wish that you could go back to when you were enjoying the book/game and you were anxiously awaiting the ending. You could reread the book or replay the game, but it's not the same. Middle-aged people often wish to retire due to stress from work, but then when they retire their lives feel empty as there is nothing ahead for them to wish for. Will our society ever get to a point where we advance so far that the only way to go is backwards, and so we start to "de-evolve"? I've also wondered if we did have a harmonious world, would we overpopulate so much that our society demands population control. There is only so much of the Earth we can deforest and use to build homes for people. Will peace and creation now lead to discord and destruction later? Creating peace now doesn't guarantee a pleasant end result. You sometimes wonder that if you changed the present, would the future be how you conceive it.