March Monthly Blog

My home computer = Nicer font. Good to know. Anyway, for this monthly blog, I wanted to expand upon the idea of the Faustian Bargain, made famous by Christopher Marlow and Johann Faustus. I think that the Faustian Bargain need not necessarily be with a great evil, in fact it could be defined as simply selling one's soul or ideals in the ultimate short term gain, long term loss scenario. Dorian Gray was an example of such a bargain, and it ultimately drove him to commit suicide. Dorian made no pact with the devil, never signed his name in a contract written in his own blood, and yet he was destroyed just as certainly (but perhaps not as infinitely) as Herr Doctor Faustus was. Dorian Gray made the choice of a short term gain of 20-ish years of hedonism in exchange for committing suicide at the end, basically. In Christian religions, those who commit suicide do not go to heaven, so in a sense the Faustian Bargain is exactly what Dorian Gray made, only a more subtle, fine-print-y sort of bargain. The issue I have with this in my modern life is with college loans. I hate the idea of being in debt to somebody, especially in debt for enough money to buy me a very nice car, but it looks like theres nothing I can do about that, and I just have to hope my girlfriend understands we can't have nice things for awhile. Mine is sort of a reverse Faustian Bargain. I am selling myself now to try and obtain a future, instead of selling my soul later to enjoy the now. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. In my opinion, Faustian Bargains are a good way to ask for trouble, whether you want it or not. Unfortunately, our society enjoys making such bargains as necessary as possible, such as with Obamacare (Affordable Care Act to be precise, but both sides of the aisle are quoted as calling it Obamacare, and frankly it's catchier than ACA) and other political movements. We don't get to decide a middle ground anymore in our country, that time is passed. Now it seems like there is no gray area, it's all black and white. I keep coming back in my mind to the story of the young woman in Texas who was denied admission to a college because she was white, and the college had a racial quota to fill for black and/or latino students imposed on them by the government. I have no problem with educating youth, but by picking which youth to educate, we are making a Faustian Bargain as a country. We are selling our citizens of today to try and improve the hopeful citizens of tomorrow, without the say of either party being involved. What happened in Texas is wrong, discrimination is no answer for discrimination, but it seems Faust is at work once again, this time in America rather than an unnamed state in Germany.

February Monthly Blog

Okay it looks like this can only be written in HTML for some reason on school computers, so hope this works. Anyway, this monthly blog's main focus is going to be the changing culture in the middle east, including Afghanistan and Iran. The point I would like to prove is that times have changed in many ways since this book was written even, never mind the differences between now and the Cold War era. This connects to the A Thousand Splendid Suns book which we read in that times have changed. Ever since the events of Arab Spring in Egypt and elsewhere, the culture of the Middle East has changed drastically in the western end of the region. Many of the old fundamentalist laws and ways are starting to disappear. Many countries such as Egypt, Iraq, and others are embracing the changes of these laws in favor of a more liberal (although highly conservative by our standards) approach. More liberal, westernized countries such as Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Kuwait have already embraced such changes over the past few decades and continue to do so today. Afghanistan is finding itself more and more liberated from Taliban rule (although with the withdrawal of U.S. forces, this freedom is not likely to last), and with their newfound freedom are starting to embrace changes, particularly in gender differences regarding the proper actions of women in the country. I think that it is good that these countries are embracing a slightly more liberal mindset, but I do not think that they should ever consider a completely American system of rules and laws. Right now it isnt even doing us any favors, and we're the ones who invented it. The Middle East is a naturally tense region with many ethnicities and nations conflicting on a day-to-day basis, including the ever-present threat of nuclear war from Iran. These countries need a firm, but gentle hand to lead them into the 21st century. Some changes in laws are good, but to go too far would cause even more chaos than exists now, and this would likely lead to multiple wars in the region.

January Blog Post

Okay, let's try it this way. For some reason my computer doesn't want to type it in "Compose" mode this time. The issue I would like to present with my monthly blog this time is the issue of society versus self. I think that there is a common misconception in modern society. The misconception is that a person must choose between society and self in terms of family and work or wants and needs. For example, look at Kristine (or however that's spelled) in A Doll's House. She says that because she had to work, she decided she didn't have time for a family. That and her husband died. She decided that if she couldn't be a wife, she had to work. But she says that she wanted to be a part of society in a way at the same time. In this case, Kristine chooses to be both herself and a part of society, because their interests coincide. There seems to be a modern dilemma in this, that one cannot be part of society and an individual person. One must pick one or the other to be in life and live by that decision. In my case, I don't have much in the way of a life outside of school, but part of that is by choice and part by necessity. I don't work, so I don't have as much money, but I've never had to work because I don't have as many things to spend that money on. I have pretty much everything I need. So I can choose to be myself if I want, but at the same time I realize there will come a day when I do have to work and provide for myself, and I prepare for that by conforming to society's demands that I go through the pure waste of time (in my mind) that is applying for scholarships to go to college. If education is so important at a college level, why do we limit ourself in terms of what it takes and how much it costs to get in? I personally believe that there should be no forced choice between society and self. People can be as much or as little a part of both worlds as they choose. Looking at Edna's decision in The Awakening to ignore her children for fear of giving up her identity, quite frankly I think she's missing the point. Why should she have to give up her identity? Her identity is part of what allows her to give up everything including her life. She is her own person by making such moral choices as that, granted that she is only her own person when she herself makes that choice. Besides, she has a clear obligation as a human being to go to the aid of another if it is within her power. I think that Edna decided that she could only be one of two things: herself or what society wanted for her. I think that the fact that she never realized she could possibly combine the two under the right conditions (in Alaska for example) that ultimately drove her to commit suicide. Society and self are two halves (or whatever proportion it may be) of a whole, of a person, and I think we as a society are starting to forget that. Similar to politics, we decide that it can only be one way or the other. We convince ourselves that there can be no middle ground in this regard, and I think we as a society are poorer for it.