Krakauer's role in Into the WIld

When i read the part of Into the Wild where Jon writes his own life story that parallels to McCandlesses in certain ways i was not happy with it. This book and the story alone are extremely entertaining and dont need detours. His story in the middle of the book even his story about how he traveled to the bus just seem so irrelevant and only take away some of the intensity and flow of the story. It seems like hes trying to push an already great story to be something it doenst need to be. A great read, but the Krakauer influence definietly negetively influenced the story in my opinion.

How far is too far?

After reading the post on the main page about a device that can detect mental fluctuations, i started thinking about what determines how far certain things are taken? Yes, it has obvious benefits but i dont think it should be used frequently or ever. Its intruding on someones privacy and just seems un-ethical. knowing what people are thinking would only further press the issue on true freedom. Phone tapping and things like that are already being scrutenized and looked at as to whether or not theyre constitutional, i think that this "mind reading" device is in the same category and should not be permitted.

Into the Wild

Just reading the first 30 or so pages of Into the Wild ive been thinking a lot about what i read. The ideals and actions of Chris are extremely intersting to me and it gets me thinking that money and social status really dont always coerralte with happiness. It says he grows up in a upper-middle class, and wasnt satisfied with that lifestyle. I think this book relates to students at New Trier very well in that money and power isnt everything. Also, we all live in a pretty sheltered environment in that we dont see a lot of what else this world has to offer. The fact he travels by himself trusting and forming strong friendships wiht complete strangers is awesome to me. I think that Chris displays a extremely accurate perseption of how non-materialistic happiness can satisfy someone far more than all the money in the world.

U S Consutition

All this talk of whats acceptable and whats justified by the constitution, whats right..whats wrong, in my opinion has a relatively simple conclusion. The constittion, written hundreds of years ago by men far brighter and socailly intelligent than any one of us is sometimes undermined by people not looking far enough into it. The men who wrote it knew what they were doing. Theres a limit to what you can hide behind and what doesn't count. Whats claimed to be fair and not fair, just and unjust to me seems all completely fair, completely just. Restrictions under the constitution, protection under the constitution, both are legitimate contrasts to everyday questions by US citizens. The men who wrote it, the founders of this country didnt scrible down a few words and called it a day. Much thought and care was put into the document that is the foundation of this nations proclamation of its peoples rights. Loop holes are plentiful, but usually in the hands of the right people. Deeming the constition unfair or beleiving anything you do can be protected by it is an untrue determination.

Art

After traveling to Chicago for our field trip and interpretting art it got me wondering is that the way the artist would want us to interpret it? A simple interpretation of a paintng is that the artist made it that way becuase he thought it looked best, he had no special meaning. I believe that overthinking artwork sometimes leads to untrue conclusions. Most artwork has some sort of reasoning behind it, but perhaps not all. Then again, ugly artwork such as Picasso's work(in my opinion) is seen as pointless and with no meaning to me. But someone who interprets it differently, is the kind of person that makes his abstract, hard to follow artwork masterpieces. The point of this post is that i believe the beuty of art has nothing to do with the skill of the artist, but the mass interpreation of the people that view it.

Freedom

A lot of talk about what it truly means to be free, and questions on constitutional sway in perilous times got me thinking is our country truly a free one? Obviously America provides oppurtunities for people found no where else in the world. But overall the "free" country we live in is willing to simply throw the freedom of its citizens out the window during perilous times. If a sniper was capable of hitting the bullseye of a target from a mile away 10 times in a row, but when being shot at, could never hit the target...would that be someone you could rely on in battle? This relates to America, sure freedom and constituaional rights are blossoming during times of peace or little threat. But In past events such as WWII, Japanese internment camps stripped the freedom of Japanese americans. In recent times, phone tapping is also a violation of privacy and freedom. Is America truly a country every citizen of every nationality can feel free and obliged to their rights as an American?

Perilous times

arent all time perilous times? cant everything go wrong at anytime? your whole world can come crashing down at any moment. After seeing the movie American Gangster, it was quite evident that one could go from everything to nothing in a very short amount of time. This relates to perhaps the world as a whole. 9.11 is a great example of how a countries world can be turned upside down in a matter of a couple hours. That said, its scary thinking the world as we know it can be over or ruined by something like a nuclear war. Perilous times are among us, time will be perilous aslong as terrorists roam, and fighting is possible. Basially theres no escaping the fate of the world, theres no escaping perious times, the world is a mercilous bomb that we live upon oblivious to the reality of constant danger and death.

history

As we do projects based on historical events, especially american wars, it gets me thinking about how anything will ever stop. When will the last war be? When will guns and bombs be unesecary? Never is what i believe, and that coerrlates to my belief in self destruction. I believe feuds created amongst all countries will end up in a nuclear war, completly innihlating the world as we know it. A meteor made the dinosaurs extinct, we r going to exterminate ourselves. The strive for world peace is an unrealistic one. Human aggression and anger can never be quarentined, its just a matter of time until we ruin ourselves in my opinion.

False promises

All we know is, Craig's opening line from today's news conference at which he -- again, and repeatedly -- denied that he's gay will surely make the late-night comedy rounds. Craig's opener: "Thank you for coming out today."-Mary Ann Akers writes on the controversy over the incident with Senator Craig. All over the news is the incident in which Senator Craig was caught in a bathroom in an airport, a notorious gay pick up spot, Craig was caught hinting towards a police officer that he wanted to partake in gay activity. Now, my point is that no matter how many marches are held, no matter how many laws are passed, prejudices will forever remain as long as we live The way people conduct prejudice today is merely a silenced version of the past. Beliefs of parents are passed down to their children who will continue to pass it to their own children. Just because slavery is abolished and there arent as many open displays of prejudice, it still remains. My example is the Craig case. What does it matter if hes gay? Why is it such a bad thing for his career? The answers simple, some prejudice people would rather vote for a straight senator than a gay one no matter what. The fact he was caught attempting to pick up a guy in a bathroom should not matter. Bill Clinton had multiple affairs yet they were straight, so it makes it okay. If the senator was seen going into a hotel room with some other women, no one would think twice its the fact he was picking up a guy is what stirred everything up.

Mistakes

As i was reading the crucible and thinking about all the outrageous reasons people have been killed throughout the history of this world, it got me thinking. The mistakes of the Holocaust and all other genocides shape the world we live in today. But similar to the debate on memory erasing, id like to suggest the Pros/cons of a time machine. If someone could go back in time to stop or lessen horrific events, would/should it be allowed? I think that there is no way it should be allowed. In other posts ive backed up opinions by saying everyhing happens for a reason, and horrific events are no exception. I think everything thats happened up until now, and everything that will continue to happen is based on fate. That said, mistakes as outrageous as accusing someone as having the devil in them, or being a witch, shape the world we live in today and should not be messed with. If you dont agree, watch the Back to the Future movies and see what a time machine could do..

Be Good, Smile Pretty

The movie we watched in class was very intersting and really got me thinking. I thought about the memories podcast, and that memories get worse/ less accurate as time goes on. When i was watching the movie, it was obvious that the memories of Dons death never was just forgotten, it never got easy. 30 years later the grief the mom endures is still just as great if not greater than it was before. Another thing wiht the movie is that the impact of war on families is not always documented in such a way. Seeing the impact of one person towards his family puts in persective the millions of people that have been killed in wars, and the seemingly ungratefulness towards the gift of life all humans disrespect

Memory

After reading over severall of my classmates posts concerning the podcast of memory i saw a common trend in debating if its right or wrong to use a drug to erase certain memories. A word i saw used was unnatural, when i hear that it makes me think of the debate concerning abortion. Although my opinions sway from time to time concerning abortion and now also this drug, my underlying theory is that the human mind determines what is natural or not. It is natural humans have researched and found such things as having an abortion or this memory drug, hence making it natural to use them. Saying it is not ok to use a drug humans created for our own benefit is like saying its unnatural to use vaccines for preventing deseases. If one says its unnatural to rule out a bad memory, isnt it the same as saying its unnatural to use a vaccine preventing a disease? Both are for our benefit, right? Wouldnt "erasing" a disease change your life just as erasing a bad memory would?

Government Conspiracy

After 9/11 i have been thinking a lot about that war and secrets tied to t. After watching "24" for years, governement conspericy has been a hot topic on my mind. I constantly think of different ways the government can twist and turn our society without the people knowing. For example, Saudi Arabia is a extremely important financial partner to the U.S. Consiquently, before the war, Iraq was constantly attacking Saudi Arabia. A possible conspiracy could be the U.S. saying our invasion of Iraq was becasue of possible weopons of mass destruction, but the real reason is our allegiance to Saudi Arabia and necessary defense of them could be covered by simply saying we were just trying to find some nukes.

Indian Reservations

Over the summer we all read a book about a group of Indians struggling to make it in the music world. The fact they live on a Indian reservation made none of us think twice. I just want to take a step back and think about the whole idea of Indian reservations. Basically, we conquered northern Ameria without the consent of the Natives. If you look today at the reservations given to the natural inhabitants of this land, its proposturous. The reservations are not only isolated ghettos, but land Indians are socialy forced to live on.

Secret Messages

Our lives are full of deception and cruelty, messages portrayed by the media, government, or just your everyday man often contain secret meanings. These secret messages are sometimes just stereotypes or assumptions.

For example, someone who is drinking a Fiji water is just an obvious observation. But, the hidden message that could be thought by others is that the person drinking the water is spoiled, and ignorant to the value of money and necesitty to manage it responsibly.