Friday, February 11, 2011
Mubarak Resigns
I just heard Egypt's president Mubarak resigned. It's amazing to think about the effects this could have on the world. When the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the fear of change, you'll change. Especially when you are being oppressed by the government. It's in every mans personality to have a want to be free. But there are also several men out there who seem to have a never ending desire for power. If you look throughout history, you'll see how when there is a dictator or government that is trying to take away the freedom of the people, the people will eventually revolt against the oppressor and regain their freedom. For instance in the movie Braveheart. Braveheart is about the Scottish revolution against England. William Wallace (Braveheart) is a commoner in Scotland who's wife is brutally murdered by the English army. This pushes him to get together a Scottish army made up of inexperienced commoners and farmers in a revolt against England. Eventually Scotland wins their freedom but the most interesting thing is the men who died in the war. They died free men. It is better to fight or protest as free men then just sit back and let your freedom slowly die away. The minute you start to fight for your freedom, you become free. The biggest advantage the people fighting for their freedom have, is the fact that they are fighting for something. Their heart is involved along with their whole life. Which is why the inexperienced Scotts and the inexperienced Americans, both in different wars, could both win their freedom. Unlike the English army, which was just made up of paid soldiers who were there just for the pay check, the outnumbered Americans and Scotts won because they were fighting for a deep belief and a chance for freedom. Basically they were fighting to live. When it comes to Mubarak's resignation, thousands of people fought for their freedom and won. If you don't have something to believe in or fight for, and you just let life happen to you, you might as well be dead. You don't really start to live until get out in the world and accomplish or change something for the better. It doesn't have to be big, it might just be making someone smile. But something as small as this can cause a ripple effect that can change the world. The only thing that you need for evil to win, is to have good people do nothing.
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You mention freedom a lot. According to Sartre and the existentialists is that, really no matter what you arealways free, there is always a choice, for example to flee from your country. Actually, Sartre says that to kill yourself is a perfectly fine choice. So I ask you, if men are damned to eternal freedom,(and this is mostly accepted)what are these people really fighting for? This can bring us to Rousseau, saying that "The government must represent the will of the people" what they are really fighting for is a voice, a chance to be heard and fairly represented. Good insight though.
ReplyDeleteThese men are fighting for the right to live without someone else forcing them to live without a say over how they live their life. Although people should have a leader, that does not give the leader the right to do whatever he wants. The leader should listen to the people and work to gain their trust. Freedom is basically the freedom to choose what you as a person wants to do. You may say that in circumstances of oppression people are free to kill themselves, but then they are just ignoring God's greatest gift and refusing their responsibility to deal with the problems of life. To commit suicide is just a copout.
ReplyDeleteWhat I mean by the mention of the Sartre argument is just outlining the philosophical context brought on by the use of the word freedom. I agree with the revolutions, because i agree with what Rousseau said (prior comment). That being said, I would rather not bring any notion of god into this issue, primarily because I am an atheist, but also because imposing any religious value to the circumstances of the middle-eastern people is reminiscent of Imperialism (which sparked revolutions itself)and seems to impose other ideology upon the middle-eastern people.
ReplyDeleteWhen I bring up God I am not imposing any religious value but rather referring to the widespread belief that we were created. Middle-eastern people believe they were created. As does Darwin who said that the idea that the eyeball could evolve was enough to dispense with his own theory of evolution. When Darwin came up with his theory, he was shaking his fist at God because he could not believe that a loving God could possibly allow his daughter to die at the age of five. The deeper you get into science the more you will realize that evolution is just not possible. Geneticists will tell you that if any evolution is going on, we are losing genetic information not gaining it. Dna can not write dna which any scientist worth their salt will tell you. This leads us to believe that if we are only losing information then at one time we were of higher genetic code. To deny the existence of God or a creator you must be able to explain where we come from. Looking at anything that lives, it always has a beginning and an end. And since evolution is scientifically impossible, then where did we come from and how did our universe begin?
ReplyDeleteTo that extent Adam, the belief of creationism has been decreasing in terms of believers. As for creation of the universe, the big bang is a defensible position. But until anybody can prove the existence of god, the question of creationism is off the table.
ReplyDeleteSorry for getting in on this so late, but I am reading an interesting book called, "Ishmael" and the first couple of chapters relate to your discussion. The narrator tries to establish that all of society's explanations, creation as well as evolution are 'stories'. He tries to unhinge his student(in this case) from his certainty about where we came from. I don't know why yet, but it is an interesting idea. We all have our stories of how this whole thing called life works. And I can see both of you have common ground at least in the idea of humanity and people wanting to make their own choices.
ReplyDeleteThe people under Mubarak couldn't criticize the gov. or they would be taken down an alley by police and beaten. Are we finally throwing off the chains of despotism and dictatorship? Can the information age put an end to tyranny? Or will we just enter another age of human enslavement? One thing I know for sure: honest and respectful discussions are part or the secret of success and you two are doing that!!!!
Adam, good blog so far. Maybe add some visuals if you want and remember to paragraph your writing. Keep up the good work! Mr. J.
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