The Meaning of Life.

http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/03/17/george-lucas-meaning-of-life/
This link is to some excerpts on George Lucas's take on the meaning of life.


"The only reason for life is life. There is no why. We are. Life is beyond reason."

I agree with Lucas immensely. There is no meaning to life because life is meaning.  We cannot have meaning without life and we cannot have life without meaning. Life gives us meaning and that is good, that is okay. I am by no means saying that we should stop discussing the meaning of life, though. I think we would loose a lot if we just accepted that we could never figure it out. Part of life is trying, in vain, to figure it out. The meaning of life is to attempt to find meaning in it. So let's keep going, let's try to figure life out. It's totally futile but trying to find answers is what makes life worth living. It's scary because we can't assign meaning to everything, but we can figure some things out. We can choose to assign our own meaning to things when we feel it's necessary.

"If we have a meaningful place in this process, it is to try to fit into a healthy, symbiotic relationship with other life force. Everybody, ultimately, is trying to reach a harmony with the other parts of the life force. And in trying to figure out what life is all about, we ultimately come down to expressions of compassion and love, helping the rest of the life force, caring about others without any conditions or expectations, without expecting to get anything in return."

Once again, good ole George hit it right on the head. We should constantly be striving for a more loving and harmonious state. That is a huge undertaking, what more meaning do you need?

Thankful for a classmate (Emily Hawkins is the Bomb)

My blog topic is inspired by the the response I wrote to this prompt FRESHMAN YEAR for McCarthy's American Lit class. Emily and I were in that class together and I wrote about being thankful for her Freshman year so I feel like I have to Senior year as well. Not that I didn't want to.
Anyways if you wanna read my FRESHMAN YEAR post http://emilyismyhorcrux.blogspot.com/2011/11/thankfulness-emily-hawkins-is-bomb.html

Dear Emily, (this is how the OG post starts)

Thanks for being in my philosophy class. Even though you're leaving next semester to be a physical trainer for senior experience. Its whatever. I'm not mad about it. I'm really glad that I can still look at you in class and read your mind. (Didn't you sit behind me Freshman year also?) We were really mean then and we're even meaner now. I like it.

"I love the way you smell." That is a quote from my FRESHMAN YEAR blog post. So most of all I am thankful that we are not like our Freshman year selves. I'm really glad we grew and changed together and are even better friends now. I'm glad we still like nerdy things but its not the only thing we talk about anymore. I am thankful that we are still friends even though Freshman year was awful and we thought we were really cool but actually we were super lame. It makes me worry that I'm even lamer now then I realize.

"I am thankful you're alive and tolerate me"
-Gianna Clark, 2011

We still haven't figured this out yet!

I recognize that white men killing black are not the only murders that occur. I don't expect us to have eradicated murder, but I would have hoped that by now we could have stopped killing each other over skin color.

We still haven't figured out that a white man should not kill a black man. I can't list one victim without listing them all, so I'm not going to. Black people are senselessly being murdered because they are perceived as a threat based on their skin color. Racism is a huge issue and the civil rights movement was not all that long ago, it takes awhile for society to change- I get that. What I am appalled by is that we haven't figured out that every black man does not want to kill you, or rob you, or threaten you. Your hand should not twitch towards your holster when you see a hoodie. It's not just rogue red necks, it's our law enforcement. Men and women that are put in a position of power in order to keep us safe are instead making rash decisions based on fear and killing our children. A police officer should be the last person making snap judgement based on race- they should know enough, have seen enough. We should not have to wake up to another black man senselessly slaughtered.

Hate is so dangerous. Hate grows and festers until it is a part of you, until it is causing you to kill. We cannot let hate get that far.

Murder is a huge issue- I get that. Racism is a huge issue- I get that. But murdering someone you don't even know because of their skin- that's a huge issue that I expect us to solve.

I should not be begging white men not to kill black men in 2014, but I am.

How Do I Know What I Know?

How do I know what I know? I don't. Not really. Seriously though, I don't know much of anything. I think things and I feel things, but to me that doesn't equal real knowing. The closest I get is being pretty sure I know something. Like I'm pretty sure I know how to spell the word know but I can't really prove that I actually know how. It's entirely possible that I'm completely deluded and I'm just typing gibberish- or not typing at all. I can't prove that I'm not a little blob of slush with a crazy imagination that's just inventing everything I'm perceiving. But going through life constantly considering that I might not even be a person and that everything around me is a lie is not an okay for my mental health (at least I think I know that?), so I try to just assume that I am a person but remember that there are very few things I can actually prove.

Anyways, lets say that I do actually know some things. Most things I know because I have been told it by someone else and I have observed it for myself. Like I know that sometimes when people are angry they take that anger out on other people that are not at all related to why they are angry. This is a commonly accepted "fact" and I've been reminded of this since I was a kid but I have also seen people exhibit this behavior, so I have accepted it as a truth. An important part of knowledge is choosing what and when to accept something as a truth. A lot of people accept truths when they just hear it from reliable sources, but I think its important to make a conscious decision to accept something as a truth rather than not consider its validity.

Knowledge is a really, really hard thing to define and claim. I'm pretty skeptical of anyone that thinks knowledge is a certainty.

The Garden State

A garden is a happy place. A green, and warm place. A place teeming with life and possibility. Gardens take work and love and patience. You have to be willing to get your hands dirty, to spend hours hunched over in the hot sun. There is a particular pleasure that comes from having a garden. There's a beautiful harmony that comes from coaxing nature to do its thing in precisely the spot and way that you want it to.

A garden state should be simple yet interesting. It should take earnest work and diligent upkeep. A garden state can't grow amongst corruption, so it has to be WEEDED out. Yeah, I went there. But seriously- corruption and greed eats away at society. It may be natural but we have to keep it from growing out of control so that the beautiful and bountiful can thrive. A garden state should be small and thus easy to manage. The tending of the garden state should be done so that the state can grow as healthily as possible. Despite all of this hard work being done by the gardener, most of the work is being done by the garden. The plants are working hard to grow, while the gardener helps the plants along with a little water and a little weeding.

The garden metaphor doesn't work out with every detail- like the gardener just gets to rob the garden of all its tomatoes and basil and whatnot. That's not cool. And does the state just kinda die and whither in the winter? I dunno maybe the garden is some place snow doesn't exist. Still, it's a pretty cool metaphor. It conjures up images of a neat, happy little place where hard work and patience is rewarded.

Bye, Candide.

Do Candide's punishments fit the crimes?

The punishments dealt to Candide are rather ill fitting in my opinion. His first punishment was his banishment from the castle because Cunegonde kissed him. This was extremely unfitting- the kiss was innocent and inspired by their ignorance to the realm of romance. Then he was forced into joining a militia and when he tried to leave he was condemned to nearly endless flogging. In terms of the auto-da-fe he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of his punishments have been just or taught him anything other than that perhaps Pangloss's teaching were not true. It seems that every time he is punished the punishment manages to get him into more trouble and lead to more punishment. The banishment led to the flogging and the auto-da-fe led him to reunite with Cunegonde and kill two men. The severe punishments Candide has been given have taught him that when something goes wrong he had better run or he will be faced with death. So now when Candide does something worthy of punishment he runs instead of staying to face it because the punishment will be irrationally harsh. 

So (yes I'm a twelve year old girl from Libetyville) no, I don't think the punishments fit the crimes. 

Who is the Modern Gadfly?

Who is the Modern Gadfly?

This is a difficult questions to answer. The present is sadly devoid of prominent gadflies. So while I'm not exactly sold on my answer, I have to go with Michael Moore: super-duper-leftist film maker extraordinaire. I love this man, but I know for a fact that many people do not. The thing that makes him a gadfly, rather than just a man with a camera and an opinion, is his willingness to be the guy no one wants to talk with at a party. When he wants he can be crazy annoying, but it's always to get his point across. In his movie Bowling for Columbine (probably his best received work) he took three survivors of the Columbine high school shooting to the kmart from which the bullets that were still lodged in their flesh had been purchased. They bought out the entire stock to keep those bullets from being sold to potential murderers. But that was definitely not enough. Moore brought the survivors to a Kmart flagship store in an attempt to return the merchandise embedded in the flesh of these young people. Moore and the victims were able to meet with Kmart executives and the next day the corporation announced they would be taking ammunition off their shelves. Still,. Moore had to bother frazzled employee after employee for hours and hours before getting a chance to speak with the execs. Most of Moore's antics are not this successful. Moore can often be seen on the steps of a capitol building, or in a boat full of 9/11 volunteers approaching Guantanamo Bay, shouting at the unseen powers residing within through a megaphone. After gaining admittance to Charlton Heston's home and challenging him on his pro-gun views and NRA statues, he was promptly kicked out. Some people are annoying just because they like to watch people squirm, some activists are overly polite because they don't want to be disliked- Michael Moore is neither of those things. Moore attempts to be as polite as possible while still not letting anyone off the hook, and he catches it all on camera. While Socrates wasn't concerned with preserving his dialogue, Moore is. By putting a camera in the situation people become self-conscious and not wanting to be portrayed in a bad light, they often reveal exactly what they are trying to hide.

Even if you disagree with Moore's politics you have to admire the way he unashamedly confronts people that need confronting and his effectiveness as a gadfly.

Is the Unexamined Life Worth Living?

Is the unexamined life worth living?

I think it definitely can be. The unexamined life is not one I wish to live, but I try not to judge those that do. I think sometimes it can even be beneficial. If a person is truly happy with their life, the universe and their place in it and doesn't wish to mar that outlook with deeper consideration- good on them. Now I'm not necessarily going to respect their opinions or expect them to make sound decisions, but I think there is something to be said for their life. Just because a person doesn't analyze their existence doesn't mean they cannot do good or contribute to society. Some people cannot handle too much self examination or become depressed by it and sometimes it is better overall for them not to question.

Sometimes there are people who do not examine their life but are still unhappy. They don’t examine this unhappiness because they are afraid they will only find more sadness. I have run into a lot of these people and I think they ought to serve as an example to the rest of us. Sometimes people make themselves even sadder by pretending that they aren't. Simply accepting things is not the answer; it will not make you happy. Happiness has to come from you and if you are not already happy turning a blind eye to it will not change it.

I believe leading an examined life is very important, but I do not believe that an unexamined life is worthless. Even the simplest, worst things have worth.

Me

Hello. I’m Gianna.

I’m really super excited about this philosophy class. I really enjoy thinking about abstract ideas and discussing them so I’m anxious to do so in a class setting. Also, I have a lot of expectations for this class because McCarthy is, of all the people I know, the most fitting to teach a philosophy class. When I took his American Lit class Freshman year he’d often let ideas and discussions from his philosophy class creep into our curriculum. Don’t tell Fanning but I was ecstatic when I found out McCarthy got this class back.

When I’m tasked with introducing myself I automatically think about theatre. It’s always my response to ‘So what do you do?’. I’m an active member in the Young Company and I hope to study acting in New York next year. I’m also a Young Ensemble member at Lookingglass Theatre downtown. I also enjoy dancing and singing despite being relatively mediocre at both.

My entertainment preferences are often a little nerdy. I grew up on Star Wars and my cats are aptly named Luke and Leia. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. Emily Hawkins and I even went to a Harry Potter convention a few summers ago. I really into Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Hannibal, and a few other shows. My little brother is significantly nerdier than me and a Freshman at WY, so feel free to penny him.

My celebrity crush of late is Taye Diggs. There’s also something about Ethan Hawke.

I am a vegetarian.

I have a coffee addiction.

I think Sylvia Plath is lovely.

Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and Julie Ruin is my idol.

Thanks,