Knowledge, our Biggest Asset and Liability

A Thematic response to Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

Every day, most of us wake up, dragging our feet in the routine of reality, the thoughts, the questions of Life, slowing us down. It is a dreary existence, but one that is widely endured. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury illustrates to us a world without purpose. It has nothing of meaning, no books, and no scholars. Nobody to challenge anybody else’s thinking of how the world should be. Although at times knowledge seems to be our biggest burden, it is essential for society to prosper.

Guy Montag had lived his life in a shell, unnecessarily protected by the government. The same government bent on destroying books and, in their eyes, conflicts within itself. The memory of books was not lost though. Nothing can ever be truly forgotten. Those that had been associated with books were scorn from society, as if they were criminals. This kind of government is the worst thing imaginable to the scholars of today. All of those who are aware are at a complete loss, for the terror and conceit brought forth by this government. Scholars are the most important people in democracy, but without them it can be a dictatorship without the citizens’ knowledge.

At one point, Faber, the retired English professor, said, to Montag,” Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least know that you were headed for shore.” This referring to that if Montag wanted to know that he lived a full life moving society toward the correct path, he would need to take some risks. This is especially dangerous when you are considered a high ranking official in the government that directly opposes the way that you are headed. Faber was Montag’s savior, but to the rest of the world he and Montag were as heretics. He showed Montag The Light in a world of darkness.

Without the fear of the unknown that knowledge presents us with, life would seem to be very peaceful and worry free. Which it could be, but that is when we could be controlled like animals by the least fit to do so. Without knowledge we do not control ourselves. To allow any measurable or meaningful progress in society to occur, we must burden ourselves with the thing that presents most fear. With that fear, we push each other, we push ourselves, and we push society to be better.

Strength in Hardships

Author's Note: This is a response to the writing prompt “'What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.' Nietzsche How would you say that his quote could be applicable to the actions from the most recent part of the novel for Montag? This prompt is referring to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Montag is a fireman in a world where firemen start fires as opposed to our world where they put them out. This world is also one where reading is illegal as are books.

“What doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger,” Frederick Nietzsche once said, but is this really true? It seems like that could be true in being that muscles only grow once they have been broken down. Then I think of a heart attack or stroke. Most times those make us weaker and more susceptible to death. Is it that we don’t make ourselves stronger, but those around us? The person receiving the effects of an action, only gets stronger if they choose, to use the effects to make themselves stronger.

By definition stronger means especially able, competent, or powerful in a specific field or respect. It may then be that after a heart attack your mind is the one getting stronger, but does that really matter is you have nobody to share your gift with? Strength can be very concrete as in a weight lifting competition or very biased as in the intelligence of an author.

Through Montag’s hardships he has gotten stronger in both respects. He has had to battle through intentionally burning his own house, to in the same night, being a felon wanted for arson. While running from the police Montag had is leg numbed and his knee shattered by a car going ninety miles an hour, yet he had yet to even think of laying down and turning himself in. His life is at the lowest point that it can ever be, and he made it through alone.

The greatest shows of strength are those that nobody can see. Those that are on the inside. Many want to have glory for their struggles or to have their story told for generations to come. The strongest don’t care about those petty matters they focus on life and what they need to do to prosper.

Patriotism's Stronghold on Humanity

Author's Note: This is the Veteran's Essay 2010

When asked if patriotism still matters in the world, I just stare at them with my mouth open, because I thought that the answer to this question should be fundamental. Of course it still matters. It matters to the extent that our way of life depends on it. Without patriotism Americans would not be true Americans as under the rule that we are today.

If not for patriotism, we would have never fought for global freedom. We would never have gotten to Afghanistan or Iraq in the name of world betterment. We would have let the evil dictators of the world control the world in which we live. Life as we know it is dependent on these Patriots.

In America, we so much take our lives for granted. We Idolize movie stars, or athletes, but we should idolize those who put their lives on the line for us every day. They let us do what we do, freely and without fear that it could be taken away at anytime. The love and pride that we should bestow in our veterans are lost in the business of America.

What distresses me most is the fact that we go about our daily lives and don’t even have the time to thank those responsible for letting be as it is. We must thank those who let daily life possible. Those who go to war, have gone to war, or have signed up to be in The United States Army are the heroes of America. We have been dreadful at showing our veterans the sufficient thanks that they deserve.

If not for Patriotism I would not be able to live the life that I live, and neither would any other Americans. To have Americans able to search for their calling we need those to protect our freedom, and we need to honor and support these veterans. These veterans bleed red, white, and blue, and for that, we salute them.

Power Leads to Corruption

a thematic response to Animal Farm by George Orwell

You wake up and you live a life where you own nothing. Nothing at all. Everything is owned and hoarded by the government. What started out a brilliant idea of sharing has gone to exactly what wanted to be avoided. This is what happened in Russia in the early 1900’s. This is what happened in Animal Farm by George Orwell. John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton said it best, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

In Animal Farm, the animals, representing Russia’s people, were upset with the management of the farm. They were eating only enough to stay alive, so they finally had a breakthrough and Rebelled against the humans on the farm, representing the Royal Family in Russia. When the pigs came into power they had seven commandments by which all of the animals need to live.

Because the pigs had ultimate power they were easily corrupted. Just trying little things to see if anybody would notice or question. Then they tried something a bit more drastic and these behaviors fed on themselves, and by the end of the novel the creators of the commandments had broken all of them. Just to protect their coveted treasure or expand it. They even made a fellow founder the common enemy. Every time that a commandment was broken the commandment was changed as to not reflect the error. By the end of the novel it had changed from those seven to a single one: All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

This transformation from dictatorship to ‘Animalism’ was then a full circle transformation back to a dictatorship, but with a different leading party. Orwell even chose the pigs to play the leaders in his satire, because they represented the piggish characteristics shown by the leaders of the Russian Revolution: Stalin, Trotsky, and Lenin. Pigs, being omnivores eat anything and everything that is thrown to them, even their young if it gets in the way. As did Napoleon anyone or anything that got in his way, he destroyed or killed or banned from society. Most of these things just happened to be Snowball or closely associated with him.
This is shown very mightily, when they slaughtered perfectly innocent animals just because they were rumored to fraternize with the enemy. The leader, Napoleon, came out of the old farm house only very special occasions like mass slaughters or his birthday. The only things that are of even the slightest importance to him.

Absolute power made the pigs’ desire multiply and feed on itself until they can do nothing except feed it. They are tempted by alcohol and drink it exuberantly. They are tempted by clothes left by the farmer and need to try them. They are tempted by walking on two feet and again must try it. The only way to avoid these situations is to never let anybody have absolute power.
Having absolute power will corrupt even the strongest and most courageous people. Temptation will get to their conscience, and will begin with them thinking, ‘If I do this there won’t be consequences. No one will even notice.’ Then they do something a bit more dramatic, thinking, ‘If I got away with that this will be a breeze.’ Until everything and anything is hoarded except for the bare minimum, and even sometimes that is taken from us.

Human Reliance On Technology

A Response to I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

This symbol, based on the Chinese Yin and Yang symbol shows that opposing forces rely on one another in turn giving way to each other, for they cannot exist without the other. As is in I, Robot, Isaac Asimov wrote of a completely robot controlled existence, but without the supporting humans they would do nothing, for they have lack of 'street smarts' and only have 'book smarts'.
In this case it is shown representing the battle of modernizing our world and the struggles it brings upon us. The red dot is meant to be the eye of a robot while the other circle is meant to be a human eye. The outer part or the circle around the robot eye is meant to be of human characteristics, and the part around the human eye is meant to be of robotic qualities. This is because the book is about integrating robots into the human world but not having them run or take it over.
In the futuristic world that Asimov created, robots have essentially taken over the world as we know it now days. They are double checking the entire world economy, but as the robots take these high up and important position, their inner workings, made to follow the laws of robotics, are making them output data that will further the humans into the abyss that is a robot ruled world.
This symbol, however crude, due to lack of artistic abilities, is about keeping balance. Just a slight shift in this balance could do horrific permanently damaging things to the balance, and functioning robots with thought capacities, as being investigated in Los Alamos, could be that shift. If we integrated robots into our lives they would both be a help and a hindrance. They would help by doing the dangerous tasks such as setting explosives or doing jobs where one slight error could end up a huge problem. They would hinder us by taking some jobs that many humans want for an income of any kind or by having the world’s obesity population increase.
Every thing in life has a balance that must be upset to get any where but if favored too heavily in one favor could mean destruction. Even something as simple as an argument between parent and child. One ‘force’ so to speak must gain an edge on the other.

Secrets

an essay in response to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

Last week your co-worker told you their deepest secret about their childhood. Ironically it involves your spouse, but they made you swear on your life not to tell anybody. Every day you go to bed and wake up with it burning a hole in your conscience. Every time that you are about to tell the secret to your spouse you are unable to because your co-worker’s face pops into your mind. Tom has his fair share of secrets and realizes their consequense in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Everybody has at least their fair share of secrets in their life, both that they have told and those that have been told to them, but it is their responsibility to do with the secret whatever they wish.

Having a secret isn’t always as it was in elementary school. Two young boys mere ages of around ten, are forced to keep a secret of knowing a murderer was not even a suspect in the case of the murder which he committed. As Tom and Huck are faced with this tugging feeling in their gut, they keep in the secret because of fear. Their fear is driven by the crazy, revenge driven murderer who is on the loose. That man is Injun Joe. When Tom does eventually tell the courtroom that Injun Joe did kill the doctor Joe jumps out of the room, and runs from the police until the search is given up. This symbol blatantly represents as we face our fears they never truly go away, but lurk in the deepest, darkest corners known and unknown to mankind, poised unleash a terrible wrath on the one who banished it to such places.

Keeping secrets can also bring immediate consequences just because you hold the secret. This happens to Tom when he takes the whippings intended for Becky. Tom took the whippings out of love. The book states "'Rebecca Thatcher' [Tom glanced at her face -- it was white with terror] -- 'did you tear -- no, look me in the face' [her hands rose in appeal] -- 'did you tear this book?' A thought shot like lightning through Tom's brain. He sprang to his feet and shouted -- 'I done it!'" Going into the day Tom knew that Becky had done something wrong and thought he wanted to see her punished but when the matter came down to it he couldn't bear the guilt that would have come with it.

The deep hardship that is holding onto secrets is endured by every person in their life, but only few can hold onto the secret and use it properly. Tom told his secret at the sole time that it would be important and not immediately life threatening. He used this secret for its full purpose. This is one of the skills that mankind should learn from this romantic and classic novel.

Age

You are young and innocent. You have no idea what’s going on in the world right now getting ready for being older. As you enter your young adult years you think that getting older will greatly diminish your mind, body, and spirit. We try to run from an immanent attack. Age, the thing most people fear, is the best thing that can ever come upon our lowly souls in such an insignificant role in this universe.
Francie realizes that she has no control over her life when Johnny, her father dies. She sees he did nothing wrong nor did she, her brother or her mother. As she is faced with all of these trials and tribulations she sees that God has plans for everybody and no two are the same. As a person seeing many of these tragedies unfold she realizes life is not perfect ever for anyone. Knowing this along with her father’s death shoves her into depression.

Her teacher, Miss Gardner, makes it no better saying that her compositions are “…’little sordid stories.’ Sordid... Sordid: Filthy. Filthy? She thought of her father wearing a fresh dicky and collar every day of his life and shining his worn shoes as often as twice a day. Dirty. Papa had his own mug at the barber shop... Gross. Never! Papa was a dancer. He was slender and quick. His body wasn’t gross. And mean and low. She remembered a hundred and one little tendernesses and acts of thoughtfulness on the part of her father. She remembered how everyone had loved him so..." Francie had written stories about her father’s life so when Miss Gardner called her stories sordid Francie broke under the burden of her father’s death that she had been carrying aging her at such an accelerated rate that she was no longer a child at her mere fourteen years but a woman.
Francie was trying to hold onto what was left of her childhood. One that so many of us would find revolting she thought was absolutely beautiful. Although she found her true place in life, she must remember that she has no control over her life which is so insignificant.