Memory: An everyday thing we take for granted

Have you ever stopped to think about how precious the ability to remember is? How many things you would not be able to do without memory? It’s a little crazy once you think about it, how we don’t think twice about how important being able to remember is, in fact, we get upset when we forget a small detail or the time of an event and say that we have “bad memories.”  There are no pictures to display memory, your mind has its own memories and the next best thing is to get you to think about them for yourself.

 

What is memory? A good question, how can a three-pound organ store decades of life experiences and facts while also telling your body exactly what it needs to do and when it needs to do it, we don’t need to consciously think about most bodily functions, that three-pound muscle does it on its own.

How does it actually work? Well, my understanding of it is that the brain sifts through what is important and what isn’t, have you noticed that you seem to forget things that you deem useless, but remember random facts like how long it takes to microwave a burrito, that’s because your brain cant remember everything that happens at the moment, so it forgets most things to prioritize what you “need” most.  I say “need” because sometimes you try to remember something that is important, but you really don’t care much about it, so you forget.  Much like when I forget that I had things due at the end of this week that I had been procrastinating for a month, I didn’t want to do it, so I forgot.   If you want a scientific explanation, look here.

 

We rely on our memories in our every waking hour of every day, their importance to our way of life is immeasurable.

What is Envy? And is it all bad?

In class we have been told that envy can be good for you, that is like saying hate can be inspirational, it is not always true and when it is, it’s not for the best. Explain to me how being jealous of someone else’s accomplishments or abilities can be beneficial? I believe the word you are looking for is inspiration, not envy.  I can be inspired by someone else’s abilities and push to become better, but if I am envious I will more likely than not seek to rival them which is the wrong reason to do something, you should be positive about improving, not negative.   As some guy said on the internet: “envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide” While I am not sure who this person means, the meaning I take out of this quote is that envy is ignorance because you try to be someone you are not, instead of accepting who you are, with all your faults. I also think that the portion saying ‘imitation is suicide’ means that when you try to become someone else, you lose a bit of yourself.  You do not act the way you usually would, and you try to be someone you are not.

 

While writing this I came to find a different point of view on, “if envy is good or bad for you.” earlier I said that envy is all bad and you should not be envious of other peoples accomplishments.  But now I see that there is an exception: envy can only be good for you if it is motivational.  If I am competing in a race, I may not be inspired by my competition, I would see them as rivals and seek to outdo them. The envy that most people deal with is jealousy,  people often look at others and see how their life is better than their own, whether that’s true or not, depends.

 

People love to compete and show off their accomplishments, this is the reason many do anything at all.  Whats the incentive to running a marathon? I mean sure, you are probably helping your body with physical exercise, but I think being able to say, “Oh hey, I ran a marathon.”  is for the challenge or the pride in saying you did it.  People like to compete and sometimes it can be a good friendly competition, or it can be a bitter standoff filled with envy.

 

 

Side note: I cant find 2 relevant pictures that will actually make sense here and its a little late for me to start making something because I procrastinated.  Either way, I will attempt to surpass the word limit as a compromise. don’t fail me please, typing a 300-word rant is easier than getting two pictures, not sure why.

 

 

Ways that fear can change how we act

Fear can change the way we see things, fear can make people act out and do things they probably wouldn’t. History has shown that people will often go to war or prepare for it out of fear, our current peace method is ‘mutual assured destruction’ which means that if we get attacked, there will be a counter attack of similar destruction and the fact that many powerful countries have nukes means that if one country nukes another, world war could eventually follow. Fear is what makes world peace impossible, every country fears other countries that have power, so they build weapons to deffend, making other countries worried about their safety, so they build weapons and the cycle continues.

 

Most people are afraid of something

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it couldbe spiders, bees, the dark or whatever.  the reason people have these fears is because it is human instinct to be afraid of things that may be harmful to us.  The only way humans could survive in the wild, before we had better weapons that put us on top, was to either run or fight. This fight or flight response is what kept us alive, without it I don’t know how people would respond to their fears.  Some people are different, some instinctively run, some stand up and fight, it all depends on who they are, not who they want or act like, but who they are truly.  I do not know how I react to fears, its been awhile since I’ve had to face one, but I know that I used to not react well.

 

In the book Persepolis, (which we are reading in class) there is a lot of fear going around, there is the fear of your family being taken by the government for little to no reason, there is the fear of being bombed by enemy countries, there is the fear of being taken away yourself. Marji (the main character, who is a child) doesn’t seem to fear anything, which makes me skeptical because most people fear something, the only time Marji shows fear is when they may get bombed and that is a rational fear. There isn’t many ties with the book and this topic, there are a few like: Fear of westernization, fear of invasion, fear of change and so on, but those are generic and are uninteresting to read about, so I will choose not to write about it.

Survival before​ morals

Everyone will put things in a line of most important to least important, it is different for everyone but sometimes they sacrifice one to keep or get another, like the title.  We have been reading a book about this mindset in class, ‘Lord of the Flies’ shows how people slowly shift to making choices for survival instead of rational moral decisions that benefit everyone.  Jack is the perfect example of this, he starts as a choir boy who wants to be chief because he can sing a certain note, and becomes a terror who wants to kill pigs and put peoples heads on sticks.   I don’t have any pictures to support my article because humans have removed the need to survive with technology and society, but deep down we still have the same instincts we had before, insanity can become a problem for people who are stranded for long periods of time because they now need to find out how to survive, not how to get through town to their nine to five job.  Without the structure and rules of society, people begin to fall apart, this is shown well by Golding because they don’t instantly become savage, they slowly become less and less civil, more worried about getting their next meal instead of helping others, which is why they join Jacks tribe instead of staying with the little order they had when in Ralph’s tribe.  There isn’t really much to say about something that we never have to experience in real life, none of us had to be stranded away from society and have to survive day to day in the wild, we all have plenty of food with a seemingly infinite supply of water, we don’t have to worry about animals attacking us in the safety of our towns and homes and we don’t have to worry about crazy people attacking, killing and torturing other survivors.  Most likely, none of us are going to have to deal with anything that happened in lord of the flies, we have different things to worry about, like getting a job or having good grades, I honestly hope none of us find out how horrible people can get when they are starving on an island and other people are fighting for control with little thought to the safety of others.

The ways greed changes us

Greed can be dangerous, greed can destroy an entire society and has a few times through history, the issue is that most people are naturally greedy in some ways, greed does not always mean money.  

Get it? change! hahaha I’m so funny.

Greed is the desire for something, a few forms of it are; recognition, the desire to receive the reactions and input for your creation or idea can cause issues, the desperation for the likes, comments or other statistics can make you want more, positive attention cant be bad for you…or can it?  I personally know that I might fall victim to that, if I work hard on something I get worried about the quality of it and ask others for their thoughts and when im told something positive about it, it makes me feel better, which could eventually lead into me seeking that feeling again and again. Another form greed can take is power, the desire for power can be addicting, leaving some to crave more and more, I already defined power in the last post, so I will leave it to you to catch up if you haven’t already. Greed can be defined as; which lines up with my definition pretty well so far, its okay to want things, its not okay to be obsessive over having those things.   The topic greed is shown in Divergent multiple times, Erudite wants to take control of the government, believing that the smartest should be in control, the only issue with Erudite doing that is the fact that in the book they are heartless, they don’t care who gets hurt, they just want to keep moving forward stepping on whoever gets in their way. That is the main theme of divergent, back in the real world we struggle with greed as well, we all want to be successful and get somewhere, some can take that passion too far without deserving it, this article shows a bit of that and ties in with last weeks article of the week, global warming shouldnt be our main threat, in reality we are our greatest threat.  People want to be greedy but not have to work for it, which doesn’t work, you cant get something from nothing, someone has to do more work to make up for it.  There isn’t much that can be said about greed, it cant really be cured, its not a disease, its human nature to want things and unless we can change the entire human race….I don’t see it changing any time soon.

The many forms of Power

Power can take many forms and do many things, power can be what you can do, power can be control, and power can keep the lights on and power runs the world.  If power did not exist, there would be no leaders, only followers and a world full of people following each other would be a dull place. All people crave a form of power, in whatever form they seem fit, some think it is control, money or other stuff, but it takes power to do anything in life.

In the book Divergent, which we are reading, all of the factions have their own opinion on power and what it means to be powerful. Erudite for example sees power in intelligence, they believe ignorance is the cause for all problems and that learning and advancing comes before consequences. While Erudite are right in some regards, they are wrong in many others, like: honesty, erudite at the time has moved past their original agenda and now seek to control the community because they believe the smartest are best fit, what they also lack is selflessness, erudite are incredibly selfish in the book and fear that others have more power or resources and point fingers in a desperate attempt to get the upper hand, they also lack bravery, it takes no bravery to sit behind a screen and think of ways to advance technology, it takes some to go out and make a difference with that technology, not every faction is perfect and that is their flaw, they all have their own agendas and are not working for the greater good anymore.

Candor isnt perfect either, seeing everything in black and white isn’t always the best, they seem to be a cold faction where truth and law are followed to the letter, allowing for no freedom, a community will not last under that type of leadership, it would be too strict and the other factions would bring them down.  People are complex and truth and lies will not always solve the problem, you need to be kind in and smart at times to know when the truth is the best choice, you cant use black and white in an often gray world. They see power in honesty.

Abnegation is the faction of the selfless, yet the other factions seem to think that they are not, Erudite thinks they are hoarding supplies, Candor thinks that kindness is deceit so Abnegation is targeted quite a bit for suspicion, but from what we know, they have the second worst living conditions in the city, above factionless, they are not allowed to do anything for themselves, no hobbies, no sports, nothing that is just for you.  Tris has never had a hamburger before being in Dauntless, could you imagine eating bland food everyday for your entire life, Abnegation seems to be the scapegoat for the other factions, most situations can not be solved by kindness, some require you to be smart and know when to be kind and where to no, it requires bravery to stand up for yourself, and it requires honesty to know you are not making much of a difference yourself.

We have not seen Amity yet, so there is nothing to be said, but we have seen Dauntless.  Dauntless see power in Bravery, while they have moved away from their good intentions,   they still believe that cowardice is the cause for problems, that you have to be brave enough to stand up for yourself, that you need to be brave to make a difference.