Query Four: Rationality and Today's World

Rationality and Today's World; Part Un

Due to the broad nature of this topic, I will split them into parts, most likely covering other queries between this series. The rationality I would like to discuss today is in Relationships.

In many high school relationships, there are many landmines and tripwires waiting to blow the relationship to smithereens. This is due to the relative inexperience, immaturity, or expectations and ideals of both people. The initial question is how does this topic relate to Rationality. Rationality dictates what is logical as in "I am cold. The wind coming through the open window makes me cold. I do not want to be cold. I will close the window." That sort of simplified logic is basically rationality.

Now the question becomes, where do the booby traps start? I say they start from the beginning. In the beginning both partners have different expectations. There are a few different possibilities. For the male there is "I want a long term relationship" or "I want a short term fling" and the same applies for women. But many women and some men, when desiring a long term relationship in high school, they say a few warning phrases "I want to be with you forever" or "Cindy And Bryce 4 eva" and call each other husband and wife in a 'cutsey' way. Although all this is kind of cute in a naive' sort of way, what it does is it has the opportunity to create problems. If the other person in the relationship hears this and doesnt feel the same way, they may begin to fear such a committment at such a young age, likewise if both people feel similarly, one may begin to smother the other, thus causing the other to regret the committment they have made.

High School breakups are equally a mess as the problems within the said relationships. Common reasons for it to occur are namely cheating (from fear of committment or desire to have 'flings'), smothering, and unrealistic expectations (Expecting that a couple should never fight or argue, for example) among other things.

The connection to rationality of course is, its unrational to enter a relationship and expect to be together forever. The expectation when entering should be "Let me learn about this person" it should develop into "Let us learn to love one another" and eventually "Let me live my life with this person." Delving straight into a lifelong committment is a recipe for disaster, easing into it with gradual development and learning about the person is the simplest, most beautiful, and by far most rational way of doing it.

The barebones fact of the matter is, in High School and sometimes college, youths are still experiencing and learning how to do things. They learn what sort of things do and don't work in relationships, friendships or in life. So all of these mistakes they make in high school, it benefits them towards learning a more rational way of seeking dates. While some do get stunted in their maturity level and may live their entire life dating in the most irrational way, many wise up later and learn to love rationally.

Exeunt.

Query Three: Reaction to "Truth is Beauty, Beauty is Truth"

Reaction to: "Beauty is Truth, Truth is Beauty"

Recently in my English class the teacher went through this query. The query was for us to respond to, explain our views on, and dissect the phrase "Beauty is Truth and Truth is Beauty". I found the classroom banter to be very interesting (for once) so I made a mental note of this.

We first dissect the first phrase, "Beauty is Truth". In some ways I believe this phrase is correct. If you see some beautiful woman or man, you know they are beautiful, at least outwardly. That would then be a fact in your mind because "Beauty is in the eye of beholder". We all have a different definition of beauty and if the certain person fits the bill, then it is a fact that they are beautiful to the person who finds them beautiful. All this refers to is physical however, deep down the person could be a murderer of kittens or harbor fetishes towards Sea-Faring ships, which would drastically make them "Not Beautiful" in regards to their personality, habits, or lifestyle. In addition, the obsession with vanity in the world leads to things such as Makeup or Plastic Surgery which can mask former 'Unbeauty' and create 'Beauty'. The reality of their produced beauty can be debated. Some may say the fact that you mask the reality of the person, it would be deceptive. But if we continue to take a very present and literal look once again, the arguement of "If person A finds this look to be beautiful and person B changes their features (via makeup/surgery) they become appealing to Person A and thusly become 'Beautiful' in their eyes" This sort of literal ideal creates a very true, yet obvious statement.

The statement of "Truth is Beauty" also creates some arguements. To say that all of the truth is beautiful could be found wrong in that A woman finding out her daughter died in a car accident would not be considered a Beautiful Truth. And the phrase "The Ugly Truth" could also contradict that statement. Other arguements could be said for the fact that, just the fact that the woman knows, and is possibly at peace with, the finality of her daughters fate could be considered beautiful. But as an overall statement it withstands a bit because if the girl simply went missing, the truth would be beautiful to the mother regardless for the peace of mind it brings.

In conclusion, this is one of those statements that aren't meant to have a definitive true or false answer, but are meant to be dissected, learned from, and observed in daily life. Normally I stray from blanket statements, unless they are the ones that make me think.

Exeunt.

Query Two: Motivation of Today's Youth

Motivation of Today's Youth

A common fact is that as a youth, a person has more neurons which means it is easier to accept and store information. In simpler terms, when people refer to "Impressionable Youth" they are quite correct. So when the variety of influences, such as the media, the condition of their quality of life, the state of their loved ones and their lives, factor into the mind of a youth, it creates varying, sometimes intersecting motivations in life.

The first issue is one of the largest forms of influence that affects the most amount of people, the Media. The Media affects not only one social class but all. So the most amount of today (and yesterday)'s youth are affected by what they see on channels like MTV, Comedy Central, or the evening news. The problem lies the TV executives need ratings, and to get ratings they have to give the public what they want but not what would have the best effect on their aspirations. So what you get is Maury finding out if the man is the father or not, as opposed to Maury helping them emotionally to grow and have better dating/sex habits. In addition you get The "Real" World and other sorts of shows with shocking drama that influences the youth. And each season of these types of shows its the same formula of controversy with different names. "What will happen when we pair the flaming homosexual with a strictly christian bodybuilder with anger issues for an activity challenge!? Or will Kendra's love triangle take a dip when she gets shitfaced at a local nightclub with Miguel and Toby!?" Everyone knows the answer, but they still watch it anyway because its action that they don't have in their life or want to see happen to others.


All of this equates to a mass influence of youth that actually fuels itself. By promoting the drinking, the promiscuity, and uninhibited actions, they are fueling their ratings.

The news channels aren't at all an exception, sensationalist journalism is just this. "Violence! Cute puppies in tuxedos! Spring break in Cancun gone awry!! 49 dead!!!" Its not that news promotes negative motivation, but it doesn't do much to report all newsworthy events, because after all it relies on ratings as well.

Other factors that affect motivation in youth are their quality of life, and how they are raised. If a child is raised and told that they will be a failure, they will either be motivated to grow from the label, but many times may in fact grow into it and fully believe they are a failure.

Of course many youths take a different route and as they grow they mature and motivate themselves positively which is based on maturity level, I believe. My prediction is that as people continue to intake all of the sensationalism, MTV "Reality" and the rash of "Reality Shows" they will eventually see the redundancy in 'The Real World: 120th season!", the ratings will dip, and they will be forced to put out new concepts.

Therefore the toxicity invading the motivation of today's youth will most likely be remedied through time. Or it may get worse if the next "Reality" Show sort of concept is worse. Regardless, people will change as they always have, hopefully for the better.

Exeunt.

Query One: Who am I?

Who am I?

A question that has become cliche', lost, then cliche' again. Regardless of the cliche' factor, it still remains a question many can't answer simply. Some say "I am a collection of all the actions I have done in the past or experienced until now" I can't quite agree with that because if someone, lets say, forgets to pick up the evening newspaper one day, it doesn't define 'Who they are' two years from then.

Other actions or events such as a womans daughter being put into the hospital after a near death illness would be considered Definitive Actions (or Defining Moments) and thusly would be significant to how the person thinks and reacts to life far past the event itself.

In my opinion a person is exactly who they are now. The definitive actions in their past help shape their thoughts, reactions, ideals, and their entire mentality. You are not who you were two years ago, not even one year ago, maybe not even a month ago. It is all based on how we change as humans. Our thoughts consistantly add new information and get rid of old. This sets up the mentality we have right now. This sort of ever changing answer is exactly why many can't answer the question.

Feel free to post your thoughts, input always stirs good insight.

Genesis

Cogito, ergo sum

"I think, therefore I am." This is the phrase that truly has been the beginning and end of many of my thoughts. Thoughts ranging from life, to politics, to the phenomena around me. Thoughts of others, thoughts of nature, and thoughts of science.

All these thoughts intermingle and create a myriad of opinions and.. more thoughts. But it also poses questions.

This blog is for me to explain my answer to the questions of life, and to hear others views. And so it begins..