One Winter

What is winter?
Is it when the brisk winds turn bitter?
The seasons transition with little signal,
Giving no time for us to change.
Change our clothes and our home
As the sun becomes scarce,
Scared, simply hiding from the night
And the clouds
Hidden behind the clouds that seem to thaw
To dots that strike the body raw.

Is that winter?
Is it the flecks and bits of white that spill
Upon the dirty streets, driven over and over
Til they are gray.
With the viscosity and stickiness
Of disgusting porridge.
With a cold that seeps into our souls
The soles of our shoes
Socks are soaked and the sense in our feet
Stupefied.

Could that be winter?
The feeling of bleakness
Of joy, the jolt of cold.
And the emotions that come with the
Holidays.
The times of lights brightening the nights
With colors that converge into a conglomeration
A combination of mesmerizing and monstrous
Hypnotizing and horrendous
Yet at the same time, absolutely stupendous.

Because that is winter.
From the sensations, the season and the snow
To the feeling of wonder and loathe.
The chilly air mixes with the warm glow of lights.
The sound of cool crisp snow crunching underneath.
While splash of the slick streets fades in the background.
An overdose to our senses, until we are confounded.
By everything coming and combining as one.
Into one piece, one feeling, one season.
One winter.

Globalization

Globalization. It’s been a large force since the 19th Century, but as time progresses, the gap between countries has been getting smaller and smaller. We’ve gone from week-long trips on boats to commercialized airplane flights that may take less than a day. The largest development to globalization would definitely be the Internet. The Internet has allowed the transfer of information instantaneously. News travels fast now. So fast that any small bit or comment is now counted as “news” and with a couple clicks, hosts articles on major news sites. We can contact people from around the world, from friends who’ve moved to strangers we would have not been able to talk to.
Some people would question whether or not globalization has been a positive force, but there should be no question. While globalization has brought some unnecessary changes to society, overall it has been. People are social creatures. Globalization has allowed connections to be made, including blogs like these that no one reads.

Sports in my life

I’m not sure what place sports have in my life. I remember playing soccer in a youth league when I was like 5, in Minnesota. Back then, I used to be a fan. I use to know all the names of the members of the Minnesota Vikings. But that all changed. Soon after I came to Chicago, I played baseball with my dad every so often. I also paid attention to the Chicago teams, going to games for the Sox and Bulls and Bears when I could. But even being a fan got old. I stopped paying attention to the scores and games. First went baseball, and then went basketball. The last one for me to lose a grip on was football. Today I can still watch a couple minutes of football games, but never an entire thing. Not anymore. The World Cup rolled around this year, and that was a breath of fresh air. I had fun watching the games online, and actually watched the entire 3 hour long games anytime I was awake enough to. At least, those for South Korea. And North Korea too, but that was because it was just funny to watch.
So it looks like sports has lost its place in my life. It just happens as one grows older and changes.

thanks broooo

So we are supposed to be thankful for a classmate this week? This is so cheesy, Mr. McCarthy. Yeah I guess it fits the theme of Thanksgiving, but still. I’m thankful for Rich Chung. Why? Because I have a class with him before this class, and I can ask him to make sure I didn’t miss anything we had to do for Philosophy, like a book reading or something. I can also easily comment on his blog all the time to knock one of the two weekly comments off. Although I’m not even sure you read them, Mr. McCarthy. Do you even check them? Anyway, it’s also nice that Rich is in the class because he’s one of the few people I knew before the class. And because we have so much group work in the class, Rich is there to team up and do the group work all the time. He sits nearby so that’s also really easy to ask questions, and do the aforementioned group work. So thanks Rich. Thanks for being such a bro. Bro.

Dear Cormac McCarthy,

Dear Cormac McCarthy,
You write a lot of books that become movies. No Country for Old Men and The Road are already movies. I heard Blood Meridian is going to be a movie soon too. You crazy old fool. So many movies. No Country for Old Men was apparently a really good film too. But at least you vary your setting and stories to keep them interesting, unlike Stephen King. Him and his love for Maine and alcoholics. You write about the west, the post-apocalyptic word, a lot of different things. Your storytelling is also compelling, especially the way you write. You know, the lack of quotations in The Road, and stuff.

But I'm not sure if The Road was supposed to be all philosophical. Was it? I can never tell with authors. It seems faked a lot of the times. Maybe not in your work, but in other works,for sure. I guess we'd have to ask if you ____ is what you meant when you wrote _________. Literary criticism can be a bunch of total nonsense a lot of the time, making analogies and connections up where they never existed. But then you could simply say that the book means whatever it means to the reader. And we couldn't say anything about that, could we? But I digress.

In the end, your book is pretty spiffy. It's dark, sad, and the writing style is captivating. The Road is a great book, no matter what you meant in the words while writing it.

From,
Dohyun

DEFEND THE POET

I am so confused right now. What am I supposed to do? Defend Charles Bukowski’s gross decayed corpse from grave robbers and zombies or his point of view in Dinosauria, We and his life from critics? I’m going to go ahead and assume the latter. Although I’m not really sure why I’d want to defend this alcoholic dead man whose corpse is probably fermenting in a stone cold coffin in California, or his extremist poem that sounds like some deranged man at train stops preaching to the masses about the end of the world, I’ll try. I’ll try.

Charles Bukowski’s Dinosauria, We criticizes the way we live now, and then develops a “could be” apocalypse in the future, because of these factors now. We would create our own destruction and own extinction. Critics call it blown out of proportion, but there is some truth in Charles Bukowski’s words. If we are apathetic to the way we live now, there is nothing stopping what we create for the future. He describes all the problems in our lives today early on, but all that revolves around one large problem, apathy. The real problem is allowing these misdeeds to continue on. He views that society is ruined and while we should change it, and could to avoid the catastrophe of an apocalypse, we don’t. He views that our lives are hanging by a thread in balance, and once we go over, all hell, worse than hell, breaks loose.

We should not look at his poem for direct words, but the ideas. The ideas that what we create and our apathy, will bite us back in the end, whether through an apocalypse or some other disaster. We need to take action now to control the future.

A direction

I think the first question should be if we even need a direction. The way the class is moving now is a form of asking questions and then discussing. And isn't that how we learn? From others? We make arguments and discussions with each other, getting viewpoints and sharing our own. If we simply read a textbook that preached about the different viewpoints others had, it wouldn't be the same. We could not talk to the book the way we talk to each other. If we did, we'd simply look crazy. If we simply read a book, we could not get feedback, or opinions. All we would get is solid facts of ideas from dead people long ago.

Learning straight from a book is never good. It's rigid and stiff, with no room for change. To be honest, the textbook you gave us is possibly the driest textbook to ever exist. That’s probably why all of them are falling apart. The discussions are much more active and much more memorable. Reading books such as Candide and the Road are great, because along with reading good books, we get to discuss and question each other about not only the plot points of the book, but the themes and ideas behind it. It’s indirectly learning philosophy I suppose, and that is much better than being beaten on the head with the old and parched tome that is the textbook.

So all in all, discussions are nice as we get to express our thoughts and receive others’. Isn’t that what these blogs are doing now?

ALL THE BLOG ENTRIES

For ease.

9/10 Eulogy
9/17 The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living?
9/24 Who is the Modern Gadfly?
10/1 Candide’s Punishments, Do They Fit the Crime?
10/8 God in 2010
10/15 Our Meaning
10/22 How Do I Know What I Know?
10/29 Father & Son, Mother & Daughter, Mother & Son, Father & Daughter
11/5 A Direction the Class Needs
11/12 Defend the Poet! (Charles Bukowski)
11/19 Open Letter to Cormac McCarthy
11/26 Thankful for a Classmate
12/3 Sports in My Life
12/10 Globalization
12/17 Winter Poem
1/7 I’m a Shoe
1/14 King Still King?
1/21 Good Food Review
1/28 Ultimate Recipe
2/4 I Knows This Means Something
2/11 Album/Track Review
2/18 X Marks the Spot
2/25 X is Known
3/4 McCarthy’s Birthday Week
3/11 We Have the Right
3/18 Art Review
3/25 Movie Review
4/1 A Book to Read
4/8 Invisible
4/15 Save the Earth, Do this!
4/22 Alone
4/29 Together
5/6 Surrounded by Cuckoos, but I was the crazy one
5/13 Thoughts about Earlier Thinking
5/20 Letter to The Prospective Philosophy Student
5/27 Me at the End

DEM RELATIONSHIPS

So the parent and child relationship is always special. The parent is a role model for a child, guiding them along the ways of life, showing the customs. The child always looks up to the parent, and develops an idea of the world from the parent’s actions. The special relationships we look at in America are those Father-Son and Mother-Daughter relationships. Although there has been a rising trend of those Father-Daughter and Mother-Son relationships thanks to the number of divorces and single parents rising in the last few years, the first two relationships are what most people imagine when a parent and child relationship is brought up.

But there are stereotypes tied to each of these relationships. The father and son always have to play baseball or catch at some point in their life in some white picket fence front yard or a field. There has to be some play wrestling in a field after a catch while playing some football. The dad also has to let the kid win all the time. I remember doing some of these with my dad, although I’d always lose when I played with my dad. He’d put me in my place every time.

Mother and daughter relationships… I don’t know too well. I guess there’s the stereotype that girls learn how to become women as some sort of coming-to-age tradition from their mothers, but I don’t know much more. But these ideas are changing and probably will be changed in generations to come. The world is changing rapidly when it comes to social relations, and who knows how these stereotypes will adapt along with it?

How I know what I know?

How do I know what I know? I’m not sure if the question is asking for the process of learning or if we actually know what we “know” to be knowledge, or some form of truth. The former is a much easier question. We know what we know from our life and experiences. As we experience different views from different people in different environments, who, themselves, grew up with their own experiences, we develop our own thoughts.

But how do we know that these thoughts are true? We don’t I guess. We’re never sure about our beliefs. There is nothing that tells us that we haven’t been lied to our whole life. It’s like the idea that we might just be brains floating in a vat, with electrical impulses being sent to us to imagine everything. Arguments that this cannot be true mostly revolve around how having all those impulses to our brains for all we feel in our life would be too complex. But what if the world our brains floated in worked by different rules? If this existence is a figment of our imagination, how do we know that these are the rules that the “real life” follows? Our dreams don’t always follow the rules of physics. There is no reason to believe that we aren’t simply brains floating around.

So that’s the scary thing. We don’t know that we know anything in the end. We may have learned it from our experiences, but we can’t tell if these were lies.

Meaning?

What's our meaning in life? Well, doesn’t that like something super emo to say. I mean, isn’t that what we are here to find out? Why does there have to be some innate meaning that is universal for everyone’s lives? I believe that we are here just to live life. There is no special plan for each and every one of us to find. There is no special meaning. Life is that fabled journey where the destination doesn’t matter. We should take our short time on this Earth and make the most of it for ourselves.

So I guess what I see as the meaning of life is for us to be happy, and spread it. Who doesn’t want to be happy? Sure someone might make a lot of money, or be deemed as successful by others staring in from the outside. But does it matter if that person isn’t happy? This also applies to people around us. This philosophy of a meaning in life shouldn’t allow someone to bring down others, just for their own gain, that’d be selfish. We should do things for a better change in society as a whole, to make everyone’s life better. That’s why I believe in those random acts of kindness. Taking time out of one’s life, no matter, how short, to help a stranger in need. These surprises in people’s lives make them feel better, knowing someone would do that for them, and maybe even empower them to pass it forward. That, is what I see to be the meaning in our short lives.

GOD

What place does God have in our lives in this modern day? God used to be a way of life, a way of control over the masses centuries ago. God fearing populations were led by preachers and monks. They feared the unknown, so they took the words from their leaders. God had united much of Europe, but also waged wars amongst various factions. And in some ways, that is still used today. God is still used as a way of justification. It can be used as a justification of a way of life, and especially in America, political views. The old views of God that the Founding Fathers had set upon the nation, still run on with many politicians.

But in other ways, God is simply a way of life. It is a path for people to take in their life, to guide their decisions and to simply think about. They look at questions such as “Is there a God?” “If there is, what can I do and what role does God have in our lives?” People pray to find some sort of stability in their life. They look for some control. It’s a way to channel their hope of help for whatever it may be. There are people who don’t believe in God as well, and in some regards, God in 2010 is much more open as a way of life than it was years ago. Times are changing, and so is the human perception of God. But people still look to God for the same reason; they hope to regain some control on what they perceive they cannot.

Does Candide's Punishment Fit the Crime?

To see if Candide’s punishment fits his crime, we must first define the two. What is his crime? The crime of ignorance. He believed in Pangloss’s words to be the only truth. He believed that the world, in which he was living in, was truly the best of all worlds. Kissing Cunegonde was not the crime, but simply a catalyst for the punishment. What is the punishment? The punishment is nothing more than a cruel, ironic journey through life, filled with chaos, misery, and despair. This is a trial for Candide, testing his philosophy, learned from Pangloss.

The punishment is fitting, because it was necessary. For Candide to gain knowledge for himself, instead of taking one’s words, he needed to experience. Instead of living in the cave that was the castle of Baron Thunder-ten Tronckh and listening to what Pangloss told him about the world, his punishment forces him to delve into the world for himself, making mistakes, and learning on his own. Of course, he has a very tough time adjusting, changing his views. He still believed that the world was the best of all worlds, after all the ordeals in Europe. The only difference was that he thought it would be in the New World. Therefore, more tragedy and antics must follow, until he sees his flawed ways.

Candide’s crime of ignorance can only be fixed by experience. His punishment is simply that. It is for Candide to experience life in the world on his own, and for him to develop his own thoughts and philosophy. For that reason, this punishment is fitting.

The Modern Socrates

Socrates. One of the earliest philosophers who have shaped the way humankind thinks for millennia. His methods were undoubtedly unique. He would question, question and question, but he would not seek for answers for himself, but for the other to find the answer in themselves. But he would also teach others. Not about what Socrates was questioning, but the method. He would inspire his followers and the audience to do the same with their lives and search if they are living by truth.

Now the question is if there is any modern day Socrates. Sure there are people that use his method of questioning others to bring about knowledge in the others. Some say Michael Moore can be thought as one. He asks questions to uncover what he wants to find in his movies. But in the end, isn’t what he is trying to do simply to sell his movies? He has an audience and a political perspective to match the audience. While he may ask questions, the audience has to ask if his movies and shots are showing the entirety or just focusing on what he wants to show us. Instead, the audience is usually those that agree with him. He may show something in a different light, but in the end, it’s his political perspective. Who knows what the truth is?

Now the problem becomes, is there any modern day Socrates? Is there anyone who asks questions to bring about knowledge in those who think they know the answers? I think that there is not a single person right now who can truly be labeled as a Socrates. No one seeks the truth without bias as he had done millennia ago.

Is an unexamined life worth living?

A life not worth living? Blasphemy. That is the greatest insult to someone. You are telling them that they are, in fact, causing a detriment to the rest of the world. You are telling them that they are a waste of space, air, and time. A life not worth living, is simply telling someone to go kill themselves. There is no life not worth living. Sure there may be terrible things done by or done against a person. But they need to find change then. But simply saying one’s life is not worth living because of lack of self-examination is taking it too far.

Ignorance is bliss in a sense. If one does not know about insight and looking into their lives, they can be perfectly happy. But as soon as knowledge and this idea of examining one’s life to find a deeper meaning come into play, they stay. The idea becomes a seed that grows and wraps around the brain. A life filled with insight and self-examination can lead to much more. I suppose then it becomes our job to show this to others to further their lives. As Socrates has said, through insight, we become more knowledgeable. So isn’t it our duty to pass this on?

Simply saying someone’s life is not worth living is not the right thing to do. What has it done? It accomplishes nothing. While an examined life will lead to more, we cannot just say it and leave it at that. We must do something about it. Because is a life without action really worth living?

Eulogy

It’s hard losing a loved one, a friend, or anyone you cared about. The emotional pain and the fact that your life is completely different without them are sometimes too much to bear. Most often, no words can neither express how much we miss them nor how we cherish the time we had with them on this earth. We struggle to get past this obstacle, but instead of grief, we look at all the things the loved one has done for us.

Thankfully, I really don’t know much about this guy and was hired to just give this eulogy at the last minute. Turns out the guy who was supposed to do it didn’t show up. I’m sure this kid, D- d- doyen-or whatever, was a good kid. They usually are. He probably did his work most of the time. He probably was the kind of kid who didn’t do drugs, stayed in school, and, you know, was just a good kid. Good kid… yeah. Oh, right. I have this paper with all the things he’s done. Uh, let’s see. He was a good student… was in a couple clubs… was pretty easy-going. Looks like he liked to make his friends smile and laugh. I bet a couple of you here know what I’m talking about. I certainly don’t. Hey, you know what? I bet he was telling a joke to the friend driving as the car crashed. I bet— I bet that they were smiling as they were hit dead on by the 18-wheeler. At least they went out smiling, right?

This D- d-duyoon guy probably had dreams of his own like many of us do. He might have had great aspirations of being a somebody in this world, doing something meaningful, something people would remember. Too bad he didn’t have the time to accomplish those dreams. If he did, I’d actually have something to say.

I’m sure you guys here all miss him since you’re at his funeral and everything. If I had the chance to meet him, well, before he was cold as a brick and inside a coffin, I would most likely be with you guys. You know, crying over there and dressed in black. He might have been a pretty okay guy, from the looks of it. Anyway, I hope he lives in your hearts, dreams and memories and all that. He was a joy to this world and the people he met, and I’m sure he’ll be the same in the afterlife. Now where’s the fifty bucks I was promised?