Final paper Blog Comments (in progress)

Gavin's Blog

I enjoyed the paper because it was very personal and heartfelt, however I think your title "How to avoid a meaningless life" doesn't fit with your paper, your essay, you list ways that long-boarding helps improve your life, which is something more personal to you. I'd like to see how you can apply the ideas you had in your paper to everyone since not everyone long-boards, and extend those ideas to the masses

 

Good and Meaningful Life Final Essay

A good and meaningful life can be studied from various angles, as it is a very prominent topic among things that live, obviously we don't want bad lives.  Naturally there will be someone to tell you how to live, either out of genuine care for you like your parents (in most cases) or just to control you in the case of governments and religions (in most cases).  Buts its important to sift through those messages, find parts you like and don't like about those lifestyles and synthesize and break down these ways of life to find something that works for you, no one completely knows who you are so no one can choose your life for you.

We've learned from different cultures how to live, each with different messages sometimes contradictory or illogical, but all the same we must consider and think about these messages.  Specifically I've learned from my grandmother, a representative of both an older generation and of a different country (Cuba to be specific), to value honesty and to be grateful for what you have.  I definitely agree with these teachings, for one these are just values so there are no demands from me, these are just ideas to think about.  My grandmother values a simple life with simple values and few conditions.

We've learned from animals, who I personally believe have good lives (in the case of wild animals, although it is debatable) to be more spontaneous.  As humans we've ignored our roots as primates and as animals.  For one humans need to accept that they are animals, secondly we need to accept that we are primates.  We as primates need to run around and play and climb on things and interact with people, which in our "boxed-in" society we don't get a chance to.  We as animals need to accept our bodies as well, while we shouldn't go around naked and ignore all thought, but we should accept our bodies, meaning we should understand our own bodies (since we are all different) and acknowledge that we are our bodies.  I definitely agree with these values, from my own experience I am happier when I play, when I say play I mean running around to run around, not just to lose weight or fill my quota of exercise, being at peace with your body will solve many different health problems and make you happier in return, we can see this in small children.

While studying health, physical, mental and emotional, we've learned that keeping yourself healthy will result in a better life, my own personal definition of health is the ability to do things, if you're sick you can't do much if you're mentally unhealthy you can't think as well etc.  Health comes from knowing your own body, the health nuts who follow fads, follow diets and training regiments that work for other people, when they should experiment with their bodies and find out what works for them.  Mental health and Emotional health can be measured by what the appropriate response is to a situation, to be emotionally healthy means to accept your emotions, hiding your anger when you're mad isn't healthy and neither is covering up sadness as we've all been trained to do (men at least).

The main moral I've taken from all of these studies is to accept yourself.  People are unhealthy and unhappy because they accept whatever is given to them.  To live a good life you must know your body, your mind, your animal heritage etc.  To accept yourself you must know yourself and to know yourself you need to know where you came from, which means knowing your immediate ancestors, parents grandparents, extended family etc. and further ancestors such as our evolutionary predecessors.  We can't just cover things up about ourselves, while I know its impossible to learn everything about ourselves (a discussion for another time) we can live better lives by learning more about ourselves.  People need to recognize that they are different and that we all have to potential to do great things if we accept ourselves for what we are.  A good life of health and happiness can lead to a meaningful life, once people learn to accept themselves they can go on to do great things.  This all boils down to knowledge, knowing and understanding yourself may uncover many weaknesses that were hidden, but knowing yourself will also uncover hidden potential.                 

Collapse Essay

Our modern society is based on Oil, an ever decreasing resource, when the oil reserves of the world are depleted we will have a collapsed society.  The collapse probably won't happen at the very last drops of oil, most likely our society will collapse due to the economic strains of not having oil, all of the other side effects of not having oil will kill us before the actual absence of oil sets in.

However we are blessed with knowledge, knowing that we will eventually run out of oil will help us to learn to use new sources of fuel and end our dependence on oil.  While that may seem unlikely we have started using solar panels and other forms of power.  While these power sources depend on oil, in solar panel production and delivery, and to turn the turbines in electrical power.  We can still research new ways of obtaining power, we, unlike many other societies, can see our demise coming.  Sadly, people will deny collapse until it's already happened and by then it's too late.

While it is also likely that something other than oil will destroy our society, peak oil has placed a death sentence on our way of life.  Unless we figure out ways to release our dependence on oil our society will collapse either close to the time we run out of oil, or randomly any time between then and now.  While peak oil predicts that we'll still have oil for at least another 30 years, now would be the time to start researching other power sources, sadly our government is more concerned with other things, which logically speaking it should tackle the more immediate issues, however our dependence on oil won't be something that can be quickly solved we should gradually within the next 30-40 years, ween ourselves off of oil, this way our society won't collapse, it will merely change its foundation, and once a structure has re-enforced its foundation it becomes much stronger.

While I don't think Americans should start stock piling food, we should be aware of what the absence of oil will do to our society and spend more time doing now, than wishing later.  The best way to keep from collapsing is to acknowledge your foundations and recognize their limitations, we're dependent on oil, therefore we should knowhow much is left and how much we really depend on it.  Aside from that spontaneous collapse is unavoidable, we can't predict whether some aliens will kill us all or anything like that.  We can only prolong our society from its immediate collapse, without a collapse there can be no improvement, "You must make the mistake before you can learn from it"          

Easter Island Reaction

Easter Island is an interesting case of collapse since it's an isolated community, until it's later years.  Easter Island was a fairly wealthy island in terms resources, until the Islanders became obsessed in competition with other clans.  To show off their resources they spent massive amounts of stone, trees and time to make several large statues.  In the process of making these statues they cut down full forests of trees to roll the statues into place.  The lack of trees made the soil loose and unhealthy, little could grow on it anymore.  Without trees the Islanders couldn't make canoes and fish for food, without any food they turned to cannibalism.  At the very end of all of this the Europeans came and claimed easter island as their own.

There are several important "clues" that hint at collapse that I've seen here.  Ignoring or forgetting your dependence on a resource, the Islanders cut down massive amounts of trees forgetting how much they needed them.  The Islanders also fought among themselves and competed, inner competition or division can also collapse a society.  In most societies I've studied that have collapsed almost got too advanced for their own good.  When a society becomes too advanced or too rich they tend to expand, physically in the case of the Roman Empire, Aesthetically in the case of Easter Island and its statues.  These expansions often lead that particular society's foundation to fail.  Metaphorically if you build a tower of blocks too high or branch out too much it will collapse, to sustain more blocks you must force re-enforce the base, and to do that you must dismantle the whole structure and start again.

America shows many of these signs in early forms, we're losing oil that we depend on, we fight internally on social levels (not nearly as violently as the Eater Islanders but enough to aid in a collapse), and we've expanded too much for our own good.  These are early signs of collapse, we may lose our dependence on foreign oil and use cleaner energies and learn to manufacture materials without crude oils.  Things like that can slow down a collapse but not stop it, we will eventually collapse like every society will.  However it is extremely hard to tell when a collapse will happen because while we may collapse on our own, it's far more likely that an outside source will destroy us.    

Industrial Food Essay

Most Americans wouldn't know exactly how their food is produced.  The only real reference most Americans have is the song "Old McDonald" where they just know what's and the farm and what it's there for.  They probably couldn't tell you the living conditions of the animals or their heath.  The sad reality is that most animals are kept as biological factories, churning out meat, eggs or milk at an efficient yet un-natural and un-healthy rate.  Crops are genetically engineered to yield more seeds and grow faster and provide more nutrients.  To make enough food to feed our nation we have to play god.

"The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race", an article by Jared Diamond says that agriculture in itself is flawed and is only used to sustain larger civilizations.  He describes it in a sort of "last-resort" tone, relating the agricultural lifestyle to a quantitative existence opposite to qualitative lifestyle of our ancestors.  Hunter/Gatherers were able to live well without the social burdens of laziness and political struggle over resources within that civilization.  Hunter/Gatherer societies were small enough that there was very little social order, at most there was a chief or leader who was chosen based on skill, not lineage.  Hunter/Gatherer societies also didn't have to deal with "dead-weight" citizens, the entire tribe worked except for the children, who learned how to hunt and gather from the elderly members of the group.  It's easy to see the qualitative aspects of Hunter/Gatherer society, in these groups true communism can exist and the population remains healthy due to their varied diets and active lifestyles.

I agree with the fact that Hunter/Gatherer society lacks many of the problems that we have in our world today, the only reason why that lifestyle seems worse than agricultural lifestyles is that Hunter/Gatherers depend on the agricultural societies for invention and things like art and entertainment.  Modern Hunter/Gatherer societies use guns and other modern tools to find food, things which they couldn't make on their own due to their lack of free time.  Unless that group of hunters was exceptionally good they wouldn't be able to develop as fast as an agricultural society.  While it isn't totally true that Hunter/Gatherers didn't invent anything (the spear, axe, bow and arrow are examples of this) they wouldn't be able to create advanced technologies at the rate we do now, and with that advanced technology they would create machines to hunt for them or breed their prey to kill it later, bringing us full circle to our flawed society.

Naturally we lived as Hunter/Gatherers, because humans are naturally omnivores so we can eat meat and vegetables, living as Hunter/Gatherers can be more efficient in terms of a varied diet.  In the kids film about farming, "VVVRRROOOOOOMM!!!" the farms grew massive quantities of a couple of vegetables, whereas Hunter/Gatherers can hunt many different kinds of animals outside of just pigs, cows and chickens, and can gather many kinds of wild grasses and roots that we would just call weeds and dismiss as food.  In out modern Agricultural society we use hormones and chemicals derived from these animals and plants we depend on, as Michael Pollan said in his book "The Omnivores Dilemma" "It's like eating corn with your corn".  We don't see food as a once living thing anymore, we view it as a string of proteins or sugars that we break down.  Using these words scientifically helps distance ourselves from the truth... what we ate was living (including vegetables) and had feelings and a personality (in the case of animals).  As Hunter/Gatherers we become closer to our food and actually come to terms with the food and accept the cycle of life for what it is.

In the movie "Our Daily Bread and Butter" animals are treated horribly and given hormones to grow faster and are kept in small confined spaces.  These animals don't really get a chance to live, they just sort of exist and die.  Our way of killing animals makes them stressed and unhealthy, so it makes sense that as we eat them we become unhealthy.  While I don't disagree with farm raised animals, I think they should be happy and have room to move and get a chance at life.  If not for the moral conflict than for the health aspect, eating an animal that's naturally raised will be healthier.  There's one scene in the movie where a crop duster kills a field of sunflowers to harvest the seeds, this illustrates that as we grow more and more food we have exponentially more waste.  As Hunter/Gatherers we had little to no animal waste, and whatever waste we had was eaten by scavengers or composted, agricultural society encourages surplus, which encourages waste.

Sadly Hunter/Gatherer society works mainly in small scale or small divisions of a large culture as the Native Americans demonstrated.  While not impossible, it's very unlikely that most people will accept an active fuller lifestyle over the luxurious lifestyle we have today.  There are small pockets of Hunter/Gatherers left who have much better food cultures than we do. My investigation of Hunter/Gatherer societies has reinforced my argument of "Natural is better" animals tend to survive better when they don't actively evolve and let nature do its work. As humans who have actively interfered with our natural processes like hunting eating and mating we alter our evolution, but thats a larger discussion for another time. In short, we need to keep to our roots, while Hunter/Gatherer society isn't accepted by larger civilizations I do think it is a better way of life and should be considered as an alternative to those who hate our agricultural society.

Response to Industrial Food Production

The internet flash cartoon "The Meatrix" addresses many different reasons for why industrial food production is wrong, mainly on the part of animal cruelty or health.  They bring up valid points about pollution in farms due to the bad hygiene of the animals.  They also address certain health problems that can come from artificially created hormones that they ween their cows with which can cause health problems for the animals and the consumer.  While these facts are true I don't have a strong hatred for these farm owners, the farm owners are wrong for what they're doing but our society is spoiled on food.  Stopping this mass production wouldn't be supported by the majority of America (the fat people who don't care about animals outnumber the skinny educated people who do care).  I see mass production farms as necessary only to our fattened culture, we can't change our farms until we learn to appreciate animals and live on less food.

Michael Pollan, writer of "The Omnivores Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food" was interviewed by Stephen Colbert.  In this interview Stephen Colbert jokingly asked Pollan if he let his son eat cocoa pebbles, which would be deemed as unhealthy, to which he responded yes but he clarified that we should enjoy certain foods in moderation.  The lesson to be learned from this is that we should be responsible for our own health, letting someone tell us how to eat doesn't make sense because they don't understand our health.  He brought up a point about how humans can't process high fructose corn syrup as well as natural substances, which seems logical.  This leads to health problems that we all suffer from since HFCS is in most of what we eat.        

Comments on Food Blogs

I like the idea of "Pushing" foods on shoppers to influence them to buy them. Do you think that every company tries to "Push" for customers in this way and some just shine brighter than others? or is this a more organized and deliberate way for someone to push food items on us?

-commented on Ian's blog 

I like how you distinguish between "American" foods which are few and fatty, and other foods which aren't american. I would like to see what your opinion is on "Americanized foods" how do we alter foreign foods to fit our American lifestyle?

-Commented on Henry's blog

My Food Habits Draft 2

I try to eat whatever I can to gain weight, mostly eating snack foods, soda etc.  My snacks are viewed as "un-healthy" when no food is completely "un-healthy".  What's unhealthy is the way that these foods are eaten, while we all love to point fingers at McDonalds their food is fine in moderation and when combined with exercise.  I don't say this just to defend my potato chips, even something like arsenic is technically non-lethal in small doses.  While these foods may contain preservatives and things like that, they still don't make you sick directly or have any long-term side effects (to the extent of my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong).  For someone like me who is skinny, with a fast metabolism and burns off calories though extensive exercise these foods are fine.  Most of my meals however include meats and other foods that contain proteins and fats to help me bulk up.  While I am trying to eat more vegetables I wouldn't order a salad in a restaurant any time soon, I don't seem to comprehend how a salad can become a meal simply by adding bacon bits.  As the old proverb goes "If it doesn't kill, it fattens" if it fattens work it off, its very simple.

Response to "The Omnivores Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

The main argument in Michael Pollan's "The Omnivores Dilemma" about American health in relation to food is that as a mixture of different cultures Americans have no food culture of their own.  I agree with this somewhat, while Americans have invented burgers and hot-dogs we've just taken things that already existed and made them less healthy, some might argue better tasting.  Americans are confused when it comes to what to eat and how often, our food culture if any at all is to eat what we want when we want in front of the TV without any specified exercise, whereas other cultures might have certain customs when it comes to how food is eaten and even the exercise that comes before or after, other cultures essentially have eating "rules" or guidelines that tell them when and what to eat, we as Americans don't have that.      

My Food Habits

My own way of eating emphasizes meats and snacking, because meats and snacks taste good and contain fats, since I'm trying to gain weight I try to eat more fats.  I occasionally eat vegetables and fruits, vegetables being the least and I mostly eat them as seasonings on meats.  I prefer to stay away from fast food unless my parents can't cook or its very late.  

Response to May Day

May day is an interesting holiday for Americans to study, we don't really know it exists, we don't celebrate it and we don't know what its about.  learning about history, either yours or anyone else's, can make your life more meaningful because you understand the world.

Knowing your history just as a form of knowledge helps you improve.  The reason why we study history is mainly to study the mistakes we made in the past, May Day is a holiday that commemorates the struggle for workers to have appropriate working conditions, and it remembers the deaths of those who fought for their rights.  By remembering the mistakes that led up to those riots i.e. the abuse of workers, the governments lack of intervention  and the violence of policemen towards the protesters, we can learn from them and live better lives by not repeating those mistakes.

Knowing history also improves relations with people and helps us to understand people.  Many argue that the reason why the world hates, some say hated, America is because we intervene in problems that we don't fully understand.  America is currently involved in the middle east, which has many different cultures within it that have fought for hundreds of years, not understanding who fought for what and against who etc. leads to unseen conflicts based on historical backgrounds.  The same is true for small scale conflicts, not knowing the relationships people have with each other can lead to problems.  Most conflicts are caused by people offending other people because they don't know what offends them, learning who gets offended by what will make it easier to avoid conflicts. 

Overall any information we can learn from will make our lives better, learning other peoples histories will allow us to interact with them without the risk of offending them, and learning our own past mistakes will help us to avoid repeating them.      

Food Journal

4/28/09

Dinner: 2 steaks and rice

-I enjoyed my meal and I ate it while I was on my computer, at the time I was busy working on homework.  I ate at a reasonable pace to enjoy my meal and also multi-task at the same time

4/29/09

Breakfast: "Cheerios" and milk

-I ate it quickly so I would get to school on time and I liked the taste but didn't have the time to enjoy it.

Lunch: meatballs, Pb and J sandwich, snapple

-this meal was mainly to fill my stomach, because I eat in the cafeteria I'm used to the food and I can tolerate/somewhat enjoy it.  However eating with my friends distracts me from the sub-par food making my lunches more enjoyable

Snacks: Orange Juice, Coke, Fritos

-I like to drink juice when I'm sick because it hydrates my body and quenches my thirst, orange juice in particular tastes good and makes me feel healthy.

-I drank warm coke which doesn't make me feel particularly good, mainly because its warm and I was already hot, had the coke been more refreshing I would have felt better

-Fritos are incredibly salty and make me thirsty, although I was thirsty anyways so the fritos didn't really change anything, I ate them while watching tv 

Dinner: Chicken soup

-My mom made chicken soup because I'd been feeling sick, this brings back childhood memories and is one of the more nostalgic meals I've had, it made me think of snow days and winter nights when my mom would make soup when I came home from school.  While the soup is oily it does contain chicken, sausage and potatoes which are fairly healthy although I don't usually worry about oil since I'm not worried about gaining weight.      

Food Ways

Food is a large part of our culture and how we eat it depends on who we are, where we are and who we're with.  We're also taught to eat in certain ways to celebrate holidays or mimic other cultures.  We're taught through media and school to eat the "white" way.  On top of that we have our own ethnic or cultural ways of eating and our own personal beliefs.

My family tends to be fairly lenient with our meals, we're usually busy doing certain things, for me and my siblings it might be homework and things of that nature.  Because of this we prepare our food and eat it whenever we're hungry and have time, for larger feasts or vacation time where we aren't busy we tend to eat together.  My mom usually cooks because my dad can be busy and comes home late, but they both cook well and for big feasts I help cook.

The "white" way of eating is to eat at the table waiting to watch tv, or eating in front of the tv.  While food can be good on holidays its merely for nutrition on normal days, good food comes from large chains like Mac-Donald's or any other fast food chain.  White families even use these chains as rewards, "if you're good we'll go to Burger King" because apparently their food is better than anything any American can make at home.  Much like the rest of our lifestyle, eating is dominated by corporations and brands and our culture makes us favor those over home style foods.

My own personal way of eating is based on what I have and what I can make with it.  While I don't know how to cook too many things now, I'd like to prioritize home cooking and resort to ordering or fast food when I don't have time to cook, for lunch or if I have to go somewhere and I want a quick snack, or if I'm tired or don't have any ingredients in my house to make a good meal.  The key word of that sentence was "resort" while fast food may taste good and be cheap, home cooking is much more fun, rewarding and healthy than eating fast food.  When I have to choose a restaurant, for lunch I can't cook obviously, I choose places that are cheap and that I personally have a good experience with, if I know that a certain type of food is bad for me I won't eat it.  This way of eating will make breakfast and dinner more meaningful and lunch shared with friends will be meaningful as well, although the food may not be as prevalent in the meaning of the meal.                   

Why are Americans so fat?

Americans, mostly the south and midwest, are overweight on average making us a "fat" nation.  The obvious question is "why?".  There are a few reasons, the southern and midwestern states are spread out which influence people to drive everywhere taking away the need for walking limiting their exercise.  Our largest food chains are based around greasy and fatty recipes and our lives revolve around computers.  Overall we basically eat too much and exercise too little.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20040317/impatience-makes-americans-fat

According to "Web M.D." impatience has greatly affected obesity in America.  Due to delivery, drive through's, and car-hops we can sit back and grow fat while we eat, eliminating exercise and adding to the desire for fatty foods.  Some restaurants even have online ordering, a few years ago we'd actually have to get up to order on the phone but apparently standing is too much work for your food.  

What's in my refrigerator

In my refrigerator I have...

-1 jar of peanut butter -1 tub of cookie dough -12 eggs -lettuce -smoked sausage -rice -beer 

-mango nectar -3 cartons of milk -cranberry juice -tomato sauce -butter -mayonnaise -cream

-cans of soda (mostly coke)

Most of the things in my fridge are healthy, while it may look like a fatty diet these food items were bought in bulk and usually last a much longer time.  I think that in terms of the food in the refrigerator my diet is fairly healthy  and while some of the food may have pesticides in them, which are virtually unavoidable, they're still fairly natural.  My own personal belief is that a healthy diet is based on having a balance of different foods and personalizing it for your body type which comes from an understanding of your body  

Health Unit Final thoughts

Throughout this unit I've thought about what it means to be "healthy" in a variety of areas and how that effects your life.  The obvious conclusion is that if you're healthy you'll live a better life, you'll be able to do more, feel better etc. but what does being healthy actually mean? and how can we become healthy?

To be physically healthy means that you exercise and eat right, specifically eating what works for you, if you're over weight eat less, if under eat more etc. there is no universal diet.  Just as there is no universal diet there is no universal exercise plan, everything is based on the person and what makes them feel better.  Being physically healthy will increase your lifespan, make you happier and able to the things you love, an obvious requirement to a good life.

My own definition of mental health, ignoring the "averages" system that ask people to fit a certain criteria, is reacting correctly to a situation, most people say that if you're depressed all the time "you have problems" but if there is something in you're life to make you depressed then why not be depressed, it's an appropriate reaction to the situation.  Being happy all the time like we try to be isn't healthy either unless you live a pampered life where people go out of their ways to make you happy.  The only way to be emotionally unhealthy by my definition is to have a condition or disorder that prevents you from reacting correctly to situations, or not expressing those reactions appropriately, hiding sadness or anger is unhealthy since you aren't reacting to the situation, you're feeling an emotion and hiding it, reaction involves expression of an emotion.

Moral health can be trickier since not everyone has the same moral code.  My criteria for moral health is to have a moral code, and understanding it.  While someone can easily say things like I'll never lie, I'll never cheat, I'll never steal, they might have to do those things to survive, and thats the problem.  What if you had to choose between death and disobeying your moral code? I can't answer this question for anyone other than myself, this is a question for the individual, but knowing the answer to this question and knowing your moral code leads to moral health.  Being morally unhealthy is not being able to justify your actions and not having a moral code, having a code means you will be able to justify anything you do because you chose that action.  Not knowing what you're willing to do is unhealthy because you can't live your life if you don't know how you're going to live it.

The idea of life to attain the highest levels of all of these kinds of health.  Knowing who you are, in your mind, body and morals will help you learn about yourself.  Self understanding will help you know how to improve yourself and how to become a better person and each culture places these health standards on its people to shape them into better people.  My own personal belief is that a good life is one you enjoy, and a meaningful life is one that leaves behind a legacy and one where you live as the best person you can be.        

My Emotional Health

My own personal definition of emotional health is being able to react appropriately to situations.  Our main assumption of an emotionally unhealthy person is someone who is constantly depressed or angry, which are fine emotions and can't be escaped.  Someone who experiences these emotions at the wrong times is emotionally unhealthy, someone who is constantly depressed without a good reason is emotionally unhealthy.  Someone who expresses an inappropriate degree of an emotion is also unhealthy.  Extreme anger or extreme sadness in situations that aren't extreme are unhealthy reactions.  Likewise people who bottle up emotions and don't express them are also unhealthy.  These people aren't reacting at all, non-reaction can be an inappropriate reaction to a situation, emotions are meant to be felt and not feeling them or expressing them is unhealthy.

I'm emotionally healthy when I'm doing things I like which usually make me calm or happy, this would imply that I'm enjoying myself and something good is happening to trigger the happy response.  Note that I'm also healthy when I'm feeling sad or angry in a sad or angry situation, respectively, but I don't feel healthy because I'm in a negative mood.  These activities include hanging out with friends, playing video games, practicing martial arts, virtually anything that can put me in a good mood.  Things that put me in a good mood are usually social, creative and mentally or physically stimulating activities, as science would likely point to, being that the emotion happiness connects to activities that improve survival and encourage the animal to repeat these (humans included).

I don't feel emotionally unhealthy because if I'm depressed or angry its usually because I should feel depressed or angry in that situation.  Feeling bad isn't unhealthy, its just a reaction to a situation, therefore no activity can make someone emotionally unhealthy by my definition, the person must have a pre-existing condition or manifest their own emotional problems to react inappropriately to a situation.  For me I only feel especially emotionally healthy or neutrally healthy, just as someone may feel especially physically healthy when they're at the gym and not feel anything when they're going about their business.        

Humanistic psychology

Humanist psychology  is a very simple philosophy that evolved out of existentialism(see another blog that references existentialism).  The humanists emphasize the present unlike other psychologies that study the patients past to give them therapy.  They believe that true happiness comes from becoming a better person and understanding yourself, and while this makes your life better or more meaningful, they believe that each life is meaningful just for being a life.  Strong emphasis is placed on taking responsibility for past actions, they believe that atoning for ones negative actions and accepting reasonable praise for positive actions leads to happiness and mental health.

For more information on Humanist psychology follow the link  

http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Humanistic-Psychology.asp

Mental Health stories

Mentally Healthy story

Joe is walking to school, he sees all of his friends and says hi to them, engaging in small conversation every once in a while.  This makes him happy, he progresses through his day until he remembers that he forgot to do his homework and the teacher scolds him in front of the class for not doing it.  This makes him a little angry at the teacher but he gets over it and remembers to do his homework the next night to avoid getting embarrassed.

Mentally Unhealthy story 

Bob walks to school, other kids say hi to him and he gives them the middle finger, none of them provoked him and he isn't angry about a previous situation.  He is angry at these kids for no apparent reason.  Bob did his homework, unlike Joe, and is praised in front of the class by the teacher.  Out of nowhere Bob punches the teacher in the face and is expelled.  Upon expulsion he laughs and dances around the principals office as if he's happy.  Note that Bob doesn't particularly hate his school and knows that it will go on his record.  For no apparent reason Bob is happy to expelled.     

Health Questions

Q:What is the ideal Human in terms of BMI, weight, height etc. ?

A:http://www.trap17.com/index.php/what-bmi-body-mass-index_t36288.html

-the ideal BMI, Body Mass Index, is from 18 to 25, the ideal weights and heights aren't given but in terms of health the ratio is more important than the actual measurements which are more cosmetic, i.e. taller people may be more attractive but not necessarily healthier

Q:What are the benefits of the American Lifestyle?

A: I thought we were just being pestimistic, but I found no sources that commented on any benefits to the American lifestyle, we either eat too much just because we can, or starve ourselves to avoid being obese but in the process we become anorexic, either way we do too much or too little

Q:How many hour of exercise do we need as humans?

A:http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/exercise/a/enoughexercise.html

60 minutes of vigorous activity outside of everyday work

Q:What kind of exercise is most important?

A:http://www.becomehealthynow.com/category/exercisetypes/

Aerobic exercises, such as jogging cycling etc. are view as most important since they prevent heart disease and other circulatory problems.  Strength training and stretching have their own benefits but are considered supplementary and aren't "mandatory" exercises   

Q:What is the ideal diet for humans

A:http://www.webindia123.com/health/diet/diet/ideal.html

unlike other "1-sided" weight loss diets this one is more balanced and has a wider variety of foods

Animal Essay

Most "humans" classified as homo-sapien-sapien, would say that we're some sort of chosen race among the animals, that we're better because we think or because we have consciousness or because god chose us or because we have souls.  The sad truth is that we are animals and most people can't accept that and our society has come up with several ways to separate us from animals.

  Creation myths are driving forces in our effort to separate ourselves from animals, the book of genesis is one of many creation stories that depict humans as higher than the other animals.  "Let us make man in our image and let him rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the air" chapter 1-26.  The bible clearly says that we as humans are dominant over the other animals in the world.  The scientific creation myth, evolution, divides us into kingdoms, families, genus's and species.  While humans are put under the kingdom of "animal" we are put into our own genus and our species in an effort to separate us from animals.  Humans may not need their own genus because our genetic material is very similar to other chimps, which would put us in the same genus.  Science and religion use different evidence to separate us from animals.

Rene Decartes is another reason why we don't see ourselves as animals.  His main philosophy revolved around our minds.  He believed that we are our minds that live in our bodies.  The quote "I think, therefore I am" shows how significant the mind was to him.  No other animal views itself as just a mind, non-human animals accept their bodies, contrary to what Decartes believes.  His ideas have made the rest of society ignore their bodies, we emphasize education over fitness and value intelligence over strength, this separates us from other animals because other animals need their bodies to survive and accept that they need them.

Humans tend to think we're on the top of the food chain because we haven't experienced any food chain outside of farms and civilization, in the wild we're fairly low on the food chain because we've domesticated ourselves and can't survive well in the wild.  We don't know that we're not on top of the food chain because most of our time is spent only with humans, any other animals are usually birds or pets that we name and humanize.  Because we don't spend time with non-human animals we can't relate to animals and we deny our relation to animals.

If humans accept that they're animals they can make their lives better in a number of ways.  People will be able to appreciate and take care of their physical bodies like animals do.  People will also be able to realize that thinking isn't the most important thing and that thinking isn't what defines people.  We will also become more dependent on ourselves, animals don't believe in any outside influences to help them and solve their problems on their own.  Humans perceive the world as a collection of systems full of abstract ideas, things like economies, government, and religion which aren't real.  Animals only accept what they can see, feel touch, smell etc. as real, they see the world for what it really is and they don't get caught up in ideas that the rest of the world believes in.

I think that we are animals, it wouldn't make sense for humans to just evolve out of what we were, no matter how many upgrades you put in a computer it'll still be a computer, in the same way that we've evolved to seemingly become above animals.  Once we come to terms with humans being animals we can live more natural and happier lives.  We can learn a lot from animals and how they live, and we can use what we know about animals to live better lives.                       

Answers to questions

Q:What percent of old people can walk?

Q:""live alone?

A:39% of old women lived alone and 19% of old men lived alone 

Q:""work?

Q:""play sports? 

Q:""are depressed?

Q:""volunteer for community service? 

Q:""don't take medication?

Q:""live in retirement homes?

Q:""use recreational drugs?

Q:What is the average cause of death in old people?

A:Heart disease kills 533,302 old people per year

Cancer kills 385,847 per year

Strokes kill 130,538 per year

Q:How much do old people spend on medication?

Q:How much money is spent on people who are about to die?

Q:How long does the average person live?

Q:What percent of old people are on anti-depressants?

Q:How many old people are on pension?     

Old people are viewed as either angry bitter people, or gentle people who pass down wisdom, the similarity between these two expectations is that old people are unhealthy and are burdens on society.  The data gathered from the research supported most of it based on deaths and medical studies we have concluded that most old people are unhealthy, and that a large portion of them live alone.  Our perceptions of them are true at their roots, but we tend to exaggerate these traits for comedy or to argue  how they se resources without contributing to society. 

Old People Questions

Lifestyles of Old People

-What the most interesting thing you've done since becoming "old"

-What is it like to live in a retirement home?

-How active are Old people?

-How often does your family visit you?

-What do you do now that you didn't do in your youth?

-(Vice Versa)

-Is this what you expected would happen when you get older?

-Do you enjoy life?

-What do you wish you could do?

-What role models do you have as an old person?

-What is your average day like if you can't walk?

-What age do you consider old?

-How often do you think about your health?

-""death?

-What's it like not being able to do things on your own?

-What percent of old people can still control their bodies?

-""live with their family?

-""volunteer for community service?

-""work for a living?

-""are poor?

-""play sports?

-""are depressed?

-""are happy?

-""consider themselves young on the inside?

Questions for an old person

1-What were things like in your childhood? (can stem to technology, music, etc.)

2-What do you think you've accomplished in your life?

3-What regrets do you have?

4-How can I make my own accomplishments?

5-How can I avoid regrets  

Big Paper 1st draft

“What is a Good and Meaningful Life?”

People define what a good and meaningful life is based on their culture.  Culture can be grouped into several categories.  Corporate Culture, any culture that’s sold for example, TV, news, products and other kinds of media are corporate culture.  Another part of culture is folk culture, culture expressed by word of mouth, this is usually based on family and friends who may have told you stories like “the 3 little pigs” which is passed on by word of mouth and is folk culture, unless its sold as a book.  The last part of culture is called “big-sub-culture” a big sub culture is a culture that most people know about that’s a part or is contained in a larger culture.  Big sub cultures like Christianity in America are part of American culture and most people know about it but not all people are Christians.  

Because there are many different ways and opinions on how to live a good and meaningful life we should look at all or at least most of them and consider them as possibilities and give deep thought as to wether we would pursue them.  Any one who looks at only one opinion of how to live a good and meaningful life or weighs one message over another will be confused and won't be able to live a good and meaningful life because their vision of it is one-sided and uneducated. 

Each of these categories can then be broken down into sub categories based on their messages.  These are dominant messages that are obvious and noticeable, marginal messages, which may be harder to pick up on and are sometimes unintentional, and unacceptable the “bad” messages that are prohibited based on that culture’s values but still make their way into society.

My definition of a good and meaningful life is simple and should answer many questions.  My criteria for a good and meaningful life is that the person is happy, doesn't hurt anyone and leaves behind a legacy for others to remember.  A good life is one where the person is happy and they don't hurt anyone else, this answers the question of "if a serial killer enjoys his work is his life good?" the answer would be no because he's hurting people, it's not necessary to hurt others to live a good life and there are many examples of peaceful people who live good lives.

To have a meaningful life the person has to leave a mark on the world, meaning is what makes people notice your life, if your life is meaningful, and by extension more meaningful than other people's, then you should be noticed more than other people.  If a person was kept away from society and was happy and didn't hurt anyone, his life would be good, but because he didn't leave any mark on the world his life wouldn't be meaningful.  My definition is simple enough to include many different life styles, but has enough criteria to rule out questionable and harmful life styles.  

Corporate Culture gives us very few lifestyles to chose from and rigid paths to follow in those lifestyles.  For example the "Rags to Riches" lifestyle demands that the person is a minority, and lives in a bad neighborhood.  This person has to have some sort of talent like playing basketball or rapping.  This person has gang affiliations, gets involved with drugs or gets assaulted or any combination of these.  They then beat out the competition and become celebrities and have their own movies and documentaries etc.  What they don't tell you is that everyone is after that dream and there's only a few spots and everyone thinks they're the best of the best.

Aside from that dream there's only a few others, there's the common one which everyone knows, graduate high school, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, get old, retire and die which most of America does.  Then there's the super rich people who inherit money and make even more money "Riches to more Riches" like Donald Trump did.  Either way all of these dreams involve money, working for it from poverty, making money from money, or just having enough to get by we all need, use and want money and our lives have to revolve around it.       

Dominant messages are the most obvious and are the most intentional messages in media.  These messages are specifically put there by the creator to get a point across, these messages are in everything regardless of weather they are intentional or not.  The dominant message of "Game pro" magazine is that life is upgradable, they advertise the newest gaming systems and games, gadgets and other electronics.  This implies that we should improve themselves, the way that we do that as Americans is to buy bigger and better things thus a meaningful life according to Game pro magazine is to have the newest and best electronics and games.

"The Economist" made its own statement about what a good and meaningful life was.  The economist encourages the reader to buy things, not only commercial goods like the cars they advertise but they influence investing as well through stock data graphs and market predictions.  The Economist not only emphasizes the need for material possessions but also states that money on its own is important through its use of investment information.  There are also pictures of business men and other rich people to entice readers to become like them.  To the economist a good and meaningful life includes expensive things, money and power in the form of a high paying career. 

The film "Fox Fire" from Columbia studios has the dominant messages of a feminist movie however if the film is deeply interpreted there are different messages underneath.  The film's beginning shows a student being molested by a teacher, the victim and other female students say that they can't do anything about it, but a strong courageous woman convinces them that they can.  The strong female character had many masculine traits like her dislike of vanity, the clothes that she wore and the way she talked which implies that to lead you must have masculine traits.  The film relates leadership and power to masculinity and vulnerability to feminine traits therefore to live a good life with power and security you must be a man or have masculine traits.

The film "Pump Up the Volume"  shows a rebellious teenager named Mark (Hard Harry when on his radio) who plays music and talks over the radio on a pirated signal.  Mark's father represents the dominant messages of corporate culture, while Mark represents the marginal messages.  Mark listens to unknown music and stands out from the crowd, he's weird and has weird things and rebels against society and chooses not to conform to society's expectations.  One marginal message that can be taken from this movie is that you shouldn't be like everyone else, living a good and meaningful life means being different and standing out.  However the film shows his uniqueness through the things he has, tapes of unknown bands, radio equipment, exotic pets etc. To have a meaningful life and to be different you have to buy things that make you different, you have to have different things along with being a different person.

The reason why we shouldn't listen to only corporate culture is because their messages are meant to be sold, they don't care what they say as long as everyone is happy and they make their money.  Corporations do what sells, not always what's right.  Any message coming from a profit making organization should be listened to and analyzed but not taken for fact or weighed more heavily over other lifestyles. 

Folk culture is a culture passed on through word of mouth or through your family and friends, these messages are "pure" and haven't gone through the corrupted filter of the corporations.  These messages on how to live a god and meaningful life will come from your family and friends.  Folk culture itself was mainly passed on by word of mouth, but is now spreading rapidly with the internet and thanks to message boards, forums and sites like Myspace, Facebook and other profile sites folk culture has been able to spread throughout the country faster.

"How to become the Perfect Boyfriend"  is a video about just that.  They explain several ways that a man can have a better relationship with his girlfriend.  These include things like listening to them, being supportive of them etc.  The main message was fairly obvious, that we all need to be in a relationship, they didn't say you had an option in dating, according to the video we all need people to rely on and partners to make our lives good an meaningful.  The video emphasized connection between people in relationships and showed that a meaningful relationship is worth working for.  The video conveys a good and meaningful life as one with a significant other whom you have a good connection with and enjoy being around.

"How to Avoid Wasting Time on Facebook"  is a tutorial on how to make Facebook time more productive, the video says that you must quit all of the meaningless applications and ignore requests for those applications.  The video's message was to evaluate what was productive and what wasn't.  It implied that a meaningful life comes from efficiency and avoiding becoming a slave to the internet or becoming a slave to meaningless things.  The video also subtly emphasized that connections with real people were more meaningful than useless applications on Facebook.

We shouldn't listen to only folk messages either because they come from either people we don't know in the case of the internet, or people who overly positive or overly negative, in the case of parents and family.  Because these people know you they can "sugar coat" things or make things seem worse than they really are, parents are the ones who dictate which lifestyles are acceptable and will have biased messages.  On the other hand the people who don't know you won't be able to give appropriate advice.  Like all other messages on how to live a good and meaningful life, folk messages should be considered but not weighed heavier than other messages or taken as true just because someone you trust said it.  

Dominant Messages in Folk Culture

Folk culture is a culture passed on through word of mouth or through your family and friends, these messages are "pure" and haven't gone through the corrupted filter of the corporations.  These messages on how to live a god and meaningful life will come from your family and friends.  Folk culture itself was mainly passed on by word of mouth, but is now spreading rapidly with the internet and thanks to message boards, forums and sites like Myspace, Facebook and other profile sites folk culture has been able to spread throughout the country faster.

"How to become the Perfect Boyfriend"  is a video about just that.  They explain several ways that a man can have a better relationship with his girlfriend.  These include things like listening to them, being supportive of them etc.  The main message was fairly obvious, that we all need to be in a relationship, they didn't say you had an option in dating, according to the video we all need people to rely on and partners to make our lives good an meaningful.  The video emphasized connection between people in relationships and showed that a meaningful relationship is worth working for.  The video conveys a good and meaningful life as one with a significant other whom you have a good connection with and enjoy being around.

"How to Avoid Wasting Time on Facebook"  is a tutorial on how to make Facebook time more productive, the video says that you must quit all of the meaningless applications and ignore requests for those applications.  The video's message was to evaluate what was productive and what wasn't.  It implied that a meaningful life comes from efficiency and avoiding becoming a slave to the internet or becoming a slave to meaningless things.  The video also subtly emphasized that connections with real people were more meaningful than useless applications on Facebook.    

Inauguration Reflection

Barack Obama's speech was very inspiring and uplifting, this is because of his command over the english language and charisma.  His speeches are designed to include everyone and to speak to all of America, this creates a sense of involvement and belonging that we crave in leadership.  Obama's speeches give us guidance and tell us how to live our lives and what to do to serve our country while giving us confidence to do those things.

He tells us that we need to sacrifice and work hard for our lives of freedom, we need to be patriotic and thank the country for all of the opportunities it's given us and we need to support our country and be involved in it and its politics.  In his speeches he reminds us that we have to be a part of the community and that we have to let our voices be heard, he tells us that we can do it and that with hard work we will do it.

Barack Obama's ability to write and give speeches is what's made him so popular, he makes sure to inspire each and every American to do what's right for their country and he tells us what to do to become involved in the community and in our country.  He inspires us and leads us and that's what a president should do.       

MLK Reflection

Martin Luther King  day is a day to remember and honor the efforts of Martin Luther King and what he did for the Civil Rights movement and for the black community.  We remember his speeches and his ideas that at the time were revolutionary and are now common belief in most of the world.  He preached equality and tolerance of other people's races and religions.

While we may have ignored most if not all of MLK's flaws, that still shouldn't override his accomplishments.  While he may be a "Postage Stamp Saint" there's still some truth to what's said about him.  I don't believe that just because he was used to make a holiday and somewhat warped by the elites to make him seem "perfect" we should ignore everything they say.  While we should question what people say about him and research what his life we should research both sides.  As apposed to just poking holes in his accomplishments or making him look bad its important to research his strengths and weaknesses as a person, between the two we'll find the truth.

I agree somewhat with the "Postage Stamp Saint" theory, I agree that the image of a "dangerous" person to society can be exaggerated so that they seem perfect and people won't be able to become like them.  However what they say is exaggerated, meaning that to some extent it was true and the basis of their character and what they did will remain the same, Martin Luther King wasn't perfect but no matter how you look at it, he still campaigned for equality, freedom and tolerance even if his character is overly perfect 

New Years Analysis

To fully understand how we've screwed up new years, we need to see what it stood for before it was corrupted and marketed.  New Years was a celebration of a good year and the next one to come, people used to think reflectively about themselves and try to make themselves better people by having "New Years Resolutions" which are goals that they set at the the beginning of the new year.  The "New Years Resolution" has become a joke in our society and isn't widely acknowledged.

Modern American New Years is an excuse to get drunk and get crazy, togetherness is only advertised in the "midnight kiss" in which you have to kiss someone on new years, this isn't meant to be romantic because you'd most likely be drunk anyways and its meant to be like a game of musical chairs where you have a time limit to be with someone.  New Years Resolutions were the only redeeming quality to New Years, now they're used to advertise habits and businesses, such ads say things like "this year resolve to weight at (insert gym)".  The American advertisement and by extension the culture is imposed on people through these resolutions, they tell you what to improve on without knowing individual weaknesses so in the end people don't make their own goals, they borrow impersonal and in many cases wrong or unfitting goals for the new year.

The lazy Americans don't improve and the 10% of active Americans that do improve themselves, don't do it by their standards.  The Americanized holiday of New Years emphasizes that perverted versions of old values.  Having fun, togetherness and resolution have turned into binge drinking, quick and horrible relationship decisions and following someone else's resolutions.  Yet another way that holidays can control ignorant people who follow them without questioning them.  

Corporate Culture's opinion of a good and meaningful life

Corporate Culture gives us very few lifestyles to chose from and rigid paths to follow in those lifestyles.  For example the "Rags to Riches" lifestyle demands that the person is a minority, and lives in a bad neighborhood.  This person has to have some sort of talent like playing basketball or rapping.  This person has gang affiliations, gets involved with drugs or gets assaulted or any combination of these.  They then beat out the competition and become celebrities and have their own movies and documentaries etc.  What they don't tell you is that everyone is after that dream and there's only a few spots and everyone thinks they're the best of the best.

Aside from that dream there's only a few others, there's the common one which everyone knows, graduate high school, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, get old, retire and die which most of America does.  Then there's the super rich people who inherit money and make even more money "Riches to more Riches" like Donald Trump did.  Either way all of these dreams involve money, working for it from poverty, making money from money, or just having enough to get by we all need, use and want money and our lives have to revolve around it.       

My Opinion of a good and meaningful life

My definition of a good and meaningful life is simple and should answer many questions.  My criteria for a good and meaningful life is that the person is happy, doesn't hurt anyone and leaves behind a legacy for others to remember.  A good life is one where the person is happy and they don't hurt anyone else, this answers the question of "if a serial killer enjoys his work is his life good?" the answer would be no because he's hurting people, it's not necessary to hurt others to live a good life and there are many examples of peaceful people who live good lives.

To have a meaningful life the person has to leave a mark on the world, meaning is what makes people notice your life, if your life is meaningful, and by extension more meaningful than other people's, then you should be noticed more than other people.  If a person was kept away from society and was happy and didn't hurt anyone, his life would be good, but because he didn't leave any mark on the world his life wouldn't be meaningful.  My definition is simple enough to include many different life styles, but has enough criteria to rule out questionable and harmful life styles.