So, I need to make a list of books to finish/start and finish over the summer… Because if I don’t I will most definitely lose track.

Here is my list, in no particular order:

• finish The Fountainhead (Rand)
• The Ominous Parallels (Peikoff)
• finish Living Proof (K. Peikoff) (And a very nice gift, I might add)
• An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England (Clarke)
• Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)
• 1984 (Orwell)
• finish Little Bee (Cleave) (….maybe not this one. Low priority due to a bit of lameness.)
• Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
• Making of te Atomic Bomb (Rhodes)
• finish Battle Royale (Takami) (“The Original Survival Game!” says the sticker on the front…Subtle jab at The Hunger Games was not so subtle, there. But well deserved)
• American Sniper (Kyle)
• Unbroken (Hillenbrand)

That’s all I have so far… I will probably have more to add since working in a bookstore makes that inevitable. 

Excited for school to get out so I can learn! (Isn’t that ironic?)

This is an essay that I wrote in response to the essay “Philosophy: Who Needs It” by Ayn Rand. It seems appropriate to look over it at this particular time… 

In her lecture, Philosophy: Who Needs It, Ayn Rand states that “as a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy”. Unfortunately, today we are surrounded by those who believe that philosophy is worthless. By breaking down man’s inescapable need of philosophy, Rand shows how irrational this view is.

            “Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man’s relationship to existence,” Rand says in her lecture. Philosophy gives man the proper tools to answer the simplest of questions— the ones that must be understood by all men: “Where am I? How do I know it? What should I do?” There must be a very basic understanding of metaphysics—the first principles of things, like being and knowing—before one can answer the simple question, “where am I?” In order to know the answer, you have to recognize that you exist, and that you can know. Then, to answer the question “how do I know it?” you must call upon epistemology—the theory of knowledge—in order to be able to point to a map and convey how you know that you are in the United States. Metaphysics and epistemology are the foundation of morality—ethics—because without knowing where you are or how you came to that realization, there is no way to understand or know the answer to the question “what should I do?” Ethics apply “to every aspect of man’s life: his character, his actions, his values, his relationship to all of existence,” says Rand. Without ethics, man has no capability of action—ethics dictate every choice and every action a man makes.

            Metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics are the basic building blocks of philosophy. To deny the importance of philosophy, and cast it off as worthless, is to deny the importance of the three things that make it possible for you to be a functional human being.

            “As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation—or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions,” Rand says, stating that the fact that you are alive means that you have a philosophy—that part isn’t up to you. As long as you can identify an A, you are using philosophy. It is your choice, however, to identify that A as an A, or as something that it is not. Philosophy is required for the most basic identification of objects and people in this world. If practical is defined as useful, I can think of nothing more useful than being able to discern the differences between objects and ideas, and applying that knowledge to my morality in a manner that is consistent with an objective reality. Therefore, since identification, thinking, and acting are all requirements for being alive, philosophy is an inescapable need of man.

For English class, we were supposed to have read three short stories (of which I read one): Harrison Bergeron, Those Who Walk Away from Omelas, and The Lottery. I read Harrison Bergeron, and I absolutely loved it. It was terribly sad, but it was so beautiful and an amazing show of how noble the battle of the individual against the collective is.

Basically, in this dystopian futuristic society, the Constitution has been ammended 218 times, and men are “finally equal”. There is a branch of government in charge of this, and how they make everyone equal is by “handicapping” those that are exceptional. Intelligent men are made to wear earpieces that blast loud noises into their heads every once in a while in order to interrupt their trains of thought, strong people are forced to wear huge weights all the time to weigh them down, and beautiful people are forced to wear incredibly ugly masks.

The story starts with Hazel and George, a married couple who have just had their son Harrison taken from them and thrown in jail, watching TV; there is a ballet on. The dancers occasionally fall to the ground from the noises in their earpieces, and they all have ugly masks to hide their beauty. The program is interrupted by a stuttering newscaster to announce an important news bulletin, but he has a stutter and cannot convey the message, so he hands the broadcast to a ballerina to read. She has an especially ugly mask, which is understood by Hazel, an average, un-handicapped woman, to mean that she is exceptionally beautiful. The ballerina appologizes for her beautiful voice, and changes it in order to deliver her broadcast: Harrison has escaped jail and he is to be ignored at all costs by the people. At that moment, the set begins to rumble. Everyone falls over, and Harrison rushes onto the screen—He is tall, exactly seven feet, and he is covered in handicaps. His teeth were too straight and white, so he wears black caps over some of them. He is covered in 300 lbs of weights. His eyebrows have been shaved off. He wears a red rubber nose. He wears huge, thick-lensed glasses.

Harrison reaches out to the people. He claims to be their emperor. He then commands all to look at him as he reaches his full potential beauty— He removes all of his handicaps, becoming the man he is supposed to be. He then announces that the first of the ballerinas to stand with him shall be his empress—and alas, one stands. He removes her mask, and she is beautiful. He picks up a few of the musicians, and commands them to play in the way that they know is beautiful, not in the disgusting handicapped way that they have previously been forced to play in. The musicians listen to him, and he and his emperess begin to dance. They are described as leaping so high that they kiss the thirty foot ceiling. The scene described here is beautiful— and as they kiss eachother in mid air, the officer in charge of handicapping bursts through the door with a giant gun and kills Harrison and his empress before they hit the ground. She commands the musicians to replace their handicaps and forces things to return to the way they were.

Harrison’s parents cry for him. George’s earpiece knocks him to the floor, and Hazel cares for him, with tears still running down her face, even though she has forgotten what she has just seen. George has also lost the memory of his son’s tragic public death.

Harrison Bergeron is a tragic story, yes. But it delivers a powerful message about the individual versus the collective, and how ridiculous it is to keep ammending our Constitution until it is no longer the same document and until it forces men to abandon all rights to their individuality, and only worry about being noticed as exceptional at anything, because that means certain suffering.

My english professor tried to convince our class that this story is one of condemning technology, and promoting socialism. How, I do not understand, because I do not see that connection anywhere. He also described it as a comedy. I see nothing funny in that story. I see nothing to smile about besides Harrison’s courage and beauty, which is brutally annihilated in the end. I see no reason for my professor to come to this conclusion. It is ridiculous and farfetched since the theme of the story is so obvious. I am thoroughly stumped by the lack of reason displayed at my school today. I am finding it hard to concentrate on anything else… Because if people are so willing to accept this fictional society as funny, how far away are we from becoming like it? 

A blog!

I have made one. That will mostly be for text posts, as opposed to “Grace Face,” which is where I usually just reblog photos and such.

I don’t really know how having a second blog works here on tumblr, so I’m going to poke around for a bit and figure out who can see what and somesuch.