Human nature

We chose three categories to put our quotations of human nature in. We saw a pattern between a lot of the categories. Some were optimistic toward human nature and some where pessimistic in our view. We decided to categorize these quotes by 'what human nature should be' and 'what human nature should not be'. Some of these quotes were not seen in either category. To categorize these we had a separate pile we called 'what human nature is' or 'actually is'. This pile had the quotes that specified something that was a statement instead of a view or opinion.
We then started applying views of Government and Gods to these categories. They seemed to be pretty defiant. Most were views of government or how much of an impact god has on us. Some examples for 'what human nature is' are "imminent god" and "democracy". Both of these are statements and true, there are imminent gods and we have a democracy. In an example for pessimistic views are "mob rule" and "there is/are no God(s)". Both of these state a view someone has toward the subject of human nature. Also, mob rule is not the actual state of human nature so it falls under negative views. Lastly some optimistic views are "god is our watchmaker" and "God is all-loving and all-forgiving". These views are optimistic toward the state of nature and views on God.

How Far Would You Go?

In the recent news, Bernie Madoff is being charged with 11 felony counts of fraud. Federal prosecutors estimated clients losses to be around $65 billion dollars, including fabricated gains. Madoff was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme which is an operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from any actual profit earned. Madoff made billions of money by cheating his clients of their money and even had $1 billion of his money in assets that were overseas such as a house in France that was worth $1 million dollars and had around $900,000 worth of furniture and paintings. Many of Madoff's clients went to his court trial to testify about their investments, watch a small clip of an interview with one of his clients here.

Not only did Madoff get in trouble but so did his accountant, and that raises the question of is fraud contagious? An article titled "Is Fraud Contagious" talks about the Madoff scandal and why people cheat. People that cheat and don't cheat both weigh the benefits and costs that can come from fraud but honest people see that the costs out-weigh the benefits. Personally, I don't believe I could ever cheat or commit fraud because the chances of getting caught are huge. Madoff starting scamming his clients in the 1990's and didn't get caught until now, but did he think that he could get away with stealing around $50 billion dollars from people? As an accounting major ethics play a huge role in my life because my clients need to be able to trust me with their finances and assume I will do the right thing. Embezzlement is a huge problem in my profession because of the amount of money that one person can handle and work with. My accounting teacher told us that her old job made everyone take a week off every two months or so, so that they wouldn't be able to steal money. That's a smart idea even though in a perfect society we shouldn't have to think that our employees would steal from us.
I believe that morals and ethics play a huge role in ones decision whether to cheat or be honest in their everyday lives. Would you be willing to cheat people of their money or would your ethics and morals overpower your urge to this horrible crime? How far would you go?

Children See Children Do

Last week in class we were discussing how children should be raised. Does it matter if a child is raised by a mother and a father, or by a mother and a mother, father and a father? We came to the consensus that it really did not matter the sexual orientation of the parents, it is how the child is raised. When I was looking on CNN I came across this article. In the article by Jack Cafferty he is saying that there is no such thing as a perfect family. There is always going to be a level of dysfunction, and there will always be negative character traits. Also, in the article he talks about how parenting skills have been one of the reasons to why the school dropout rate is higher. Parents are lacking the skills of teaching their children manners which makes it hard for them to do well in school. In my opinion, it is how the parents raise their child. It does not matter what the parents sexual orientation is, it is how they decide to raise their child. Marriage today, does bring together a mother and a father, but it should also bring same sex couples together. In Mark Lilla's book The Stillborn God, he discussed that his book is about "how we perceive God and how it affects government." He goes on to talk about how religion has had such a huge impact on the government. Sometimes religion having an impact on the government can have a negative impact, there should be a limit to when religion should not be thought about. In this case, religion should be excluded to what marriage should be, if there is such a huge deal that marriage should only be of a man and a women then there should be another term for same sex marriage even though it would mean the same thing. If the couple are compatible and are functional enough to raise a child that is what is important. People get married because they feel that they are right for each other, then they have kids and feel that they still have to stay together because they do not want to hurt the child. When in fact it is hurting the child. The divorce rate today in America is high, it makes me wonder how many children are involved with the divorce. For me personally my parents are divorced and because I was at a older age when it happened I was able to understand the situation. But I wonder how other children take it and how it hurts them emotionally.

Eastwood, Matt. "What Children See Children Do." 6 Dec. 2006. Youtube.

In the video it shows how children see what their parents do and they copy. I have always looked up to my mother, and always watched how she responded to situations and how she carried herself. But I myself can say that I do have negative qualities, some I picked up from school, and others I have picked up from my living condition. Do you feel that the way you were raised has a bigger impact on your life? Or is it through your own life experiences?

Octomom

If you don't know who the "Octomom" is you will now.  She is the woman who previously had six children, all through in vitro fertilization  and then just had another eight using the same method.  So now she has 14 children.  Besides that craziness she has no job, no money, and I personally think she is so annoying.  The reason I decided to blog about her is that we were talking in class on Friday about adoption and how people do not want to adopt American children due to legal issues and the fact that kids growing up in foster homes are not the easiest to deal with.  This is a prime example of healthy kids who should be put up for adoption, but will live in the media spotlight with 13 other brother and sisters in their house since their mother is the Octomom.  

Nadya Suleman, that is the Octomom's real name, has not really been taking care of any of her new eight babies since she is too busy being on the Dr. Phil show, going to amusement parks with some of her other children, and spending over a thousand dollars at a MAC cosmetics store.  Since she has no job and was previously providing for her family using food stamps, she is getting her income from marketing a tape of her eight newborn babies birth reportedly for seven figures.  She seems like an unfit mother and I feel bad for her previous children and her eight new babies that have been in the media spotlight since even before their birth.  

I think that these healthy babies would make any family looking to adopt happy and that they would have a better life not living with the paparazzi and their Octomom.  Since she is not a good mother and people are watching her every move if she were to have her children taken away they would probably be the ones with issues and anger problems in the foster homes because of how they were raised.  Here is a video of her parenting skills when one of her sons is making friends and playing with the paparazzi.  It takes her a minute to realize, but when she does she just laughs it off.  Who wouldn't laugh when your one of 14 children is playing with creepy strangers who want to capture your life on camera?

  To see more of her crazy life go to this website. 

Civil Religion

For our in class assignment we decided that we would divide the quotes into three categories. The first was that Human Nature is Good. We decided that in this group God is all-loving and all forgiving. God is our overseer and also a transcendent God. We also felt that a democracy was a good way to have a government.

The second category was that Human Nature is impressionable. We felt that God has a plan for all of us and that he is the rule maker, but we also felt that he was a Transcendent God. We felt the best type of government would be communism. 

The third category was that Human Nature is bad. We felt that the government was an Anarchy and that God is angry and spiteful. He is a remote God and that he doesn't control our destiny. 

Gay Marriage in Vermont

This week in class we focused on Mark Lilla’s The StillBorn God. Lilla talks about this tension between government and religion. They seem to overlap making it very hard to keep politics out of religion and religion out of politics. We are having this issue right now in Vermont with legalizing same sex marriage. Many people are outraged at this proposal, supporting pins that say marriage = 1 man and 1 woman. One couple interviewed said “marriage is between a man and a woman that’s the way Gog designed us”. How do they know what God designed? Why is their religion right and others not? I am honestly outraged that people are involving themselves in matters that have no effect on their everyday life. While this may go against their religion, we live in a world where you are free to choose your own religion and should not force your religion on anyone. They should have no say over another’s happiness. This bill will give same sex couples more legal rights and the “pride” that comes with saying you are married. They are having a meeting tonight that is open for people to talk about the issue in Montpelier. This seems to be a problem for older adults who cannot accept a totally new idea that was banned during their era. I feel it is time for this change because it creates happiness for more people with little to no negative effect on others lives.
Click here to watch video
Here government is trying to pass a bill they believe will create marriage equality. If this bill is passed we will be the fourth state to legalize same sex marriage falling behind California, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Will this bill be able to pass and not let religious beliefs stop it?

GOVERNMENT

I was really intrigued by the historical scale that was developed by Polybius. In today's government we see three prominent types of government working together to create our nation, we are not solely a democracy. Our democracy stems from the Legislative branch in which we have the good rule of many whom we elect. The President can be seen as a Monarch but again we elect him but we don't give him all the power. The Aristocracy can be seen in the Judiciary branch of government. They all work together to function as best it can without developing an oligarchy, tyrant or mob.

I was researching trying to find a children or young adult game that brings any one of the government forms into play. I came across a very interesting game called Civilization IV. "Indeed, while Civ IV deserves praise for integrating non-material elements like religion and culture into the game play, in the end these pieces suffer the same fate as the rest of the game's components. Civ IV, ultimately, is less about the development of civilization than it is about the expansion of imperial tyranny,"(Ballor). I think that games like this are educational but it's also rated E for everyone. I don't think that little kids should be playing games like this, they tend to have the disadvantage of having the power go to their head. I remember growing up my little brother started playing a karate video game and then started running around the house kicking everyone for about a week until my mom finally took the game away.

The idea of manipulating a society by means of religion, culture, money and economy sounds fascinating. It would be really cool if you could choose and manipulate the types of government played in the game. Having one ruler makes the game controller be either a tyrant or a monarch, I think that they would inevitably become a tyrant since the game is all about war and conquering land.


Ballor, Jordan J. "Power and Tyranny in Civilization IV." Home @ Blogcritics.org. 07 July 2008. .

Vermont's Lack of Religion

This past couple of weeks in class, we have been talking about the importance of religion and politics as we are starting to read The Stillborn God by Mark Lilla. A few days before starting to read this book, I found an article in the Burlington Free Press that talked about how Vermont is the least religious state. I read the article and my first thought was that there was a mistake made. As the article continued on, I was amazed and realized how true it was. I knew right then I wanted to blog about it. So I went to find the article and it was no where to be found. However, the article I found was from USA Today, which also talks about the change in religion from state to state. In the other article talked about how in Vermont, most people who are protestant and just not acknowledging themselves as religious. This is also happening with the Catholic religion. My thoughts about this, is not surprising to me. As a protestant, I know that I do not need religion on a daily basis. It is more of traditions and holidays when religion in my family is important. Whereas, according to this article from USA Today says that Mississippi is the most religious state. I think this is accurate because I know that the farther south you go, the more that religion is important. I just found this article to be fascinating knowing that I live in the least religious state but that I have contributed to part of the reason that we are that low. 

Islamophobia

I find it fascinating how many people associate the terms “Islam” and “Muslim” with terrorist. There is no doubt that there are Islamic Extremist sects such as al-Qaida that fund and orchestrate terrorist attacks, but why has the entire faith of Islam been branded? After the attacks of September 11th, 2001 President Bush made it clear that the men who committed the acts were perverting Islam and that neither Islam nor mainstream Muslims were responsible for the attacks. We are in a “War on Terror” not on Muslims so why do so many associate the two? There are radical fringe groups in every society such as White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis, both of whom frequently align themselves with Christianity to support their cause. Even the term terrorism conjures up almost exclusively images of Arabs in turbans screaming “Islamic Jihad” yet if we look at the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995, the most recent major attack in the United States’ memory before September 11, we see that Timothy McVeigh was an Irish Catholic. So why then are Muslims the ubiquitous American image of terrorism? Is it simply an effect of media propaganda and fear of a largely unknown culture or is there more to it? When Professor Gary Scudder came to speak to us he said that Islam is a religious, social and political system. Could this somehow make Christian terrorists appear different than Muslim terrorists to Americans? Reel Bad Arabs suggested that maybe we have been brought up since childhood to believe Arabs to be violent and barbaric. Maybe it is not a big stretch for Americans to accept that all Muslims are Arabs and they must act the same way.



Recently we have been looking at the depiction of Muslims and Islam in the media and in film over the past decades as well as constitutional issues of freedom of speech. I think it is valuable to place the two side by side and ask where we should draw the line. To what extent (if at all) should Anti-Islamic or even Anti-religious media propaganda be regulated? American Fear is slowly subsiding now, almost eight years after September 11, yet many Americans still fear Islam and are largely ignorant to what it really is.



How then can we ensure that we preserve our civil liberties in the face of ignorance and fear? Should constitutional rights be flexible to ensure public safety or should safety be compromised to protect individual rights?

Social Stereotypes

Look deep down and try and remember where social stereotypes started. Personally I cannot think that far back. It could be the very dummied down versions of Disney films or it could be that it was a long time ago i started watching other films. Either way its a social reality that today's society has brought about terrible stereotypes that you and I have both in one way or another impersonated or used as fact just because it is what we have been brought up with.

This past week we watch two movies both of which I believe portrayed the same message, "Reel Bad Arabs" and "Crossing Boarders," however used different ways. These different ways also show two different realities. One reality is that in today's society we live and abide by stereotypes. The other is that stereotypes are far from the truth and that we just have no idea and never will unless we go find out for ourselves.
Although these movies both use different methods of portraying the point, I found a video that summerises a lot of what these movies are getting at.



Here we see that the short video points out what Islam is straight up. Crossing Boarders did a good job at showing this, however it was not as blatant they did it in a more interactive way. I like how this movie points out over and over again how that stereotypical character we see over and over cannot be the real Islamic character that exists in reality. This is similar to what the guy in "Reel Bad Arabs" does, he just does it on a case by case basis with Hollywood Media. In an indirect way "Crossing Boarders" shows a lot of these characteristics, it just does it through situational cultural comparison between kids our age interacting in certain situations.

I have personally done a one week trip where i worked with homeless and lived with another church group from Rhode Island, and its amazing how you can see a huge difference. In this case the huge difference was how even just day to day i could form and hold conversation with homeless and connect with them on extremely similar levels. This is another stereotype people make and when you really get to know their story and interact with them you automatically think there intoxicated druggies who beg. Not to say there are not some but there are always some stereotype met characters in life. My point being, its a great experience to meet and interact with other cultures and people of different situations before letting a stereotype take over the image because usually its wrong or not speaking to that group of people but a separate group of people all together.

There are some efforts trying to be done about this subject and here is a link to the efforts if you want to get more information. This site gives some great information in picking out stereotypes. Where they come from and why they might be rendered. It also gives some pretty good information on the many types of stereotypes. Hopefully this site can give you some info on stereotypes and help be more aware of them so when one comes up its not the image we see when we think of a certain group, but really see them for who they are or find out who they are.