Women's Rights

To save face about making this monthly blog late, I'm going to say I was waiting to write about this topic on International Women's Day. Whether that's true or not may be open to discussion...

A Thousand Splendid Suns focuses on the lack of rights women in the middle east have. I wish I could say that I was shocked by what the women in this book endured, but so much news coverage and other forms of media have bought attention to this subject and yet no major steps are taken to correct this indecency. One major topic that annoys me is arranged marriages, this is because women are essentially given to the highest bidder in these circumstances. And usually those that have acquired money do so immorally and then are given women to marry because of these actions. Thus creating a situation where only corrupt men are happy. In A Thousand Splendid Suns there was a lot of household abuse that the main characters had to deal with. In the United States there have been steps taken to resolve issues like this with Women's Shelters. Finally, women are not allowed to go to school in the novel and in the middle east. Thankfully this has been revoked in the United States a long time ago. But a lack of education leads people to be more easily subdued in any society, since they literally do not know any better. Although there are many steps that need to be taken to have equality in the United States, I believe action should be taken by other nations to at least bring the middle east up to our current rules on equality.

Is there a moral standard?

There are many different cultures in the world. With these cultures comes different views on life and how to respect it. These varying views inevitably lead to fighting over what is right and what is wrong. This is seen in many wars, that the wars are started from differing opinion, often when wars over religion break out. In Things Fall Apart we see the clashing of cultural beliefs, Okonkwo's culture let men marry multiple women while in our culture that is frowned upon. Also in Things Fall Apart Okonkwo hangs himself and those of his tribe cannot touch him because of their beliefs, however the outsiders are asked to do take him down since they do not have the same morals.
This is not just seen in literature, Inuits allow men to have multiple wives, but the wives can choose to leave, therefore no true commitment is made with marriage in their culture. Also Inuit's only keep the elderly while they can still contribute, as well as killing babies are allowed as long as it is discrete. This goes against what we consider to be correct. Which leads to the question of is there a universal truth in ethics? This is discussed in the article The Challenge of Cultural Relativism by James Rachels. I believe there is no ultimate moral that is actually correct. This is because of how there are so many varying opinions between people not to mention their cultures.
The greatest example of cultural differences is when wars break out. The Vietnam war was fought because of a simple disagreement in political issues, while the Civil war was fought over political issues on slavery. Before the 1860's slavery was common in the United States, but today it has been outlawed. This is an example of how there is no set standard of morals because morals are brought by nurture instead of nature. I believe slavery is wrong but there is a possibility had I been raised in an environment that owning slaves was common, there is no telling if I would have the same opinion. Morals are created by humankind to create a sort of order in a very chaotic world, and because of this there will never be a moral standard.

Does life consist of organized chaos or is it planned out?

A common debate that's been present ever since humankind developed consciousness is whether of not there is fate, or is everything just coincidental. When we discussed this subject in class, God kept being brought up into the discussion and some presented a third option that God helps by providing assistance to make the "correct" decision but it is not certain. I side more closely with organized chaos than I do with with a set fate. I believe this because I look at it from more of a scientific viewpoint than I do a religious one. In Chemistry, the term entropy is defined as lack of order or predictability. This term suggests that even chemical reactions react upon coincidence, not fate.

In Oedipus, fate is very prominent to the point that whatever an oracle says will become true, even when he tried to fight the prophecy. In the poem fate is blamed on the gods and how they will control your actions until you eventually fulfill your prophecy. This is also shown in Beowulf because Beowulf believes the outcome of his fights will be decided by God and no one else. Both stories show belief that there is a supreme being(s) that controls how life flows. But it was discussed in class that Beowulf's belief in god was most likely due to the press of christian's trying to spread their religion. Also Greek stories were usually written to explain the unexplainable and since coincidence cannot be explained then the only option is to blame God for the outcome of something. 

In the movie, The Butterfly Effect the plot revolves around a character that can change the past and after he changes the past, it alters the present he is in. This is because it is built on the idea that random acts occur which determines what type of future will brought about. This is also expressed in Men in Black III when the fifth dimensional being can see all the possible futures and it is all decided by certain actions of people, not a supreme being. These movies mirror my beliefs best, because the future is dependent on the actions that are presented to the individual instead of the individual's life being a maze and eventually they will reach the same destination no matter where they turn first.

Sarah Graff is the coolest person ever!

The self proclaimed "coolest person ever" pleaded to have me type this up on my blog. So here you go Sarah your very own fan mail sort of...

The Jail System in the United States

After reading Prison Guards, Inmate Detail Brutality Inside Jail I''m simply disgusted with humanity on how brutality in prison goes unpunished. I was trying to think of an analogy I could use to compare to this new (or at least somewhat new) information, so I will use a dog analogy since people hold dogs above most people: If a dog came up to you and bit you, you would obviously report it and the dog would most likely be put in a building with cages filled with other dogs, that's an obvious solution so no one else is harmed, however would you condone this if you knew the dog would be abused by the other dogs as well as the humans? Now most people will obviously be opposed to this. In The Power of One a large portion of story is spent in the jail where Doc and Geel Piet are held. In the article Jelpi Picou(the man who informed the news about prisons) is like Peekay, noticing all of the crimes being committed, while Geel Piet is a symbol for all of those abused by the guards/prison system. The article also mentioned that the weak are at risk which The Power of One covers in the beginning as Peekay gets bullied by the Judge and his clique. In the socratic seminar Geel Piet was discussed as a type of martyr almost, however I saw him more as a symbol for all those unfairly treated; the voice for the voiceless if you will. Just like Picou is for those treated inhumanely in prison.
There are many movies and TV shows that revolve around the brutality in prisons. The one that came to mind when I was reading the article was Shawshank Redemption. In that movie it is said, "Prsion makes honest men into crooks." This brings up a fairly good point, if you go to jail for a minor crime and deal with abuse, rape, and many other crimes that are considered worse than what you were arrested for, then it begins to desensitize you, thoroughly creating worse criminals than were taken out of society. Prisons must be reformed so that it helps strengthen the morals of those who will eventually finish their sentences. The prison described by Picou should never have been allowed to happen and if it continues to be like this, then no one in jail will ever learn to not commit crimes with the exception of the fear of going back to jail.