Blame it on “Affluenza”

On the fateful day of June 15, 2013 Ethan Couch and some friends went to the local Walmart to pick up some beer. The only problem was they were all underage; Ethan was only sixteen. So they did what any other teenager would do an steal the beer. 

The story could have ended here, with the boys drinking the beer that they stole until their blood alcohol content (BAC) reached 0.24, three times the legal amount allowed in the United States (0.08). But it didn’t. Instead, Ethan decided to take his two friends on a drive in his pickup truck.

Around the same time, Breanna Mitchell’s SUV broke down. She pulled over to the side of a rural road in the town of Burleson, Texas. She waited here until her neighbors Hollie and Shelby Boyles and youth minister Brian Jennings stopped by to help her out. But the, Ethan’s pickup truck came hurtling at them at 70 miles per hour and there was no escape. Breanna, Hollie, Shelby, and Brian all died because of the crash. Ethan’s two friends, Solimon Mohmand and Sergio Molina were violently tossed from his pickup truck. Solimon suffered numerous broken bones and internal injuries. Sergio became paralyzed and is now only able to communicate through blinking his eyes.

The scene of the accident.

Ethan was arrested and underwent trial. He was charged with intoxicated manslaughter and the prosecution sought a minimum twnety year prison sentence.

Just yesterday, Texas Judge Jean Boyd shocked the victims’ families as well as the country by sentencing Ethan to ten years’ probation. Judge Boyd agreed with the defense’s claim that Ethan was a victim of his parents’ wealth, a condition known as affluenza. The term affluenza is defined as “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more“. The defense argued that Ethan was handed everything by his wealthy parents and that he never learned to take responsibility for his actions. A psychologist claimed that the boy had a cold and distant relationship with his parents and was taught to “throw money” at his problems.

This isn’t the first time Ethan has been in trouble with the law for alcohol related charges and got away. According to trial testimony, he was caught passed out and undressed in his car with an underage girl. 

Ethan’s father has offered to pay $450,000 a year for Ethan to attend a rehab center in southern California. This center has everything from chef-prepared meals, to yoga, to nature hikes.  These so-called rehabilitation centers are essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card for the wealthy.

We must remember that Ethan accepted a plea deal in order to go to rehab. This becomes an injustice for the poor or even most middle class Americans who cannot afford to go to such rehabilitation centers. If any other less affluent teenager were to commit this crime, the book would have surely been thrown at him. A less affluent teen would have never been offered this plea deal because their family wouldn’t be able to afford this treatment. 

How can one call this justice? A seventeen-year-old that participated in a $2 stickup also received 10 years probation. When he was caught smoking marijuana while on probation, a Texas judge sentenced him to life in prison.

Similarly, John Alexander Wood, a Texas business man shot an unarmed prostitute and only received ten years probation. Even when on probation, he constantly broke the law, smoking crack cocaine and failing drugs tests various times. The Judge let him remain free and soon exempted him from the usual conditions that must be followed while on probation, such as drugs tests, meeting with a probation officer, and owning a firearm.

How about this for injustice: A thirteen-year-old boy in California was sentenced to ten years in a state juvenile facility after killing his abusive neo-Nazi father. This boy also grew up in a broken home, yet his status was not enough to be deemed as a conditional to excuse his behavior, unlike in the case of Ethan. 

What this judge has done is essentially tell the affluent youth of America to go ahead and do reckless and moronic things, you’ll get away with only a slap on the wrist. This kid won’t learn from this. If anything, you can expect more reckless actions from him in the future.

Apparently in America, you can be too rich to know better, but if you’re poor, they throw the book at you.

Nelson Mandela has Passed Away at Age 95

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela has passed away this Thursday after battling health issues the past few years. Often hailed as one of the greatest human rights advocates in the world, Mandela fought to end the system of segregation known as apartheid. He was imprisoned for inciting worker's strikes in the early sixties and spent 18 years of his 27 year sentence in one of South Africa's most horrid prisons, Robben Island. Despite the oppression he underwent for nearly three decades, Mandela remained strong and optimistic. On February 2nd, 1990 Mandela was released from prison. 

He then proceeded to work with his former enemy, President F.W. de Klerk, to dismantle apartheid and turn South Africa into a democratic nation. Both Mandela and de Klerk would later earn the Nobel Peace Prize for helping end apartheid. The nation's first elections were held on April 27, 1994. He won the presidency and his political party, the African National Congress obtained 62% of the vote. 

Here's Mandela casting his vote in the election.

A Little Background on Apartheid

Apartheid in South Africa was a system of racial segregation enforced by legislature put in place shortly after the conclusion of the second World War. It was put into place by the Afrikaner-majority National Party. What apartheid did was curtail the rights and freedoms of the black majority and kept the white Afrikaner minority in power. Such atrocities that Apartheid ushered in include a ban on marriages with someone of a different race,  "whites only" on most public areas, inferior education to blacks, the banning of opposition parties, and the arrest of anti-apartheid leaders, such as Mandela.

A man with every reason to be vengeful, with every reason to be full of hate, Mandela focused reconciliation rather than revenge. The sheer compassion and forgiveness that Mandela had was evident when he placed de Klerk as his first deputy president. Through his policies, he helped curve the rampant racism and discrimination that were long held practices of the former governing political party. He assuaged the skepticism and fears of both blacks and whites alike and helped reunite both under a new flag, which represented the unity of the new, democratic nation. 

I have nothing but pure reverence and admiration for Nelson Mandela. He had a goal in mind and refused to let it go, despite the daunting obstacles he faced, including a 27 year prison sentence. Mr. Mandela has shown us how reconciliation is much more efficient than retribution. He is an inspiration to all and a truly exemplary member of the human family.

Rest In Paradise Madiba.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
-Nelson Mandela

freedom

                A single drop of water awoke me from my otherwise peaceful sleep. I tried to raise my hands to wipe my eyes but there was some type of restraint preventing me. As I became more conscience, I noticed there was some type of cold heavy apparatus about my neck. I tried to look around to figure out where I was, as I was in strange, unrecognizable territory. As I couldn’t twist my head, I looked forward and saw some type of distorted silhouettes flickering and swaying. I heard voices around me and figured that I wasn’t the only one here.

                As time passed, I became accustomed to my surroundings and became comfortable with them. This once strange and alien place soon became my home and I liked it. I felt as if I was covered by a veil of some sort, a warm, comforting veil that left me with no worries. Whenever a new object appeared before us, we would all come to a consensus to what it was. Anyone who disagreed would be ridiculed by the rest. Conformity became the norm; we lived day in and day in that same spot.

                One day something strange happened. A man came down to our little enclave and began urging us to leave. He told us that there was a world outside of this one, a grandiose world where everything is “colorful” and “vivid”. The images we saw in front of us were only poor distorted misrepresentations of what was really there. He told us that we could break free from these “fetters” that held us back, that they were only mentally there. The rest of the inhabitants looked at him strangely and scoffed at these ideas. You could see the frustration on his face that resulted from the futility of his attempts to convince us that there was much more to this.

I became conflicted; something inside of me told me to follow this man. I began to feel a sensation that I had never felt before, a sensation to fight conformity and to explore. I realized how monotonous life here had become. But the comfort of my home and the fear of the unknown prompted me to stay. I fought the temptation to follow the strange man as long as I could, but soon the temptation defeated me. I was set on exploring the outside, the unknown. With some strain, I was able to raise my arms and prop myself up. The restraints were broken! I was finally able to be out and about and to look around. I noticed that the place that I had called home for as long as I can remember was a dark, dank cave.

The man’s eyes lit up when he saw me get up. The others’ facial expressions turned aghast with a combination of fear and amazement. They didn’t believe it was possible. I left them with their mouth ajar as I followed my guide up the stop steps on the side of where we were prior. As we ascended the steps, I noticed that there was some type of light that cackled bright colors and felt warm when we drew near it. In front of it, men paraded sticks with figures on them, casting the images we saw and accepted as the real thing. In the distance I saw a tunnel of light and it drew me closer; it seemed to have been calling me. At this point, I began to race up the steps making sure not to lose sight of this precious gleam. As I had not used my legs for as long as I could remember, I stumbled a bit on the way up.

I broke through the darkness and into the blinding light. I shielded my eyes from the intensity but soon I became adjusted. At that moment, I was flooded with new, strange sights. Everything was so vibrant and vivid; I was finally free. The sheer awe of my surroundings made me drop to my knees and my eyes just became inundated with what I later came to know as tears. These sweet, salty droplets of water that originated from my eyes kept on coming without refrain. It was all just so beautiful. Everything around me, from the creatures up above, to the soft grass that hugged and caressed my body as I laid there and wept. I finally had my first taste of true freedom.

The freedom was overwhelming. Simply put, the real world was frightening. The monotony of conformity and life in the cave ceased to exist, and with it also died the veil of ignorance that once cradled me and protected me. I was no longer in my comforting cave. At times, I just wanted to return, to live a simpler, worry free life. But the freedom, the reality, the immaculateness of it all convinced me to stay. I was finally able to experience things for myself. I was finally… free.

JAVI "FLAMEZ" SOLIS READS "FOX IN SOCKS"

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit can be seen as a more contemporary rendition of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Both works deal with the concept of the metaphysical and ignorance. While both deal with similar topics, they are distinct in delivery and structure. 

• Both Plato and Sartre used an physical place to make their ideas of the limitations of the human mind much more tangible and somewhat easier to comprehend without exploding the reader's mind.
• Plato uses a cave and fetters as the restraints while Sartre uses a hotel room as his restraint.
• In Allegory of the Cave we see the story through the eyes of a visitor instead of an actual denizen of the cave, unlike in No Exit, where the story is conveyed through the eyes of the actual residents 
• The characters in both story end up in hell and in the cave because of their own choices. The cave and fetters are self-imposed; they are more than able to break them and turn around, but the fear of the reality (and the comfort of ignorance) prevents them from doing so. In No Exit, they all committed sins that landed them where they are. Both the hotel room and the cave are creations of the character's own mind and actions.
• In Allegory of the Cave, the denizens are free to leave, they just chose not to. In No Exit, they are desperate to leave, but they can't
• The character's of No Exit are well aware of what is going in the actual world but in Plato's Allegory, they are willingly oblivious to the nature of the outside world. The inhabitants of the cave can only see the shadows of reality.
• In No Exit, "Hell is other people".  This seems to be the case in the Allegory as well. The inhabitants of the cave keep the other inhabitants ignorant by all agreeing on false information (that the shadows are the actual objects). By further perpetuating this belief, they are discouraging anyone from ever breaking free and exploring because they cover them in a veil of ignorance and misinformation that comforts them. Much like in today's society, if the people are comfortable (or have the illusion of being so), they will not pursue change.
• Both deal with agony. The one prisoner who does escape the subterranean prison and sees the above-ground world and all the actual objects instead of just their shadow is awed. He returns to the cave and urges others to break free and explore, but they all scoff and ridicule him. Anyone who has tried to tell someone else something when then other party refuses to listen knows how agonizing this experience is.
• The agony in No Exit derrives from the other people in the room and how they must spend eternity with each other.

This video illustrates Plato's Allegory rather nicely and thought it might be useful to anyone lurking my blog.

On To The Questions!
Think about the place you have chosen as your hell. Does it look ordinary and bourgeois, like Sartre's drawing room, or is it equipped with literal instruments of torture like Dante's Inferno? Can the mind be in hell in a beautiful place? Is there a way to find peace in a hellish physical environment? 
I'm not an overly religious person so I'm a little uncertain on the existence of an actual hell. But since it's a sad thought that we all just rot in the ground, so for intents and purposes, I will assume there is a hell and/or heaven. Anyways, my Hell would look a lot like the neoclassical room towards the end of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. If anything, I'd be ruler of my hell, sitting on a throne of skulls. In a way, school is hell. The monotony of the every-day grind. Essentially SSDD. On top of that, being surrounded by a bunch of superficial, fraudulent people. That IS hell. But alas, we can find peace in hell. Dr. Preston's class is actually quite the alcove of peace; people in that class think on a higher level than the vast majority of our student body. I don't mean to be condescending but it's true.

Could hell be described as too much of anything without a break? Are variety, moderation and balance instruments we use to keep us from boiling in any inferno of excess,' whether it be cheesecake or ravenous partying?
Yes. After a while, it gets boring of doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, day in and day out, indefinitely until the end of time. The monotony slowly drives you insane. Variety makes it much more bearable. If I partied every day, regardless of how "turnt up" the parties are, I'd get sick of it within a month if not sooner.

How does Sartre create a sense of place through dialogue? Can you imagine what it feels like to stay awake all the time with the lights on with no hope of leaving a specific place? How does GARCIN react to this hell? How could you twist your daily activities around so that everyday habits become hell? Is there a pattern of circumstances that reinforces the experience of hell?
The dialogue between the characters indicates that they loathe being in each other's presence. Once, for an AVID fundraiser, we had to stay awake in the gym throughout the entire night until seven in the morning. We couldn't sleep. There was no rest at all and all 50+ of us were confined to single space. Given, we did have entertainment and it wasn't nearly as bad as No Exit, but I felt like I got a slight taste of hell. Garcin uuses his time in hell to reflect upon his life and legacy. By simply doing the EXACT thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, day in and day out, indefinitely until the end of time. 
Ye

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ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE SONNET

Aye, It is our conscience,the dread of the unknown
that makes us quiver in fear when we are shown
the frightful reality that at first is blinding
makes us don the shackles that are binding.
Ignorance, after all, is the biggest bliss.
Is what we see reality? Do our senses fool us?
What we see is not actuality, but only a shadow.
if we do not explore, our mind stays hollow.
Self-imposed fetters blind us from reality.
Not knowing what's out there causes agony
But is it truly reality which is better?
Or is human ignorance much better?

We must break free from our self-imposed confines
and remove our dank dark mental mines.

The Futility of Humanity

The other day, I was walking Mia to her AP Statistics class. We passed by a trash bin in front of the 600 block and saw a faux tree inside of it. At first, me and Mia laughed at the sheer absurdity; it's not every day you see a fake tree in a trash can at Righetti. The more I looked at it, the more I started thinking, and the more upset. I began to realize how that tree in the trash can is a metaphor for humanity's destruction of nature. People walked by it without giving it so much as a glance. That mirrors the sad reality that the vast majority of our society is so apathetic of our devastation of the once pristine, immaculate nature. The more I thought about it, the more upset I got. For the rest of the school day, it bothered me. I went home and decided to read my favorite novel, Alan Moore's Watchmen. While reading it, a quote struck me.

“We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away.”

I stopped in my tracks and thought back to the tree I saw and had an epiphany. The reason so little people cared was because we're so accustomed to it. We're bored with the Earth, despite it's seemingly endless wonders and awe inspiring beauty. But if we were to see it all from a different perspective, I can assure you more people would be for conserving nature. 

Who would have known that a fake tree would have elicited so much emotion?

BRAIN WITH [x] LEGS

We (Mia, Sam, Kevin, and I) met shortly after class to discuss how we were going to tackle Great Expectations. We soon came to a consensus that we would use a mindmap (which format is still up for debate) and assign certain sections for a set timespan. After we are all done reading said section, we shall convene and discuss what we read as well as any questions any of us might have. After reading Hamlet  and having the opportunity to discuss what we read with class members, we saw this as extremely helpful in developing our knowledge of Hamlet and decided to try it again.

THE BRAIN WITH AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF LEGS

The sites I've found so far are listed below:

• http://www.mindmeister.com/. Very user friendly and simplistic. Also available via mobile platforms. Allows attachments of files, links, and tasks. 
• https://bubbl.us/. A little too simplistic. 
• Free Mind. Does require download. High editable but doesn't support pictures... yet.

We should discuss, as a class, the pros and cons of each of the different resources we have. If none meet our liking, why not make our own? I'm positive that within our three AP class periods (and the resources we and Dr. Preston have) we can muster enough brainpower to create a bitc-super cool format that tends to all our needs and wants and give these pre-established formats a run for their money.

On 

My 6,128 Favorite Books

• kind of ironic and amusing how he treats reading as an addiction that has ruined his life.
• Love his use of humor. "This is quite an accomplishment, because by some accounts Winston Churchill spent all of World War II completely hammered."
• Skimmed it so far. Will report later with a more in-depth analysis.
• Moral of the story: BOOKS R BAD MMMKAY KIDS *Mr. Mackey voice*

Meanwhile the DEA teamed up with the CCA...

Ah, the United States of America.

The greatest country on earth. The land of the free and the home of the brave.

...Right?

In the 1980's, the US prison population was roughly 500,000 people. In just twenty six years, the prison population grew to nearly 2.5 million people, an increase of almost 500%. In that same time period, the general United States population grew about 24%.

This makes the United States the home of the world's biggest population, with nearly 1 in 100 American adults in jail. Despite having less than five percent of the World's population (at roughly 300 million people), we imprison 2.3 million people, or a quarter of the world's prisoners. That's more than China (a country 4 times more populous than the US), trailing a distant second with 1.6 million in prison.
This gargantuan increase in prison population cannot be attributed to violent crime; the United States' violent crime rate is its lowest point in decades. What it can be attributed to, however, is the failed "War on Drugs".

The War on Drugs has been going on since the early 20th century, with the prohibition of alcohol, but the war became an actual war in 1973 with the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency by then-President Richard Nixon. The most serious offense that 51 percent of our 2.3 million prisoners face are drug offenses, such as possession and/or consumption.

Possession and consumption of drugs often carry ridiculously lengthy sentences, such as the Louisiana man who got 20 years of hard labor for possession of half an ounce (fifteen grams) of marijuana. Or the Missouri man who got life in prison without the possibility of parole for possession of five pounds of pot. Or another man who got 55 years in prison for selling marijuana to an undercover police officer. You get my point. These men will spend more time in jail than a man who raped a disabled girl (4-8 years) and more than a person who posses child pornography (5 years).

So what part does the CCA and the DEA play in all of this? And why should you care?
For those of you who don't know, the CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) is a private business that owns and manages prisons and detention centers, with more than 60 facilities throughout the United States. (Note: the CCA is a private, for-profit business. They have shareholders.) What they essentially do is convert prisons into for-profit businesses. Since many states are having financial woes, the CCA seems like a savior, as they are proposing to buy their prisons and run them. Many of the contracts they sign include lockup quotas, where the states guarantee to keep the prisons anywhere between 80 to 100 percent occupied. Since the CCA operates much like a hotel (they profit off the amount of beds they fill and the duration of the prisoners' stay), these quotas create a perpetual demand for prison inmates. This demand for prisoners is fueled by the DEA and the sometimes ludicrous laws for petty possession (see above). The CCA itself listed the following as its risk factors to the SEC:

"The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them."

Within the past ten years, the CCA has spent $19 million dollars lobbying congress. Where does this money go? In the pockets of conservative politicians, who are more likely to be in favor of stricter prison sentences for petty possessions and oppose legalization of marijuana. 

The following video beautifully illustrates what the CCA does.

The CCA also uses these prisoners as a source of cheap (and sometimes free) labor, thus creating further demand for prisoners and thus creating a generation of "new slaves".
What this demand for prisoners also creates is a prison system that is focused on retribution rather than rehabilitation. In the United States, two thirds of prisoners return to jail within three years of their release, often with a more serious and/or violent offense. This can be traced back to the fact that we tend to hand the hardest punishments possible to our prisoners, unlike many European countries which tend to rehabilitate their prisoners to prevent them from returning to prison. Their tactics include giving their prisoners a surprising amount of liberty, such as having no armed guards or gates. And guess what... it works. The rehabilitation method coupled with other crime prevention systems has led the Netherlands to close eight prisons due to the lack of crime.
I am in no way advocating for the legalization of each and every drug, though the legalization of some (such as marijuana) can be beneficial to our economy. I am, however, advocating the treatment of addiction as a disease that it is rather than a crime.

Title: SONNET ANALYSIS #1

*Two types: Italian and Petrarchan. *Italian has an initial octet and a second couplet.
*Petrarchan: 3 quadrants, one couplet.
*Petrarchan commonly used by Shakespeare

A POETIC INQUIRY

The sonnet I chose for this assignment was one by Pierre de Ronsard, a French poet.

When you are very old, at evening, by the fire, 
spinning wool by candlelight and winding it in skeins, 
you will say in wonderment as you recite my lines: 
'Ronsard admired me in the days when I was fair.'

Then not one of your servants dozing gently there
hearing my name's cadence break through your low repines
but will start into wakefulness out of her dreams
and bless your name - immortalised by my desire.

I'll be underneath the ground, and a boneless shade
taking my long rest in the scented myrtle-glade, 
and you'll be an old woman, nodding towards life's close, 

regretting my love, and regretting your disdain.
Heed me, and live for now: this time won't come again.
Come, pluck now - today - life's so quickly-fading rose.

The poem, in a way, does relate to my big question, one of which was asking if were alone? In this universe and on Earth? The sonnet is a bit of a love poem, telling a woman to reminisce to a younger time. The poet is now dead and she will be on the verge of death. She perhaps regrets having loved the poet and disdains it, yet he tells her to not worry about the past and enjoy the present. He finished it with a very clear message: live for today as this time won't come again.

HAMLET (Remix Feat. Curren$y, Wu-Tang Clan, and J.L. Austin)

What is "performative utterance"?

The rapper Curren$y put it best:

. There has been a long-held belief that actions and words are not mutually interchangeable; words are not as solid as actions after all. But according to the theory of performative utterance (a term coined by British philosopher J. L. Austin),                                                         (This guy)

certain sentences change the reality they are describing rather than simply passively describing said reality. Essentially, by saying something out loud, it becomes reality and sets an expectation, much like a judge saying "I sentence this criminal to death" 

or a priest saying "I pronounce you man and wife".

 Their words constitute an action instead of simply being words. The reasoning behind this theory is evident in Shakespeare's play Hamlet 

as well as in our own daily lives. While Hamlet spends the majority of the play contemplating suicide and debating whether he should kill King Claudius or not, his words themselves represent action.

When Hamlet sees his father's ghost

 in scene five of Act 1, he learns of the true reason behind his father's death: Claudius poured poison in his ear. This itself is symbolic of how Claudius is lying to the state of Denmark and to everyone in the play, this his words are like poison. Hamlet vows to his father that he will avenge him by killing his uncle. As soon as he says that, his word becomes bond; Hamlet can no longer turn back. He must get revenge and kill Claudius. 

Hamlet's use of self-overhearing plays a vital role in the development of the plot and the characterization of Hamlet. The reader is able to see how calculating and intelligent he really is  Hamlet is perhaps the greatest actor/deceiver in the history of humanity for this reason. He is able to flawlessly execute various fronts; from the crazy love drunk in front of Ophelia and Polonious, to the cold calculating genius when by himself. The reader might at first believe that Hamlet is a psychopath, but through indirect characterization and hearing Hamlet speak, it becomes apparent that he is not in fact a psychopath. By definition  a psychopath has very shallow emotions, inability to plan for the future, overconfidence, and are typically selfish. Hamlet is actually the polar opposite of all these traits. He shows a wide range of emotions, as seen by the various fronts he puts up. He plans ahead for the future, as seen by  the fact that he did not kill Claudius even when he had the golden opportunity (because Claudius was praying and if he was killed, would have gone to heaven). He is often very critical of himself and beats himself up more often than not. Lastly, he is not selfish because he went out of his way to avenge his father and to do what was right for the state of Denmark.

“Self-overhearing" is essentially thinking about your own thinking, or metacognition. 

Hamlet often speaks outloud to himself through various points throughout the play. By doing so, Hamlet is able to have epiphanies and learn about himself, his emotions, and his actions (or lack of). One of the most evident moments of this is the "To be or not to be" soliloquy in Act three.

 In this soliloquy, he is asking one of the most basic, yet most mysterious questions that have plagued humans since the dawn of time: why live? What is the purpose  of life? Life is so full of misery ("the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love")

 why doesn't one just end it all and escape the misery ("to die, to sleep, no more, and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to")? By asking himself these seemingly rhetorical questions, he comes to the conclusion that it is the fear of the great unknown (what happens after death) that prevents us from doing so. 

He has a revelation here when he says "conscience makes cowards of us all"; the more you think about it, the less likely you are to carry it out. He has an epiphany and discovers that the reason he has yet to kill his uncle is because he thinks instead of action. From that moment on, Hamlet is dedicated with carrying out his revenge at any and all costs necessary.

Hamlet has another epiphany when the acting troupe comes and tries to cheer him up. He asks one of the actors to recite a soliloquy from the play they’re supposed to perform. Hamlet is disgusted at himself when he sees the actor moved to tears by his performance over a piece of fiction when he himself cannot muster even the slightest bit of emotion for his father’s death. Here he has another revelation; he has yet to get his revenge because he is too much of a coward.

Hamlet’s use of self-overhearing and performative utterance is quite evident in everyday life. Sometimes when we do not understand something, we find ourselves either repeating the thing over and over out loud or in our mind, much like our memorization of “To be or not to be”. After repeating it a certain number of times, you reach a point where it actually resonates with you and you finally understand what Hamlet is trying to say.

Wu-Tang Clan had a now widely-recognized phrase (at least within 5%ers and hip hop aficionados), which went “Word Is Bond”.

What this phrase meant was that your word is true and without reproach; their word is promise. This is an example of perfomative utterance in our contemporary society. Another such example would be kids who get suspended or expelled by threatening others. They may have not actually done their words, but their words carry enough weight to be taken seriously.

Hamlet learned more about himself simply by talking out loud and listening to himself speak then he would have if he went to a therapist. Words carry just as much, if not more, weight as actions. By listening to ourselves speak, we are able to gain a deeper insight on our motives and thoughts that are constantly traversing our minds.  

13 Year-old boy is shot seven times by police officers in California

In case you haven't heard, Mia Levy and I have a blog called In Loco Politico, in which we will be posting a news article from either around the world, the nation, or the state and give our own input on it. I highly encourage you to visit and comment with your thoughts on the topic!

A few weeks ago, a 13 year-old was killed by two police officers, who shot him 7 times within 26 seconds. The police were dispatched to the area after a report of a suspicious person in the North California town of Santa Rosa. The kid, Andy Lopez, had his back to the police when they arrive. According to police reports and eye witnesses, Lopez was carrying around a toy gun which looked a lot like an actual AK-47.

The toy gun (right) in comparison to an actual AK-47 (left).

After he was yelled at by the two police officers to drop his weapon, but did not comply and rather turned around to face the police. At this moment, they opened fire a total of 8 times with 7 bullets hitting his body, 2 of which were labeled as fatal.

Did the police do what was necessary or did they act out of line? Both cases can be made. The gun clearly looked like an actual weapon, especially from a far. Some will argue that they should have assured that it was a real gun before firing, but that could have easily put them and innocent civilians in danger had it been a real gun. With all the recent shootings in the news, some even being perpetrated by teenagers or young adults, they had every right to assume that the weapon was real. I do not condone the actions of the police officers; the death of this young boy was unnecessary and a shame. But one must be able to see why the police open fired in the first place, and that there was reasonable suspicion that it was a real weapon that could have potentially killed the officers and any bystanders.

Related articles

• Boy Killed By Police For Carrying Fake Rifle (sfgate.com)
• Realistic toy guns worry local police (napavalleyregister.com)
• US police shoot dead 13-year-old boy who was carrying 'lifelike' toy gun - euronews (euronews.com)
• FBI probes California deputy's killing of boy with toy gun (news.yahoo.com)
• Teen With Pellet Gun Shot By Police 7 Times (webpronews.com)
• California | Police shoot 13-year-old Santa Rosa boy carrying fake gun (thejournalist.ie)

Voices In My Head

The rapper Curren$y put it best: "If I said Ima do it, you can consider it done". There has been a long-held belief that actions and words are not mutually interchangeable; words are not as solid as actions after all. But according to the theory of performative utterance (a term coined by British philosopher J. L. Austin), certain sentences change the reality they are describing rather than simply passively describing said reality. Essentially, by saying something out loud, it becomes reality and sets an expectation, much like a judge saying "I sentence this criminal to death" or a priest saying "I pronounce you man and wife". Their words constitute an action instead of simply being words. The reasoning behind this theory is evident in Shakespeare's play Hamlet as well as in our own daily lives. While Hamlet spends the majority of the play contemplating suicide and debating whether he should kill King Claudius or not, his words themselves represent action.

When Hamlet sees his father's ghost in scene five of Act 1, he vows to his father that he will avenge him by killing his uncle. As soon as he says that, his word becomes bond; Hamlet can no longer turn back. He must get revenge and kill Claudius. Hamlet is perhaps the greatest actor/deceiver in the history of humanity. He is able to flawlessly execute various fronts; from the crazy love drunk, to the cold calculating sociopath. 

The concept of "self-overhearing" is one that is quintessential to the development of Hamlet as a play and of Hamlet as a character. “Self-overhearing" essentially is thinking about your own thinking, or metacognition. This is evident in various points throughout the play. One of the most evident moments of this is the "To be or not to be" soliloquy in Act three. In this soliloquy, he is asking one of the most basic, yet most mysterious questions that have plagued humans since the dawn of time: why live? What is the meaning of life? Life is so full of misery ("the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love") why doesn't one just end it all and escape the misery ("to die, to sleep, no more, and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to")? By asking himself these seemingly rhetorical questions, he comes to the conclusion that it is the fear of the great unknown (what happens after death) that prevents us from doing so. He has a revelation here when he says "conscience makes cowards of us all"; the more you think about it, the less likely you are to carry it out. He has an epiphany and discovers that the reason he has yet to kill his uncle is because he thinks instead of action. From that moment on, Hamlet is dedicated with carrying out his revenge at any and all costs necessary.

Hamlet has another epiphany when the acting troupe comes and tries to cheer him up. He asks one of the actors to recite a soliloquy from the play they’re supposed to perform. Hamlet is disgusted at himself when he sees the actor moved to tears by his performance over a piece of fiction when he himself cannot muster even the slightest bit of emotion for his father’s death. Here he has another revelation; he has yet to get his revenge because he is too much of a coward.

Hamlet’s use of self-overhearing and performative utterance is quite evident in everyday life. Sometimes when we do not understand something, we find ourselves either repeating the thing over and over out loud or in our mind, much like our memorization of “To be or not to be”. After repeating it a certain number of times, you reach a point where it actually resonates with you and you finally understand what Hamlet is trying to say.

Wu-Tang Clan had a now widely-recognized phrase (at least within 5%ers and hip hop aficionados), which went “Word Is Bond”. What this phrase meant was that your word is true and without reproach; their word is promise. This is an example of perfomative utterance in our contemporary society. Another such example would be kids who get suspended or expelled by threatening others. They may have not actually done their words, but their words carry enough weight to be taken seriously.

Hamlet learned more about himself simply by talking out loud and listening to himself speak then he would have if he went to a therapist. Words carry just as much, if not more, weight as actions. By listening to ourselves speak, we are able to gain a deeper insight on our motives and thoughts that are constantly traversing our minds.  

On Apples and Oranges

So for the University of Chicago's writing supplement, I had to compare apples and oranges. At first, I was a bit dumbstruck. But soon, I found the perfect way to go about comparing the two, which goes much deeper than you'd expect. Without further ado, here is my essay On Apples and Oranges: The Equivalences and Dichotomies.

The idiom “apples and oranges” is often used to describe two objects (or ideas) that couldn’t be any more radically different. While at first this idiom appears to make sense at a glance (apples are red and, for the most part, sweet while oranges are orange and, for the most part, sour), once you begin to think about it. On the surface, it is a simple innocent. But once you examine it from a deeper perspective, you begin to see the dark, twisted origin and meaning behind it.

The common apple (Malus domestica) is a member of the Rosaceae (or rose) family. It is believed to be among the first tree to be cultivated by humans. It became a staple of European and Asian diet and remains one to this very day. Apples have made appearances in ancient Greek mythology (as Eris’s apple of discord). Some have argued that the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Bible’s Garden of Eden is actually an apple. Thus, apples are symbols of immortality, youth, temptation, and sin. They are often red or green and are typically sweet. Apples typically grow and are cultivated in colder climate, such as New York, Washington, and Michigan.

The common orange (Citrus sinensis) is a member of the Rutaceae, or citrus, family. It is a hybrid between pomelo and mandarin and has also been cultivated since ancient times. Since they are hybrids, many orange trees are infertile, so it’s ironic that orange blossoms are symbols of fertility. They also symbolize happiness, love, and marriage. Oranges do need an abundance of rain and sunshine to germinate and they grow in more temperate climates, such as in Florida. It has higher source of vitamin C than apples.

The irony of it all is that in many languages, the word for oranges derives from the word for apples. Many languages actually refer to the orange as a Chinese apple. So maybe they’re not so different after all. Now let’s focus on the similarities rather the dichotomies. Both are fruits and derive from the same kingdom, class, and division. Both are more or less spherical, have similar mass, and contain an outer layer of “skin”. Both grown on trees and have seeds inside them. Both are a vital source of fiber and magnesium. Both grown in orchards and can be made into juice.

A saying that comes to mind when comparing apples and oranges is the Spanish saying “¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” which translates to “The people united will never be defeated!” This brings up the important question: what drives people apart more than anything? It is their differences and their inability to overcome them, especially when they are brainwashed to believe that anyone who believes anything different that their own is branded as an enemy. Thus, the creators of the idiom “apples and oranges” were the destroyers of men. They made the general populous focus on the differences that separated them (which were very little) instead of the common factors that united them (which were abundant). By keeping them fragmented and separated, they were able to conquer them and maintain their undisputed power. By keeping the people ignorant of their similarities, they were able to manipulate them and force them against each other, to slaughter and kill one another indiscriminately. Focusing on the differences of “apples” and “oranges” made one group feel superior than the other. Throughout the entire history of humanity, using this boogeyman tactic worked, and it drove brother against brother.  Some examples of this happening are the American Civil War, all genocides (such as the Holocaust, Soviet Purges, Colonization of the Americas, and Armenian genocide), lynchings of blacks in the south, and modern-day terrorist attacks. They realized that if the “apples” and “oranges” were to ever find out how similar they truly were and unite together, the leaders would have to abdicate their power to the people.

            The effects of this idiom are evident. It has driven human against human for millennia and has spurred ignorance and hatred. The idiom signifies how often we focus on the little, minute differences between one another (such as religion, ethnicity, political leanings, whether you leave your toilet seat up or down, et cetera) and how much that drives us apart. If, instead, we were to focus on our similarities (such as how we all have a layer of skin covering our juicy innards), we’d be much more advanced and there would be much less hatred and violence. Who knew we could have learned so much about human nature from apples and oranges?