"A peasant earns his bread honestly. He has ordinary knowledge of the world. He knows fairly well how he should behave towards his parents, his wife, his children, and his fellow-villagers. He understands and observes the rules of morality. But he cannot write his own name. What do you propose to do by giving him knowledge of letters? Will you add an inch to his happiness?...whether you take elementary education or higher education, it is not required for the main thing. It does not make men of us. It does not enable us to do our duty" (Gandhi 54).

Gandhi's view on education caught me completely off-guard. Being an American, I realized that my whole life has been centered on education. I attended pre-school, elementary school, high school, and am now attending a University. What is next? Graduate school? Our society lives and breathes education. Unlike Gandhi, however, I do not see this as an evil thing. Yes, it may be true that education and wealth do not breed happiness. I personally believe that happiness is something attained from within. Happiness has to do with how secure and self-fulfilled you are and has a great deal to do with the relationships you build around you. I do believe that things such as education and wealth are aspects of life that help yield self-fulfillment and the ability to form relationships. What is the meaning of a man's life? Nietzsche struggled with this question. As a human being, I would like to think that I am in control of my own life. The meaning I find in my life has to do with attaining my individual goals and surrounding myself with people I love. Education provides me the ability to challenge myself and meet new people. Education allows humans to understand as much as they can and discuss whatever they wish with whomever they wish. Illiterate peasants may be able to find happiness, but the pool of personal goals they have to draw from is so much smaller than the pool from which a person entrenched in the Academic World has. I feel privileged to have the opportunity to learn more about anything and everything that interests me and to be able to meet people from all over the nation while furthering my education in college. Sorry Gandhi, but I think you underestimated the importance of education and the benefits education can reap.

Gandhi

"To the English voters their newspaper is their Bible. They take their cue from their newspapers which are often dishonest. The same fact is differently interpreted by different newspapers, according to the party in whose interests they are edited. One newspaper would consider a great Englishman to be a paragon of honesty, another would consider him dishonest" (15).

This point reminded me of my government class last year in high school. We spent a long time talking about news and media and the different biases they often have. Shows like The Colbert Report and the O'Reilly Factor are most obviously biased and should not even be considered real news. Certain newspapers, such as the New York Times, are known to favor leftist or rightest ideas. It is hard to find unbiased news and to approach a news story objectively.

"For man is more sick...than any othe ranimal...he is the sick animal...he is the great experimenter with himself, discontented and isatiable, wrestling with animals nature, and gods for ultimate dominion...The No he says to life brings to light, as if by magic, an abundance of tender Yeses; even when he wounds himself, this master of destruction, of self-destruction-the very wound itself afterward compels him to live" (Nietzsche 121).

We talked about this passage in class. Man wants to feel alive by facing death instead of running away from it. Sometimes feeling pain is better than feeling nothing at all. This reminds me of something we talked about in my AP psych class last year. There is actually a condition in which people have over-active frontal lobes in their brains. This causes a thrill-seeking mentality that isn't easy fulfilled. If it isn't bad enough that man seeks danger as a form of entertainment, there are certain people with this condition that never find this thrill and seek it to the point of death. Feeling like your life is in jeopardy somehow makes life seem so real. I get that thrill at the top of a roller coaster, some people get it from sky diving, others just have a physiological condition that is never satisfied.

Today in class we discussed Nietzsche's approach towards nothingness. I think I interpreted his beliefs incorrectly. At the end of his discussion, Nietzsche says, "This man of the future, who will redeem us not only from the hitherto reigning ideal but also from that which was bound to grow out of it, the great nausea, the will to nothingness, nihilism...this Antichrist and antinihilist; this victor over God and nothingness-he must come one day" (96).

Nietzsche isn't advocating nothingness or emptiness. He is advocating a third something. I have no inclination what this third something may be, nor am I positive Nietzsche has a clue as to what it might be either. We are trapped. Man of the future will be able to break free. He will not be filled with conventional faith or with a body of emptiness. Maybe the emptiness will be filled with his own ideas and faith in something new. Emptying oneself may be a start in attaining the attributes of this man of the future. The question is, what is the man of the future filling himself back up with?

"Forgetting...is...an active...positive faculty of repression, that is responsible for the fact that what we experience and absorb enters our consciousness as little while we are digest it...as does the thousandfold process...To close the doors and windows of consciousness for a time; to remain undisturbed by the noise and struggle of our underworld of utility organs working with and against one another; a little quietness...to make room for new things...for regulation, foresight, premeditation..." (Nietzsche 57).

After reading this passage I couldn't help but think right back to the time I tried to empty myself according to Tao's teachings. Nietzsche is expressing the importance of emptiness here. Through emptiness, possibility emerges. A window for opportunity opens. It is hard to let yourself become detached from the world around you. It is also relaxing and cleansing. I think the ten minutes I spent trying to empty myself were the most relaxing ten minutes I have had since I have been to school.

Nietzsche says, "They felt unable to cope with the simplest undertakings; in this new world they no longer possessed their former guides, their regulatin, unconscious and infallible drives: they were reduced to thinking, inferring, reckoning, co-ordinating cause and effect...they were reduced to their 'consciousness,' their weakest and most fallible organ!...All instincts that do not discharge themselves outwardly turn inward...thus it was that man first developed what was later called his 'soul'" (84).

I interpreted this passage as a negative outlook on the human conscious and soul. Nietzsche sees these human qualitites as hinderences to the human existance. They make man unsure and unconfident. I found this ironic seeing as Socrates placed all emphasis on the importance of the soul. Plato discusses the soul in great length. Socrates believed the body is just an obstacle in the way of attaining truth and knowledge. Nietzsche and Socrates are philosphers with completely different views. Socrates sees the afterlife as the reason for existence. Nietzsche finds fault with faith, and encourages atheism and focus shifted away from the soul. Could both be right in different ways?

"The strong man is free to be weak and the bird of prey to be a lamb-for thus they gain the right to make the bird of prey accountable for being a bird of prey" (45).

Nietzsche's bird of prey/lamb analogy has really got me thinking. Our discussion in class was about how this passage relates to choice. How much choice do we have given our natures? I remember the day I realized that my life was the product of my choices. It was the first day of junior high. Up until that day I felt like my life had no room for regret. My parents and teachers had written my life story for me. They had dictated every activity and every schedule of my everyday. I remember being horrified of the new school building and the new part of my life I was about to begin. I sat in the auditorium and thought, "Well, this is it. You are going to be responsible for you now. You have choices to make, mistakes to make, and you will probably not always make the right decisions." I was right. I'm sure I made many "wrong choices" in the following years, but I feel I am a better person now because of learning from some of my mistakes. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I still felt I wasn't responsible for myself. I wonder how it would feel to have my parents, teachers, and advisers make all of my decisions for me and plan my schedule for each day. It might be a good life, a safe life, but it wouldn't be my life. My teacher last year used to end every Friday class with this statement: "Have a good weekend. Be smart. Be safe. The choices you make today can and will affect the rest of your life." Choices are a privilege. I feel like that scared child again in a new place. I am starting a new chapter of my life. The choices I make now might dictate what career will have, who my life-long friends will be, and what kind of morals and values I will uphold as an independent adult. I think Nietzsche has a point when he places emphasis on choices. They are crucial in the development of all human beings, and their products define who we are.

"To be incapable of taking one's enemies, one's accidents, even one's misdeeds seriously for very long-that is the sign of strong, full natures in whom there is an excess of the power to form...here alone genuine 'love of one's enemies' is possible-supposing it to be possible at all on earth. How much reverence has a noble man for his enemies!-and such reverence is a bridge to love" (39).

This passage and message reminds me a lot of Tao's teachings. Tao says, "The most fruitful outcome does not depend on force, but succeeds without arrogance, without hostility, without pride, without resistance, without violence" (30).

Nietzsche and Tao both place importance in not having enemies. Nietzsche believes being above petty arguments and wrongdoings makes a person stronger. Tao believes that having enemies yields nothing, yet nonviolence and love cures all. The message is clear: life has no room for enemies. Without enemies Nietzsche assures power, and Tao promises happiness.

We talked in class about equations being visual representations. Nietzsche equates: "good=noble=powerful=beautiful=happy=beloved of God" (34). This simple math problem somehow does not sit well with me. Are all good people powerful? Are all good people happy? Are all good people beautiful? Life is not fair. This equation is flawed. The cliche "nice guys finish last" is oversaid for a reason. Good people do not cheat to get ahead and gain power. I am not saying that good people are always miserable. I'm just not sure there is a conducive equation for good and evil. Life is unpredictable and unfair.

"...the source of the concept 'good' has been sought and established in the wrong place: the judgment 'good' did not originate with those to who 'goodness' was shown! Rather it was 'the good' themselves ...who felt and established themselves and their actions as good...in contradistinction to all the low, low-minded, common, and plebeian. It was out of this pathos of distance that they first seized the right to create values and to coin names for values..." (26).

Nietszche speaks here about the origin of "good." "Good," he says, was only created when the opposite in society was established. Those more noble believed themselves superior to the common man. Because of this opposite that was created, good and evil existed.

This reminds me of Lao-tzu's preaching. Lao-tzu says, "Recognize beauty and ugliness is born. Recognize good and evil is born" (2). He recognizes too that one entity only exists when its opposite is revealed.

Nietzsche

It is my group's task to come up with connections between Nietzche and other texts. Lucky for me, I feel that the first ten pages connect with almost every work we have looked at so far this year. Section one of the preface screams White Castle. Hoja embarks on a journey to find out why he is who he is. Identity is the main theme in the novel. Nietzsche says, "We are unknown to ourselves...'who are we really?'...we are necessarily strangers to ourselves" (13). Orhan Pamuk uses these essential questions and themes as the basis of his novel. Section 3 reminded me of the teachings of Lao-tzu in Tao Te Ching. Tao literally means "path" or "way." Te means "to get." Burton Watson says, "...te...denotes a moral power or virtue characteristic of a person who follows a correct course of conduct" (Lau-Tzu xiii). Nietzche questions morality in section 3. Here he questions the origin of good and evil. Section 3 also reminds me of the works we read by Socrates. Nietzsche describes his mode of learning to be Socratic. He says, "I departmentalized my problem; out of my answers there grew new questions, inquiries, conjectures, probabilities..." (Nietzsche 17). Nietzsche uses the Socratic method in order to attain knowledge. Finally, in section 7 Nietzsche actually talks about Darwin and his influence. Nietzsche says, "This was unknown to Dr. Ree; but he had read Darwin-so that in his hypotheses...the Darwinian beast and the ultramodern unassuming moral milksop who 'no longer bites' politely link hands...with which it is mingled even a grain of pessimism and weariness, as if all these things...were really not worth taking quite so seriously...But to me...there seems to be nothing more worth taking seriously" (Nietzsche 21). Nietzsche discusses Darwin as an adversary to his beliefs. He believes morality to be of the utmost importance.

It amazes me just how many times I made connections in Nietzsche to works we have read in the last two months. Because we have read these other works, I feel I have a better understanding of what Nietzsche is talking about and what he believes.

"Tao called Tao is not Tao. Names can name no lasting name. Namless: the origin of heaven and earth. Naming: the mother of ten thousand things. Empty of desire, perceive mystery. Full of desire, perceive manifestations. These have the same source, but different names. Call them both deep- deep and again deep: The gateway to all mystery" (1). In studying for the midterm, I chose to memorize the first ten lines of Tao Te Ching. I decided on these lines not only because they were on the first page, nor because they are a complete thought that only use ten lines, but because I believe Lao-Tzu explains the essence of Tao in these lines. The theme of names runs rampant throughout his philosophies. Names are not lasting. They are not the real essence of a person or thing. In the introduction, Burton Watson says, "Tao lies beyond the power of language to describe..."(xiii). On August 8th, a headline in the news caught my attention. A New Zealand couple wanted to name their child "4real" but were denied because the government sanctioned that names could not start with a number. In rebellion, the couple decided to name their child "Superman" instead. Does it matter what a person's name is? According to Lao-Tzu, names are irrelevent in this lifetime.

Mockingbird Remix

I just listened to the Mockingbird Remix, and something new struck me. Rives talks about setting the mockingbirds off in the neighborhoods where "everyone's gotta lotta" and sharing the stories of "those who got nada." Rives talks about capturing honesty. Mockingbirds are unsuspecting witnesses. Mockingbirds can capture the words of a news anchor, nice laundromat lady, postman, an old man snoring, and "your lies." They can capture the fatal phrase, "I guess I can come in but only for a minute." Rives talks at the end about being offered the key to the city. Rives says then he can "unlock the air," "listen for what is missing," and "put it there." Rives isn't just talking about "people watching" or capturing the everyday person in America. He is talking about how people act when they think no one is watching. There is something missing in the world today, and Rives uses the idea of unleashing mockingbirds to introduce the nation to our own vices. Those who have will be able to look through a window into the world of those who have not. Lies will be captured and honesty will run free.

Rives Op Talk

"Op Talk" struck a nerve for me. I actually almost cried. Almost. My brother and I had a very similar relationship to Rives and his sister. My brother is two years younger than me, and as children we were inseperable. We played make-believe games day and night, made K'nex wonderlands, and even held weekly art sales in our front yard of our very own creations. Cary and I did have a secret language at one point. It wasn't "op talk," but it was similar. "Gibberish" never really made it past adolescence, but having my brother there as an alliance during our parents' divorce and the remairrage of our father made all the difference in the world. I'm starting to feel like one of the "excessively emotional" that Professor Dolson was talking about in class on Monday, but hearing Rives' account was like hearing my childhood all over again. I hope my brother and I will continue to stay close for the rest of our lives.

Rives: Mockingbirds

Wow. I am really impressed with Rives. Content aside, Rives has developed a new genre of entertainment. I'm not sure whether I would call it rap, poem recitation, or comedy, but I do know that Rives has a message and a unique way to share it. I am amazed at how Rives' words flow. It is almost as if he is rhyming by mistake. His ideas are just so magnetic that they somehow end up complimenting one another. Now for the content: the mockingbird idea is deep. What would the point of having a mockingbird capture all of the one-liners of all the different people in our nation? Mockingbirds would capture the truth. This reminds me of a passage I had to read last year in my English class. It was called "Nascar Dad." This essay explored the idea that there is no characteristic that can describe a follower of Nascar. Nascar fans range from places all over the country of all different professions and all different social classes. Rives talks about the "voice of life that calls us to live and learn." What is normal? What is truth? Maybe there is no normal. The world is filled with a hodgepodge of people. Everyone is different, everyone unique. It would be interesting to hear what a mockingbird had to say after traveling the world.