Frankly Speaking

Frankl brings up a lot of good points in Man's Search for Meaning. Not only does he describe some of the horrors of the Holocaust, but he talks about his reactions and what he was thinking at certain parts. I've always been interested in people's reactions to things and how everybody's reaction differs. As we discussed in class, an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal.

I like that Frankl not only told us about the concentration camp, but also told us the after part and about logotherapy. Reading about his ways of therapy have interested me in psychotherapy and different methods to help someone. I don't know much about other methods, but I'd like to learn about them all and compare them. Logotherapy also makes me think more about life's meaning. Can everyone truly find it and realize when it changes? What is my meaning in life for now? How can one choose a single thing? And what if someone thinks their meaning is power or pleasure, which Frankl says are side effects of life, not the main goal. How can someone tell that person that their meaning in life really isn't their meaning?

My response to "No Exit"

"No Exit" really made me think about the concept of hell and heaven after death. The idea of forever and ever and ever is tough to grasp. We all know life ends because death comes. But once you’re dead, there is nothing else. It’s death and possibly heaven or hell. And that’s why I’m starting to see why people liked the idea of reincarnation; you supposedly get to live again. And in life, you have the whole world. You have billions of people, billions of places to go. You could even go to the moon if you really tried. But if you die and you go to hell, that’s it. It’s you in a room forever, with nothing to look forward to. You can’t tell yourself you’ll move to another city or country or switch jobs or go on a great vacation. It’s just you and the room forever and ever. And maybe some people to torture you.

After finishing "No Exit," I was reminded of a scene from this movie, "Setup." A group of friends tries to steal a diamond, but there’s betrayal and revenge and so on. Anyways, in the movie someone is wondering about why there is good and evil in the world. They come to the conclusion that God created good and evil so that humans can choose between the 2 extremes because they have free will. If all was perfect, then we’d already be in heaven. Both “No Exit” and this scene make it seem as if heaven really is perfect. And then that made me think about whether you’re guaranteed that heaven is better. What if all your favorite people in the world go to hell and you somehow manage to go to heaven? I know I would not be able to fully enjoy what heaven has to offer if I knew I wasn't ever going to see my favorite people ever again. 

In “No Exit,” they always refer to Earth as “down there,” which goes against the usual idea that hell is “down there” and heaven is “up there,” so I thought that was an interesting concept.

“No Exit” also makes it seem as though Sartre believed hell is mostly psychological torture not physical torture. It goes against the usual idea that hell is a place that’s always hot and everyone is thirsty. Maybe that wasn’t hell for Garcin, Inez, and Estelle, which is why their hell is them being stuck in a room with each other. Which makes me wonder whether my hell would be psychological or physical torture. Hopefully I won’t have to find out. 

A Direction the Class Needs

I like the way our class is going. This is one of my classes that is actually affecting me. It's not something stupid like calculus, because honestly I am never ever going to major in math or become a mathematician or architect or engineer or some other job that requires math like calculus. I'm still not sure as to why I took that class. Anyways, in this class I've honestly learned so many philosophical ideas and I've begun to question so many things. I can see myself applying this class to real life. And not even applying it, but just completely affecting my outlook on life. I'm realizing more of who I am and what I think of life. I like when we have our big class debates because even if we don't say anything, we're still getting something out of it. I like that on days when I'm just plain tired, I can sit there and listen and I'll still learn something or change my opinion about something or even just completely reconsider something. And of course, we can always throw in our own opinions and ideas whenever we want to. I like that groupwork usually starts off a class discussion and it's not something random just to waste time; it actually helps us understand our readings and see if we're getting all the hidden meanings. I like the way this class is going. All I'd say is continue, please.

Who would Camus and Voltaire vote for?

                If Camus is slightly similar to Meursault, I think he would vote Libertarian. He thinks everything is meaningless. He doesn’t seem to care much about what each person thinks, but yet lets them think what they want and act according to that. He wouldn’t care enough to follow politics, so he’d choose Libertarians, who are the ones most likely to not interfere in his life and leave him alone to do as he pleases, because libertarians want maximum freedom, minimum government.

                Voltaire would vote Libertarian as well. The moral of Candide is that everyone should cultivate their own garden, which says that everyone shouldn’t worry about other things and working will keep them from doing bad things or being bored. Because Voltaire is basically saying that everyone should keep to their own business, Libertarians are the most similar. Libertarians want total social freedom and minimum government interference. 

What is meaningful in my life?

I never really thought about what gave my life meaning. I didn’t question it. It didn’t even occur to me to question it. Since we all die, and we don’t know what happens after death, what we do and feel like during life is what matters the most. That doesn’t mean we can go and do whatever we want and steal and kill people. We just have to keep living, but we have to live more. What matters are the happy moments, the sad moments and how you deal with them, and those moments where you almost die from laughter. That’s what is meaningful in my life. When I’m sitting there dying I won’t care about other things. I won’t care about what house I had or what car I had. I’ll care about who was in my house, all the memories from my house, all the trips taken in my car. There is no single thing or single experience that determines the meaning in our lives. Experiences make up the meaningful things in our lives.  Our lives are a series of moments. Whether we decide to embrace them all and go with whatever happens or sit there upset that everyone’s life has no meaning compared to the rest of the universe is up to us. So what if you die and after a generation or two no one knows you ever existed. Does it really matter if the people you never met know who you are? What matters is what you think, and whether you can honestly say you enjoyed life and found joy or meaning in the simplest of things. What matters is if you’re able to look back and smile and ignore the bad parts. You choose what you remember.

Do Candide’s punishments fit the crime?

The first punishment we come across is Candide getting kicked out of the mansion. I think this is a drastic punishment for something that just sort of happened. As we go along in the novel, it seems as though Candide isn’t exactly being punished, but more being taken advantage of. He just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time a lot. When he gets tricked into joining the army, it’s just him being naïve. When Candide gets punished in the army for taking a walk, his punishment is also too drastic for a simple mistake. Candide didn’t know better. Some of Candide’s punishments almost seem like harsh karma. When he left Eldorado with his sheep, he left because of greed. He wanted to leave an utopia because he thought that he could have an even better life if he went back. This greed, combined with the fact that Candide trusts people too easily, caused Candide to lose most of his fortune. Candide gets tricked and his sheep get stolen.

So all in all, Candide’s punishments are definitely much too harsh. He is just naïve and gullible and people take advantage of him. Candide does do some bad things, such as killing people, but he’s just inexperienced with life and doesn’t know how to react quickly while keeping his cool. He does have to go on a long journey to run away after killing people, which I think is one of the only fair punishments. He gets separated from Cunegonde, which is another punishment since Candide loves her. 

How do I Know what I Know?

I know that the sky is blue. I know that when it rains, dark clouds come. I know that the sun gives us heat. I know that without the sun, we’d die.

                All basic ideas, and yet all of them can be questioned. Do we really know that the blue I see is the same blue as another person sees? Do we know, for sure, that we would die if the sun was gone? Could we possibly create an artificial replacement?

                But questioning those things seems crazy. We have to accept some things. Otherwise we’d be asking questions every second of every day. We’d end up coming to the conclusion that we know nothing. And that’s not exactly a reassuring thought.

                So how do I know what I know? Most things I learned from my parents and I accept them. I accept that my name is Klaudia, that I wasn’t secretly adopted, that my birthday is April 21^st, and other basic things. But there are other things, things we could say are more complex. I know that hurting people is bad. I believe that because that’s what I’ve been told from the very beginning, and I know that the people around me have been told the same thing. I’ve also seen that nothing good come out of hurting people. We can get into the specifics of the differences of hurting innocent people versus people who supposedly deserved it, but the main idea is to not hurt people. We should try to forgive and move on. Some things can’t always be forgiven, but we shouldn’t live in the past. Everyone makes mistakes. Which leads to another thing that I know: nobody is perfect. I’ve been told this for as long as I can remember, but even taking a look around proves this. People may come close to perfect, but no one is actually perfect. I know that I am definitely not perfect and I don’t think anyone would call themselves perfect.

                That is how people learn what they know: from their parents, other adults, friends, and their own experiences. And yet nothing is concrete. That too is shown even in the process of typing this essay; I questioned every sentence I wrote and I realized that it really is true that we know almost nothing. Almost everything is an opinion. Someone might think it is okay to hurt people because of all they’ve been through. Someone might think that they are perfect. And who knows, maybe I really am secretly adopted?

Is the unexamined life not worth living? Modern gadfly

The unexamined life is not worth living. If you don’t think about the deeper meaning of life or ask tough questions, then you can’t fully appreciate life. If people only focus on shallow ideas, they will be shallow people. People have to consider the reasoning behind their choices, from something as simple as choosing to give a homeless person some money to tougher choices such as a person’s viewpoint on abortion and the actions to take to support their viewpoint. Analyzing someone’s actions will help them see what kind of person they are and keep them from making the same mistakes over and over.

Of course, going to the extremes is another thing. People shouldn’t focus only on contemplating life. There are other things people must do, such as going to work. No one is expected to spend all day pondering the meaning of life. People need balance. We need to understand our options for our decisions and reflect our beliefs in our decisions, without focusing all of our lives on trying to figure out why we think a certain thing or make a certain choice. Asking questions is good, but there is a limit just as there is a limit to everything. Examining life is like water. Water is necessary to life but too much water can be harmful. Examine life, but don’t drown.

Choosing a modern “gadfly” is tough. Because there are so many ways to connect with people and so many people, it’s tough to have one specific person that a lot of people know. So many different people could fit the category: TV show hosts, politicians, family, celebrities, and so on. Different shows (such as Saturday Night Live or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) are probably some of the closest things to a gadfly that we have in today’s society, but not one specific person stands out as a gadfly to me.

Eulogy

                Klaudia was a junior in high school. She was completely undecided on what career she’d like to major in. She didn’t have a favorite college or even a favorite subject. She didn’t even know what country she wanted to go to college in, which is pretty important to know. But that didn’t mean that she was undecided about everything.

                As for her personal beliefs, she thought that people should be able to do as they please. Obviously not everything can be allowed, because things like murder and theft are wrong. She thought that if people were allowed to do what they wanted and different beliefs were forced on them, there would be less problems. Of course, people should know about other ideas and beliefs and consider them, but they shouldn’t be forced to agree. They should be allowed to make their own decisions based off of what they’ve seen and heard.

                Klaudia also thought that since everyone dies, people shouldn’t live in fear of death. For example, when she mentioned that she wanted to visit every country, several people responded with something along the lines of “You would probably die or be killed in some of those countries.” Anyone can die at any moment in any country. Yes, it is more likely to die in some countries than others but wouldn’t people rather die having seen how other people live, participated in other cultures and helped those who needed help instead of having a long and uneventful life? Wouldn’t people rather die having a fun and interesting yet shorter life instead of a long, boring life? And that was one of her favorite ideas, that life experiences mattered much more than length of life and that life experiences were just that- experiences and the people in your life, not a physical item that can be bought.