life's purpose is to be enjoyed, not to be programmed

            I believe in a reasonable rate of return. No, but I really believe that our society is backwards and the amount of effort put into our chosen lifestyles generally limits and hinders individuality and growth while taking up a large portion of our lives. Typically the only sure guarantees through schooling that involve monetary success require an intellect and years of training: primary, secondary, high school, college, grad school, or law school… This in turn, can take a lot of money should you not already be able to find or produce the funds on your own ensuring crippling debt and even slower progress. The tests and challenges that meet us our fleeting and merely seem catastrophic in their instance, while in the grand scheme they’re just as important as whether or not I had chocolate or vanilla cake for my 6^th birthday. Our system is built in an unoriginal and crippling manner. Before I seem anarchist, understand that no system breaches this realm and truly creates equality of chance and life. What I am saying is simply that life is fleeting and whether we’re concerned with good colleges, SAT scores, or whatever be it, we may end up at the same place and find it’s just as bodily and spiritually limiting as our most esteemed or lowly acquaintances. Birth grants advantages, but the money and ability to take advantage of these various systems merely makes our existence within them seem more accommodating and comfortable. There lacks the sense of adventure and lifelong pursuit in the general population once they are told to grow up and follow something that will grant them more tangible and “successful” results. 

Nukes, Diseases, Natural Disasters, and Organized Religion...

            There are two things that threaten this planet the most. Both are creations of man for certain purposes. In a way, they both maintain order through control and a fear/understanding of things that may come to pass. However, only one was created in the last one hundred years. The latter of the two is Project Manhattan, or more importantly, its product. The first is probably the most accepted and permeated having existed for thousands of years. It is any and all forms of organized religion. Through this have the greatest minds of our history been shunned, destroyed, or curbed by providing the “one and true answer.” In reality, there are many different forms of this one true, but they all threaten and inhibit the same things. They stand as moral teachings that eclipse the answers to deep questions in life. This not only severs any rational thought, but cauterizes it by scarring the idea of alternative answers as rebellious and a threat. It is this narrow minded focus throughout human history that has provided people after people the right and excuses to maim, enslave, and destroy one another. From Crusades to Spanish Inquisition to modern day Jihadists, the individual who allows their life’s questions to be answered so easily gives themselves up to these answers body and soul. It is in this that lies the true threat. Should anything compromise or challenge these answers, the individual’s life will be compromised and challenged. This is what leads the body and soul commitment to the destruction of the body, of either believer, blasphemer, or both, to the depths of whatever hell the persons see fit.

Too long have visitors abused the hospitality of the host...

            The finer points of playing grand theft auto IV. These all consist of playing the game through to its utmost potential. This means playing the story mode, side things, and challenges to have unlocked as much of the game as possible. At this point, you are allowed to use cheats. Now the best way to regulate having multiple to play is to use the money, weapons, and health cheat once. It is at this point that the player is to play until they die and if a felony hasn’t  been committed within 2 minutes the player faults. If this fault happens 3 times the player forfeits their turn. Using cheats is an automatic forfeit. Players are encouraged to hijack, loot, rob, and initiate mayhem just as if this were Fight Club. While using abilities gained through the cell phone are technically fair game, this is to be considered a weak way out where as targeting those abilities as hit and run subjects is endorsed. In the event of a dead end, players who have lost all of their ammo are required to make a dash for it. This can either be running enemy lines or vaulting and hoping you survive. Players who breach any of this etiquette may forfeit future turns upon review of the console owner who reigns supreme being.

i'm no vegetarian... make me a carcass not a vegetable

            I’m not entirely sure what you mean by desires, however, there are a few possibilities as to what it could be. My main thoughts are that it is his desire to live and to spread his message to the world. While it could very well be just a physical need for human interaction, I feel these bigger purposes are what truly motivated him and accommodated all of his necessities and urges as a being. He feels that he can serve others and the world by putting a face on violence and war. This could possibly halt the violence and unnecessary deaths all the while paying for his life and allowing him to interact with humans out  in the world. Even though he would be in a glass case and would terrify every being he came into contact with, for him it’s a purpose and a means of experiencing the world in his present state. This is all better than being cooped up mentally with no outlets to allow him to feel more human and to give his life any semblance of meaning. If I were in his situation, I would be insane and want to be offed. Unplug me should I be in his spot. Documentation of my existence alone would be sufficient to prove that war is awful. Those given the chance to survive violence may not always want to remain in their state with no chance of returning to their previous lives.

happy ending?

            The end of the book is completely depressing. It is probably the most depressing thing I’ve read in a very long time since I Am Legend (and I don’t mean the warped Will Smith cinematic take on it). What probably makes this book the most depressing and difficult to read is the fact that the conclusions reached by Johnny are completely accurate and most likely one hundred percent true. No one wants to talk to the utterly crippled human pulp of war and understand its humbled take on life. They just want to decorate it, make it a standard to rally the troops, and plunge forward all the while forgetting about it. The fact is that current soldiers and those hoping to gain more numbers do not want the maimed survivors to be able to speak or show the true face of violence. This encumbers and destroys the support. It doesn’t seem all too unlikely that the government or army would also bury this person if they attempted to raise hell. Johnny draws too much attention in their eyes by merely flopping on a bed with one person exposed to him at a time. This causes them to dope him up and silence him, but it’s clearly obvious that were he able to actually retain any one of his former limbs or senses they might have few qualms with quarantining him to a similar state to the one he actually exists in.

ummm... why is my blog locked

            This essay is essentially American colonization propaganda. It sites predictions and events that will turn out to be contradictory just as many controversial claims made in bold expansionist and military whims of American administrations. From the Philipines fighting back to Cuba hating us, these events could all very easily turn into their own miniature Vietnams. The only difference between this big shot calling for American dominion over the world and its actual happening is the fact that these cited examples are minor and didn’t cover as large populations for these long times. While many US troops were killed in the Philipines and Cuba hates us to this day, it is and always will be the voices in Washington that call for the troops to be sent every which way in the name of whatever cause the loudest voices can rally behind. The book on the other hand would go completely against this saying that there is no predestined glory of the United States and the only sure thing about these conflicts and actions is that their will be a loss of life and self in their completion. This is the only sure thing that the soldiers shall face.

did you lock your door? Islam is coming...

            This essay strikes me as being almost the polar opposite of Trumbo. While Trumbo argues for the needlessness of death and fighting when the individuals don’t even really get a choice in the matter, D’Souza says that they don’t need a choice. There actions in the military alone serve as the sign that our army and nation is unified. However, she used very odd examples in making her statement that single handedly caused me to pause and think. The first big glare was separation of church and state in the US. We are NOT the best example in the Western world of this, as you can see with individuals basing their votes off of religious doctrine or beliefs derived from it (abortion, gay marriage, etc…) We have the largest church going population out of these Western nations and it’s not plausible to say that this doesn’t have repercussions. Secondly, it’s a large jump to make both the comparisons of the Spanish Inquisition and that of Sparta. The Inquisition was severely limited in its spread and couldn’t reach world wide; it was what happens when a few looney religious kooks get in charge. Terrorism is not embraced and supported by a majority, in fact, by nature it must be minority. This example suggests that all of the people in the Middle East support or endorse terrorism and that those who didn’t would have already been silenced or killed by it. The Sparta point is unique in the sense that it relates terrorism to a militarily powerful and cunning Greek city-state. While it does fit in her vein of terrorism, or the “Islamic threat to the West,” Sparta also suggests that a larger more organized political entity or people is attempting to formally subjugate the West. Her essay is modeled to create a doctrine of war. It is in the hopes of unifying a nation or people, as it almost blames citizens for losing Vietnam since we failed to understand its gravity. Trumbo and D’Souza are polarizing ideologies that would publically condemn each other as the hoora for war/simon says and the cowardly force that’s making our nation vulnerable/ causing us to lose.