Blog 2: SMU topic: The allegory of the cave

    I find it hard to pick just one case in human history where the masses were purposely
misinformed and where a concentrated group of people made decisions that affected many
people, yet the general knowledge regarding the matter was vague, and full of half
truths. The war in Iraq was the most recent. Arguably the tragedy of September 11th
was preventable, and many insinuate the government encouraged it. The Vietnam war was
launched on the premises that a U.S ship was attacked on the gulf of tonkin by north
Vietnamese boats in 1964. In 2005 it was declassified, and the public was informed
that there "may not have been any north Vietnamese vessels present during the incident".
Even still we know only what we are told of these topics, and the truth behind them is
up to debate.

 Vietnam  war cover up

    The incident which I feel caused the most damage was the federal reserve act of 1913
signed by then president Woodrow Wilson.  In the text "The Allegory of the cave" Socrates uses a cave metaphor to describe human ignorance. The humans were prisoners of this cave, and forced to accept the illusion as truth, much like Woodrow Wilson decieved the public about the true nature behind the federal reserve act. Our President is some one we expect to lead our society into prosperity, not the great depression, which occured not two decades after the act was signed.

   The public was lead to believe that instituting a centralized bank to put a end to financial panics, and lead to economic prosperity. A board of trustees was assembled consisting of the highest ranking bankers, and they
created the federal reserve act in a private meeting on a island. No government official,
lawyer, politician, or civilian was allowed in the meeting. Just the highest banking officials. Bascially
they with out any formal knowledge of law making or political protocols, they were allowed to create a piece of legislature which would forever change the direction of our country. Woodrow Wilson himself later wrote in regret:

    "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial
nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated.
The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a
few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely
controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government
by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority,
but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
  -Woodrow Wilson

  Reference to quote

    This is our president talking here. Not a lobbyist, or a C.E.O. This man is at the
tip top of the ladder, and is privy to information that we would never want to know.
He knows what hes talking about. This was not speculation. He wanted to become president
and needed the support of the bankers.He was promised support if he signed the act. This
is a common practice in politics. Yet later upon retrospect, he admitted that it was
a foolish act but his ambitions blinded him to this. History repeats itself, and I
doubt this was the first time some thing like this occurred.

Blog 1: Super Mega Ultra topic - Ideology and reality

                Is it better to live in ignorance, or be haunted by the truth? I personally believe the truth will set you free. Others would choose to believe ignorance is bliss. So what is better, to be free or to live in bliss? Obviously it is up to the individual to make that decision. Life is not black and white, but how can anyone make a well educated decision if they do not know the whole story? Indeed it is comforting for others to share the same view point, but can we differentiate ideology from reality? It is human nature for us to believe what we see and to accept it as fact, but we must also learn to recognize when we cannot fully understand a matter and to accept it as part of a larger whole instead casting our opinions as facts.

                Imagine you were a prisoner in a cave. Now this wasn’t an ordinary cave, this cave is the only world you have ever known. This cave IS your world.  You are chained to the walls unable to move, and the only thing you can see is shadows being casted from passersby. Would you be content seeing the shadows? Or would the desire to fully understand and comprehend the shadows be overwhelming? The desire to understand is innate. Would you fight those instincts for the sake of maintaining a norm? Or would you give in to intellectual curiosity?  Call me weak willed, but I would have to find out what exactly I was looking at.  Even though I see shadows and hear echoes, I wouldn’t be able to rest until I knew for sure what was going on. I couldn’t be content with just speculation.

To some, that can be scary. I have met a few people in my life who would rather maintain a counterproductive routine instead of perusing enlightenment.  Truth may set you free, but it doesn’t automatically mean that it does not hurt.  There are risks being taken when ever some one dares to go against the grain. Banishment and scorn are the risks we take when we aspire for enlightenment over ignorance.

                Galileo believed the world universe was heliocentric and not heliocentric  and faced a lot of criticism for it. Even though everyone else swore the world was the center of the universe, he stayed true to his beliefs. He may have been one of the only human beings at the time to believe the world was the center of our solar system, but that didn’t stop his intellectual pursuits. He may have been a pariah, but he could not silence the voice in his head telling him to seek the truth. He could not live in a blissfully ignorant world that was geocentric when he thought all facts pointed to the universe being heliocentric .  If more people thought this way, there is no telling the kind of discoveries we could have made and or missed.

To live in a cave and be ignorant to the outside world is to deprive us of our essence.  We want to learn. We can’t help but to cast opinions on anything we perceive. We cannot fight this urge. It occurs every day when we see something new, or see things from a new perspective.  Often in society we reject opinions that deviate from our own, but instead we should learn how to appreciate and identify with any observation because it is in our nature to learn, and change from those experiences.

First super, mega, ulta post!

 Hello internet and fellow cluster-mates. This is Sal posting on his first patented super, mega, ultra blog. If i wasn't in such a comfortable chair, this might not be as fun as it is. It's extremely comfortable. I hope every post I make is from this chair. Or at least a chair equally comfortable. I know I can't be the only one.

 I wonder: does any one enjoys the hard ceramic chairs with the desks attatched? It's so hard to get comfy. If were not comfy, how are we going to learn? It's alot harder to focus. Compound that with being hungry, and we will never be able to retain any information. Im serious. Do it right now. Sit in a akward position, then try to pay attention to the proffesor. It's not possible. If LAGCC wants to increase the size of its honor roll, then they should invest in better chairs.

 I guess it's not that important to LAGCC. Unless we initiate a flood of letters demanding for better chairs in every class room! Or at least in every class in our cluster! Whos with me? If your too lazy to write a letter, then blog about it. Blog about the chair situation and hopefully we will rustle a few feathers and get what we deserve: better chairs.