Link to find the story, "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Teritus" please have the story printed for class on Wednesday
http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/borges-tlon.html--
Blog Entry--you can write on any of the following questions:
1.) What does it mean to "crack up?" Is Fitzgerald right when he says, "I must hold in balance the sense of the futility of effort and the sense of the necessity to struggle; the conviction of the inevitability of failure and still the determination to 'succeed'--and more than these, the contradiction between the dead hand of the past and the the high intentions of the future.
2.) Who would Campbell say is a hero? What makes them heroic?
3.) Read a newspaper article about a current event happening in the world--write a response about how you feel about that event--can you relate to it, does it anger you, sadden you, does it not bother you in the least? Why? Is your life, your time at BA, reside in a different world than those people suffering social strife in Kenya? Or do we share on universal experience?
Good luck. Please let me know if you have any questions about what we did in class today or why we did it....I think it will make more sense as we move into our examination of Borges.
See you Wednesday.
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13 comments:
I'm choosing to do option 3.
Before I talk about my article though I just want to answer your question about being in different worlds vs. a universal experience. I think we all definitely live in a different world than the people suffering in Kenya. I mean I feel so bad for those people but how does that affect us? There's some commercial for some new game show and the host asks the question "Do you really care about the starving kids in Africa?" and the woman says "No." Of course, there's this huge gasp from the audience. However, she's just telling the truth that I'm sure a lot of people, who agree with her, can't say. I don't want to say I couldn't care less. I feel horrible that people are starving but I live in such a different world than they do and it's really hard to relate. Especially at a private school in Maine, we are all very fortunate; I don't think any of us can relate to the people in Kenya. It is two completely different worlds. There are things that connect us but that doesn't it make it so we all share everything on a universal experience. There are so many people who just don't care about anything going on in the world. It says something when the most views article on MSNBC.com is "Beware! 15 foods that can fool you," and we just can't make everyone care enough to making it a universal experience. I'm not saying that I'm making a difference because before this year I didn't know anything that was going on and I don't think I even cared. But now I do care and pay attention. However, I live in a different world. I can watch as much news on TV and read as many articles as I want; I'm never going to be able to know the world the people going through this do.
I don't even know if the article I choose I can relate to this at all but I found it interesting. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22881119/
"People bust illegal kidney transplant ring." It's about this place in New Delhi that they give poor patients some shot to knock them out and then they take their kidneys without paying them and sell it to wealthy patients. I mean that's horrible and the people who are doing that are horrible people and I sympathize with them but I can't really relate. I've never been drugged and had someone steal my kidney and I don't think many people in America have unless there's this undercover operation going on that we all don't know about. We are so fortunate to live in a place where people aren't being genocided (is that the verb of that?), starved and robbed of kidneys. It'd be nice if we could have a universal experience because we all live in the same physical world but it'd also be nice if there was no war and we all lived in houses like the Cinderella castle at Disneyworld. Unfortunately, it's just not realistic.
I am choosing the Campbell one because when I was at film camp, our instructor gave us a 7 hour lecture on the hero story (I'm not kidding, we started at 8-am and went until 5pm with a one hour break for lunch) so I feel like I have some knowledge to contribute to this.
According to Joseph Campbell, a hero is one who follows the path of a hero, "The Hero's Journey" (which is also the title of one of his books, the one I will refer to here) before I refer to things I learned outside of class though, I will speak on the idea based solely on the paragraph given to us in class. According to this quote, the hero will find god where he thinks he shall find abomination, reality contradicts the will of the hero, and it is good. The hero then seeks to slay the antagonist, yet in attempting to do so, slays himself, a realization occurs and the personal definition of self changes, the hero realizes, the center of his own existence. The hero becomes selfless, one with the world knowing that he is not alone, but part of a whole, and the antagonist, though in denial is also part of that whole, which is why the hero always wins, because he can see what the anti-hero cannot.
Okay, so now I will give a shorter than 7 hour description of what I learned of the Hero's Journey from film camp. Hero's from books and movies generally follow this path. The example we were given in film camp was Neo from "The Matrix". So as not to regurgitate what is written in my notes, and because there are a number of people in this class who have not seen "The Matrix" (GO RENT IT NOW!), I'll use an example that is more widely known; Harry Potter.
The Hero's journey starts out in the ordinary world. For Harry, this is the muggle world, our world. Suddenly, there is a call to adventure; the letters flying down the chimney. At first there is a refusal to the call. When Hagrid bangs down the door and says "You're a wizard, Harry", Harry is in total denial, and doesn't even believe in wizards, let alone that he might be one. Then the hero must go through mentoring before he crosses the threshold. This moment could be interpreted in many places in the beginning of harry potter… I believe that the mentoring is when Harry is in Diagon Alley with Hagrid and he learns all about the wizard world. The crossing of the threshold happens when the hero finally accepts the call to adventure. Scared little Harry steps through the brick wall that leads to platform 9 and 3/4. After responding to the call, the hero is put through a series of trials, (quidditch, the forbidden forest etc.) leading up to a trial referred to as "The Cave", which is the preparation for the big change, the final set of trials before the supreme ordeal. In Harry Potter, the Cave is the door behind which resides "Fluffy" (the three headed dog), that weird plant thing, and the wizard's chess. Finally Harry comes to the supreme ordeal, where he alone must face Lord Voldemort. The next step for the hero is the road back, which is cut very short in harry potter (Dumbledore takes care of it or something like that. I haven't read the book since 5th grade so give me a break) so if basically cuts to the resurrection, when harry wakes up in the hospital and he has the sorcerer's stone "the return with the gift". And that's pretty much the 12 elements of a hero's journey…
There's an optional element too, the "visit with the goddess"… which in Harry Potter MIGHT be the visit with the mirror of erised. This element of the hero's journey is not as generalized as the other 12, and can be open to interpretation.
Another hero response...I got a bit carried away again. (I really liked this topic.)
As children, our generation was raised on the image of the Disney-movie hero. It was the rags to riches Aladdin story, the coming of age saga of Simba, the tenderhearted warrior figure of Hercules that held our eyes glued to TV screens in childlike wonder. Now that we’re older, we emulate sports heroes and idolize the faces of People magazine because we’ve been taught that success and heroism are fame and glory. If this life, Campbell’s “labyrinth”, is as difficult as everyone has warned us, we feel that we need to follow in the footsteps of someone who has made it through the maze and out to the other side with a smile on his face, money in his pocket, and a celebrated reputation to boast. But what if these supposed heroes aren’t leading us safely out of the labyrinth? What if they’re just leading us in circles and we’re following them blindly towards the heart of the jungle? I enjoy a good Disney movie or occasional tabloid scandal as much as the next maze-goer, but I’m starting to think that we’re following in the tread of the wrong sort of people.
Campbell assuages his readers’ fears by reminding us that we’re not the first ones to go this journey. “The heroes of all time,” he insists, “have gone before us.” He tells us to look ahead to the end of the maze at crowd of people waiting beyond the finish line and “follow the thread of the hero path” to find our own way out. In the glitter and glitz of false heroes, however, we are distracted. Campbell urges us to redefine our idea of success. “If life is to be affirmed,” he reminds us, “mortality…cannot be denied.” Just because someone stumbles along his path doesn’t mean he makes it to that finish line without honor. If I was to choose a “hero path” to follow, as I think we all subconsciously do, I hope I would pick someone who followed one of the trickier paths throughout the labyrinth and came out of the other side with a strengthened sense of determination. The hero I hope I would pick would not be an unscathed idol, but someone who emerges from the maze with a few scars that mean something.
As we make our way along this road, Campbell reminds us that “we will be with all the world” where “we had thought to be alone.” As a country, as a generation, as a group of friends, we’re trudging along together. Millions have gone before us, millions will follow behind us, and if we are to hope for any sort of success along the way we must learn to identify a hero that will lead us along a path that will toughen us and teach us resolve. I don’t mean to spin this with an attitude of despair, but rather to offer the idea that finding a way through the labyrinth is a sincere accomplishment in itself. In choosing a “hero path” to follow, I hope I can forget the idyllic superhuman image I’ve been taught. Personally, if I never grace the pages of People magazine, I’ll consider myself most successful. I think Campbell is telling us to find an honest, healed, and human hero, someone who simply made it through the labyrinth in the way we want to travel.
I read an article, for the third topic, about the increasing violence occurring in Kenya. I will admit that reading through my MSNBC homepage, I was sincerely discouraged. Every other article is about some sort of massacre, rape victim, or homicide. All of this chaos, to me, has blended together. Seriously, where is the love? Each individual tragedy deserves some sort of sympathetic recognition and I am finding it more difficult to take a moment and simply reflect. I feel selfish. Generally, those of us in the Berwick community do not appreciate what we are exposed to in terms of opportunity. I know, I know, this has been said way too much. Yet, somehow, most of us still don’t get it because many of our problems are so superficial and insignificant.
“Kenya fighting leaves road ‘covered in blood’”, is about the recent massacres of opposing tribes in Kenya. These outbreaks were prompted by the presidential elections and the suspicion of a rigged voting system. I was caught off guard to learn that 800 people have already fallen victim to the bloody street riots. After searching the page, I found a collection of pictures taken from Kenya. Photographs of mothers and their children packed into rickety cars fleeing from danger, homes burned by blazing torches, and dusty streets with dead bodies strewn about, their blood soaking the thirsty land. One picture in particular caught my attention, a man walking himself to the hospital because of an arrow, which had been lodged into his head by a rival. Inhumane.
The people of Kenya are enduring the unthinkable. The past few years have provided Americans with a great deal of suffering, however, Kenya is at the very extreme end of the spectrum in relation to us. I believe that suffering is universal but only to some degree. Each person, family, culture, suffers regardless of status or environment. We can connect with those around us no matter what the circumstances are because it is certain that they have been through trying times as well.
I am worried and so scared of what is happening to our world right now. I feel insignificant and useless in such a large world full of so much suffering. I hope that we can take all of our suffering and channel it to appreciate the small amounts of good left in this place.
Like Hannah, I too read an article about the recent violence in Kenya. I hope the topic of Kenya doesn’t seem overdone at this point, but I wanted to write about it because it creates a stronger reaction in me than say, more news about the war in Iraq or about general conflict between nations. I also read an article about this last week for Global Affairs, so I knew it was something that interested me.
It would be a lie if I said these types of events going on always impact how I’m living, because I don’t always think about these things, and neither does anyone else. It doesn’t mean that these events don’t bother me, because they do. These articles do make me feel sad, and upset, and angry, and I wonder what I can do, but I will admit that I don’t do much. I would be kind of a sociopath if I didn’t feel in any way distraught by this. In terms of why I feel sad or angry, I guess the only explanation I can offer is that I to am a slave to human emotions; I can’t just turn them off, even if I read an article about something I’m not experiencing myself. I do think about how destructive we are to each other, and I long for a peaceful existence with one another, but I also don’t completely commit myself to this. We can’t all make ourselves heroes after reading about horrific events, sometimes all we can do, and what we need to do, is empathize, and spend at least some time thinking about other people.
I know I’m extremely fortunate to live the life I do, and I am not any more deserving than anyone in a third world country to be living this life. We’ve all heard it preached before, that we live extremely privileged lives, and we should be thankful for that, but that doesn’t exempt us from our own human emotions. We still feel pain and anguish at times, but different kinds of pain. Some of us will never feel the affects of a country in despair, but that doesn’t make our feelings of pain any less real. They may be pointless, selfish feelings of suffering, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. We still all share this universal experience of emotions, and even when we start thinking about how stupid or selfish these feelings are, we are detracting from the emotions themselves, and putting a value on what is human.
Like I said, to some degree we all share a universal experience, and an example that we’ve mentioned many times is universal suffering. In addition to suffering, fear, happiness, and other emotions that are at the core of the human experience are all things we universally have in common. What separates us though, and what overshadows the basic emotions, is how we came to feel these emotions, and to what degree. I can relate myself on a basic level with someone in Kenya who is experiencing emotional pain, if I start thinking about how pathetic my life is (don’t get me wrong here though, I don’t actually think my life is pathetic). Although I wouldn’t relate my pain with their pain beyond the basic emotion, it can still be said that we’re sharing a universal experience. The causes of emotions are all put ahead of the emotions themselves, and that makes it virtually impossible for us to share a complete universal experience. Beyond the basic emotions, I cannot relate to these Kenyans, and it would be an insult to say that I could, because it’s putting my problems on the level of this one, which is simply not how it is.
The only universal experience we share is that we’re all human. What can help us have a closer bond, though, is developing empathy. Empathy is the key to the kind of attainable universal experience, where although you are not physically sharing this same experience, you can escape from yourself and do the best to put yourself in someone’s situation. Many of us don’t empathize to a large degree, if at all, and this is what causes the suffering we all experience.
At this point in my life I am not going to Africa, or the Middle East to save their lives, but during my times of empathy, I feel like I am helping in the way I know how. I feel like this is the first step towards a more heroic action, and maybe in the future I can help save people in Africa, but we must crawl before we can run (I feel like some weird preacher or something, because this is so cliché). Placing yourself in a state of willingness to act without any thought is not going to help either; we can’t ignorantly act before we intelligently think. What I mean is, it’s not going to do anything if I don’t acknowledge the emotional affects of the crisis in Kenya, but jet myself over to the country to try and “save them” without even knowing what’s going on. We can’t truly help others until we deal with ourselves.
Ok, so since last night I answered question 2, tonight I'll answer question 3.
The article I read was about illegal organ trafficking in India. What is happening is that doctors are either buying organs from poor Indians to sell on the black market, or taking them by force. This was a crime ring lead by a doctor called Amit Kumar. The ring carried out over 500 transplants in the past 10 years all over India. These organs were being sold not only to poor people in India in need of transplants, but also to American patients. The people who organs were stolen from claim that a man came to their houses promising a well paying job, and instead brought them to the hospital where they forcibly stole their organs by drugging them. They busted the guy today.
This article is really scary. My grandmother needs a kidney transplant, and what if she tried to get one from one of these guys? I can't say my grandpa wouldn't look for one… then again he is a racist… so I'm not sure… I have a weird family.
It was bad enough that we had an article like this in anatomy about how in India they are digging graves to Sell the cadavers to American students for dissection on the black market… the Indians must really need the money. But taking organs from live humans… that's pretty bad. Taking from the poor and giving to the rich. It just goes to show that in the society we live in, human life at the poverty level isn't valued as highly as those of the rich. Its almost like saying that it is okay for a poor 28 year old Indian man to die giving an organ to a rich old American man. Not only is it an issue of poverty, but of race as well, and in today society where we value putting aside physical differences, these kind of acts are shameful. Nothing is for a good cause anymore…
I think you should keep your body intact. Sure, I've had my appendix removed, but that's a little different. If you are going to have surgery… why get rid of something you need? And on top of that… if I ever needed an organ transplant, I would feel WAY too guilty to take it from someone. Some day that person might need that organ that they just donated. If it is time to die, then I won't shorten someone else's life which has equal value to mine just to live longer. That's disgusting.
response to a hero--
Campbell states this: "We have only to follow the thread of the hero path". By use of the word "we" he opens it up to refer to all people. A hero is truly anyone. People who have done good deeds in the past set the bar for the next generation and those to follow. They are role models and we all have the potential to be a hero. No one's position in life amplifies their chances at being a hero and no status hinders it.
I believe anything can make a person heroic, but the title of hero is determined by how society views what they have done. For example, standing up in front of people to state your views of a particularly controversial topic can be a way which someone can be heroic-i.e. Martin Luther King Jr and his I have a dream speech. Other heroes commit the simple act of deciding to be police and fire men and women who put their lives on the line each day to keep the community safe. Lastly, a hero can be anyone to any individual just for committing an act of kindness. Anybody has the potential to be a hero; it's just dependent on the act and level of heroism.
Many kids think their parents to be heroes, or the characters they see on TV. This is the juvenile idea of what a hero is; it's someone they can look up to and strive to be like. Actually... I think that's true for all people, a hero is a person they can look up to and strive to be like. A Hero sets an example for others, whether it be selfless acts, sacrificing their life to help others, or speaking your mind to make a difference in the lives of others. In the end, "where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world."
this is the article --> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/world/africa/29ghana.html?pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper
this is a movie on the article --> http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2006/10/28/world/20061029_GHANA_FEATURE.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1201188758-1ap50djYbXcVK4YzFSQbRg
In this article we are shoved into the world of the youngsters in Africa. Most families, in Africa (precisely 2/3 of the population), lives on less then $1 a day. Because of this families lease their children for as little as $20 a year. The work forced that is talked about in this article is the fishing industry. We are introduced to a six year old whom is a worker who knows no education. He, along with many other children under the age of 15, is forced to work up to 14 hours a day. Children are what keep the working industry booming and they account for about 1/6 of the trade. We will look at this as slavery, however, this article stats that it is the way it is and the families see it as a “survival strategy.” Much of this labor is clearly visible, however, not enough is being caught. Only a small percentage of children are saved from this horrific world. In 2007 Nigerian police found 64 girls under the age of 14 inside a refrigerated truck that was built to haul frozen fish. In 2003 644 children were freed from trafficking. This is not even a pinprick in the industry. Parents exploit their children and see nothing wrong with it. As for the adults that accept these leases, this article says, most of them were in the children’s position when they were younger. Most of the canoes that fish in Africa are filled with children some of which are no older then 5 or 6. These children work 100 hours a week and are beaten for mistakes. These children so not see a cent of what they earn, all of it is sent to the families. A tragic instance the article talks about is about Kofi Nyankom. Kofi is a 9 year old who tried to escape this hell. He tried to fun away but was caught and his ‘master’ beat him. Later, the master was forced to release him. However, shortly after, he was replaced with a more innocent boy. Six year of Mark Kwadwo now sits in Kofi’s place, lost and helpless.
I was terrified when I read this article, and wanted to get on a plan and go over and help. I talked to my sister who’s boyfriend went to Africa to help and he talked to families like these and its just the way of life its what they know. They don’t have the opportunities we do so they live and do what they can. After that talk I still was pissed that families could just sell their kids but even if we got the kids of the boats or out of the work force until they are at least 16, they would have to do something. If I were to raise money to get the kids out of the boats until they were 16 that would make me feel good but the families would like hate me. They depend on their kids to survive this is the life they know and this is how life has been for years. I have always felt really lucky that I go to BA even when I have a crappy day I have to remember it could be worse. I think that America is totally different then the world but then I think that BA is totally different even from the rest of South Berwick. We have our own little hilltop and little things happen. We have catastrophic events happen to us once in a while but nothing huge. Chances are at the end of the year all of us will be continuing our education. This doesn’t happen even at Marshwood. And in Africa your lucky if you get to second grade. Its two different worlds but who’s to say one is better then the other? We share the same experiences at some time in our lives it just depends on when you have that experience. We are all human and we all go through the same crap.
Ok, I had to delete it twice because I kept on noticing typos.
“The hero always wins, because he can see what the anti-hero cannot.” Beth, I totally agree. Well said, my friend, well said.
Alright, so this is option one on what it means to crack up.
Cracking up is a reverse epiphany.
An epiphany is when suddenly a light goes on and everything becomes clear. What once seemed disconnected and unrelated suddenly seems to seamlessly connect in a way that’s so obvious you wonder why it didn’t hit you before.
Cracking up is the exact reverse. It’s when all that you once held as true suddenly turns on its side, so you are unsure of what’s real and what’s not. Your established beliefs which once seamlessly connected are scattered and distraught. Everything now become unclear and you brain becomes clouded with so many thoughts that you’re unsure of which ones to hold onto. You’re sense of direction becomes lost, leading you to snap and completely change your pattern of life (like Fitzgerald, who isolated himself and would sleep for long hours) or to turn insane. (side note: But then again, maybe this is the moment when you become sane, because who is to say what makes someone insane or sane. Insane people seem to think in a different reality then everyone else, but does that mean their reality is wrong? Maybe they are sane, and everyone else is insane.)
So what leads someone to crack up? I agree with Fitzgerald, in that it partly results from an inner tension which builds from attempting to “hold in balance the sense of the futility of effort and the sense of the necessity to struggle.” In other words, repetitively striving after what you never are to obtain, so that your effort is futile. Fitzgerald describes how he attempted to play football and later wanted to go overseas to fight, but was unable to do both, which resulted in “walking dreams of imaginary heroism.” He suddenly saw that what he once held as a reality for the future was only a dream and nothing more. He then deluded himself by having the “walking dreams” which allow him to convert what remained of his shattered reality back into reality.
Another point Fitzgerald makes is our struggle to with the “contradiction between the dead hand of the past and the high intentions of the future.". Sometimes I put so much stress on the future. I build up dreams around it. When what does it even matter? Even if the goal is reached, I sometimes feel like it’s so insignificant in the big scheme of things. Our past is only in our memories and when we die, all those memories will be missing. Even if it was written down it can never be transcribed exactly, and even our memories turn vague in time, so that we can’t recall things exactly as they are. Sometimes I feel that I’m just a meaningless spec, wandering the earth with no set purpose at all... I’ll get out of my car in Fogg parking lot and I’m like “Why am I here?” This is only happens once in a while though, the other half of the time I’m so caught up in my “high intentions,” that I fail to put everything in perspective, and pin my life upon the small, meaningless crap. (I was more choked up by meaningless crap last year though).
Another thing is how do I know if my “intentions” are correct. I sometimes feel like I’m pointed in a million contrasting directions, and I don’t know which way to head. This is what causes people to crack; this caused me to crack last winter. It’ the moment when you start to second guess what you are doing and why you are doing it. When your confidence in how you live your life becomes replaced with a shroud of doubt. You start to see the duality; how there’s no set standard or anything guiding us on how to live. We’re just thrown out here and forced to make up our own rules or go off rules people give us. I used to think everything was either "good" or "bad." There was a clear line that I could draw based on what I had gathered from my parents and Disney movies, but now the lines between everything seem blurred. It's hard to distinguish any clear set of directions, when it once was so easy. Okay I need to stop writing now. I'm starting to sound really emo... Sorry for the abrupt ending.
Here is a response to #3.
I decided to go to http://www.nytimes.com figuring that would be the best source for an article from outside of the United States. All I had to do was to open the headlining article entitled "Would-Be Peacemaker Killed in Kenya" (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/world/africa/30kenya.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin). A summary of the article: A man by the name of Melitus Megabe Were was a key figure in the fight for peace in Kenya. On Tuesday morning he was shot to death, before he was ever given the chance to spread his message. The word of his death spread throughout Kenya and protesters surged for peace. Following the short summary of the attacks and his death, the reporter continues on the talk about Kenya in general. The journalist speaks of an unstable country with a dysfunctional economy. The article goes into further detail about how Kenya is slowly falling apart and unwinding.
"While the country has been considered one of the most stable and promising in Africa, it is still a very violent place, with carjackings and muggings all too common and mobs routinely stoning to death suspected criminals."
This quote from the article struck me and saddened me. It really bothers me that these events are occurring in Kenya. But what bothers me even more is my feeling of helplessness. What can I do to help this nation, to help these people, and to bring peace to all of the struggling countries. Even in "one of the most stable and promising" countries in Africa deals with assassination, economic failure, and uprisings. Sure, I could join an organization and fly over to Kenya and help out children or something of that sort, but what is that really accomplishing. With all the programs and all the people who go to third world countries, the impact seems hardly noticeable. I'm searching for an answer to this clearly growing problem.
At the same time, I am sitting on top of a hill in arguably one of the safest places in the world. I am surrounded by some people that I sometimes feel could care less about anything that happens outside of their own front door. It's so depressing to me. We come from middle and upper class families, we eat three meals a day, and we have anything and everything that we could ever want to survive. As our country continues to expand it's global domination in the middle east, our leaders could care less what is occurring in these other countries. I mean, why go out of your way to help someone else, when you can focus on doing the things that will directly benefit you? Okay, that's a good mindset if your life is based on some scientific equation or a concrete viewpoint like that. You would think that these politicians coming out of Harvard Law would have paid attention in pre-school when teachers taught them lessons about sharing, helping others, and avoiding selfishness. I guess not though.
When thinking about the question of perspectives and mutual experiences in the world, I think that there are at least two different perspectives/experiences. I agree that all of the billions of people in world share one universal experience. We are all members of this community that we call earth. We share it's water and use it's resources (even if the United States may use more than other countries). From a Buddhist perspective, we share a single soul that runs through us all and that dwells in everyone. Even though each person may have a different perspective on the world, it is still the same world. The root of our problems comes from the fact that some countries (including ours) does not understand this concept. Our leaders do not see soldiers in Iraq or citizens in Kenya as people, they see them as numbers, as pawns in their game. Like I said before though, what is the solution to this? If we could come up with one simple solution, I'm certain that myself as well as many others in our small community would contribute. If I had to sacrifice a meal a day or some money from my bank account to save the world, I would certainly do that. I am a single soul dwelling amongst billions, I am just one piece to the enormous puzzle that is the world.
As I just mentioned, I live as part of the small community of Berwick Academy. This leads me to my second perspective and experience of the world. From a completely different side of things, we live so much differently than people in Kenya. It would be completely foolish of me to say that I understand their lives and what they have to deal with, I do not. I live a comfortable lifestyle nestled in the northern corner of the United States and so do all of my peers. We live in the most excessive country in the world. Kenya is a third world county. Our country does not deal with hunger, disease (on the level of an African country), or any type of civil uprising (assassination, revolution, violent protest, etc...). So even though the theory of a shared universal experience that I talked about in the last paragraph is still something I believe in, at the same time I feel that a life in Maine and a life in Kenya are so different that we could never even begin to understand one another.
NUMBER ONE
In chemistry, the second law of thermodynamics states: "The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum." Entropy is defined as the amount of chaos or disorder in a system. This means that every day the world is in a process of becoming more disorganized. Even things that are growing, from tiny babies to the sequoias of the West, are only doing so at the expense of others. And inevitably, "all life is a process of breaking down," as Fitzgerald writes. So in a sense we are all cracking a little bit every day.
Yet Fitzgerald is referring specifically to one crack-up: the moment that this carefully-wrought "balance" he speaks of gets thrown out of proportion. "I must hold in balance the sense of the futility of the effort and the sense of the necessity to struggle." But what happens when one of these outweighs the other? You crack, and in the case of Fitzgerald and the narrator of Notes from Underground, you try to run away from society. Fitzgerald becomes disillusioned with the materialism and relationships that fame has granted him, that he "had weaned [him]self from all the things [he] used to love."
I think we all come to a point in our life where we have a paralyzing realization that we are defined not by ourselves but by the world around us. "I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors," Borges once said. Humans, Americans in particular, like to believe that they are in control of their own destiny. Yet if your thoughts are only the sum of all that you have observed in life, how do you know that you are the sole perpetrator of your actions? Maybe we cannot change our destiny, but we can change our outlook on it.
The crack-up is inevitable; the key to not letting it destroy your life is in expanding your view of the world. "Listen!" a character later tells Fitzgerald in the story, "The world only exists in your eyes - your conception of it. You can make it as big or as small as you want to. And you're trying to be a little puny individual." Perhaps our conception of the world, our perception of reality, is the one thing we can control. Fitzgerald writes that when he was first writing, life was "largely a personal matter." When we are only concerned with the interactions that occur right within our line of vision on a daily basis, mistakes can feel cataclysmic. But when we hold it in the proper light, in the prospective of the world outside of our immediate periphery, we can see these supposed catastrophes are only the tiniest ripples in an ocean of events. Likewise, we must also judge our success in this world light in order to avoid excessive hubris. I truly think that this expansion of our vision is the only way we can avoid becoming victims of society.
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