Considering things less important than usual...

So I don't have anything deep to say (surprise, surprise) and so I'll give a general update.

School is good albeit stressful--mostly due to personal expectations for a certain amount of academic success which isn't necessarily being met/validated on a normal day-to-day basis. I mean, I can suppose that I'm doing pretty well and considering the kind of material that I'm working with, I think I'm doing pretty good. I guess my main issue is the consistency of speculation towards performance in that I generally have to just sit around and hope that I'm doing well instead of actually having a quantifiable measure of actual performance.

That being said, I have a short paper to write (which will consist of 40% of my grade) for my philosophy seminar on Animal Considerability. Honestly, I wish I hadn't taken the class... but my main source of stress comes from my total lack of understanding towards cognitive ethology and a general lack of caring towards the idea of whether animals can think. I don't think animals have desires and while I grant that they have feelings and rudimentary/crude reasoning skills, I don't think that we need attribute moral status to them in so much as we only take cares to ensure they never suffer more pain and suffering than is acceptable for any living creature. But then again, that's how I feel about all people I don't really know. I simply wish that all people be granted at a minimum enough moral consideration that they not be egregiously harmed.

Is it so much to ask that I not be forced to believe that animals are so morally considerable that they be granted the right to property and representation in congress? I exaggerate of course because out of all the gargantuan readings we've had for that class, none of them make any sense and I don't understand the point of any of them.

Perhaps you can see the underlying causes of my stress?

I thought this wasn't going to be a deep post...?

Anyways, everything else is going fine. Social life is fine and considering it's infinitely better than the past two years of college, I can't complain. The radio show is going swimmingly. Writing for Broadside has been much, much better than it was last year but still not nearly as wonderful as it was Freshman year when I was able to write more to my style and about more things I cared about.

Note to self: Broadside retrospective in an upcoming blog post?

I'm participating (for the most part) in National Novel Writing Month. Even though, I'm really only doing it in my head and not physically because I still am lacking any extrinsic motivation and pressure for actually doing it. I write my best under pressure and I am not feeling any when it comes to these novels. I guess I could drop out of school and declare to the world that I will make a living writing novels and the only way I can eat is by the fruits (lol) of my imagination. Seems like that would deliver adequate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for finishing one or more of the five projects I've started.

Latest project: Novel! By: Author (by Dylan Hares)

It's the epic story of writing an epic story. The journey of one writer in his quest for his magnum opus. I got the idea from Paul Laudiero (who came up with the title) and from Milan Kundera's Immortality whose first chapter seems much like Kundera is narrating his epiphany on immortality and identity and the human condition. It will be literally brilliant if I can find the voice and pacing and stick to it. Maybe I'll write some more tonight after I study for my Personality exam.

But yeah... I suppose that's it for now.

I mean... considering things less important than usual, that is.

On Animal Welfare and Politics

So Professor Light was (thankfully) absent from class today and we were left with a video on animal welfare to entertain our thoughts for a small portion of the class period. Probably since it would be unthinkable to allow us to go unstimulated for two whole weeks.

Either way, it was an interesting video. But really, it just pissed me off. Not because of animal cruelty, but because of the politics involved behind the whole thing.

Now, it's not that animal cruelty doesn't bother me.... in fact... let's do this. We can accept the following as true:
A) Animals are sentient beings that feel pain and potentially slightly more complex feelings such as fear and being to know if they're separated from family.
B) There is a ton of science to back this up.
C) Good, peer-reviewed science is legitimate grounds for legislation.
D) As moral agents, humans with the knowledge of A and B have, at the very least, the ability to recognize animal suffering in factory farms.

Factory farming is horrible and unnatural and as a meat-eater, I dislike supporting the organization. In fact, I plan to be more conscientious about buying products and plan to look out for animal products market as free-range or humanely raised. In the video we were even shown how in the modern day, traditional animal husbandry can be not only humane, but just as profitable.

Now, if we can accept these things (and please tell me if you can't), we need to look at why we're actually dealing with the issue.

Agribusiness (which is actually a word, surprisingly enough) is huge. Massive. Pervasive. It has the same lobbying power as the tobacco, alcohol, and firearms industry and we can all attest to the power they have. The issue is that because the agribusiness lobby has such intense power to influence senators and congressmen from farming states as well as any other legislators, nothing gets passed. The legislation as it stands is muddy and convoluted in the way that while many common animals are protected under anti-animal abuse laws, animals under the domain of factory farms are not. It's appalling how Europe has already passed dozens of laws for the humane treatment of farmed animals and yet we lag nearly 50 years behind.

The thing is, nothing can get passed because of the greed in the legislative body. In true Orwellian style, we are being subjugated and told what to believe and not say by a totalitarian state. The worse thing is that it's not even the state that's doing this. The corporations are so powerful that they've pushed the government aside and are not only feeding us with their product, but with the power they have over how this country runs. Again, it's not just the agribusinesses. You hear all the time about how perfectly sensible bills that could really help people are stricken down by special interest groups and heavily pressured subcommittees of Congress because the vote of our legislators, the people we vote for, are up for sale.

I know it's a very Mr. Smith Goes to Washington kind of thing in that it's truly idealistic to think that lobbyists, the people who are only supposed to be providing congressmen with legitimate information, should and could never hold real power over our congressmen, but the fact of the matter is that they do.

Animals in factory farms do suffer and that's not really debatable. I know it's tough to watch PETA propaganda and it's even easier to push it out of your mind as isolated cases. But I feel like the fact that every PETA documentary has new footage of animals squeezed into tight cages is enough to say that maybe this stuff is really happening.

I'm not a vegetarian by any sense and I certainly don't plan to be. I don't think we have a moral obligation to be vegetarian, but I don't believe we have to harvest animals in a way that makes them suffer more than necessary just to increase productivity and expand profits. Natural animal husbandry in such a way that is profitable to small farmers would increase competition and drive down the prices of animal products and hopefully alleviate the suffering of farmed animals. While this still means we bring animals into this world to kill them, at least they don't have to suffer along the way.

I just don't think it's possible though until we have someone in the White House that is not afraid to take a stand against Congress. We also need a total flush of Congress while we are at it. Get some young, educated, idealistic Senators and Representatives in there and get some stuff done. Again, I support a totalitarian state as long as it is one that uses ultimate power and subjugation FOR all people instead of against them. I support the state dismantling factory farms and agribusinesses so we can have smaller, more humane farms. It would probably solve a lot of problems as long it was run by a totalitarian dictator that isn't trying to kill a certain kind of people or conquer the world and instead is motivated by a desire to help everyone at the same time. I think it's very possible.

Again, always open to objections.

The burden of memory

So coming home often causes me to get real nostalgic. But lately I've been thinking a lot about much older memories from Elementary school, Middle school, and onward. Thinking about people I used to hang out with and talk to regularly--the same people who I lost contact with so long ago, I'm not even facebook friends with them. And I've tried to find them but can't; makes me surprised at how many people don't have a facebook.

But the point of this post is to talk about the memories I've been thinking about that involve these people I've lost contact with--old and new(er). I mean, these memories from middle school: do the other people involved think about them too? Do I ever cross their mind? I mean sure, I've got a mostly photographic memory (even though I'm losing it) and I probably think about a lot of things I've seen more than most people (so I assume). But these memories are so old and the people in them are long gone that sometimes they just seem like figments of my imagination. I can't find these people so maybe they never truly existed. Yeah there's a little picture of them in the yearbook but anyone who is anyone has a facebook too (haha). I'm just saying... it's weird to think of all these events in my life and all of the people that used to be in it.

I think about memories as fresh as Freshman year and think about people I used to talk to and when I look at all of these fond end-of-year messages in my yearbooks I wonder what happened.

But of course, I'm thankful for what i've been able to do in my life and all the people who are still in it--despite so many losses. My current friends and my girlfriend mean the world to me and I hope to never be without them.

On a related note...

Niall Ferguson said something interesting on the Colbert Report this past January...

He explained to Steven that since money isn't backed up by gold anymore, it isn't physically worth anything. The only reason money has any value is because everyone accepts it and trusts that it has value. It's an IOU that is passed from person to person with no true value other than the cost of the cotton-paper it's on. I thought that was really interesting that a twenty-dollar bill is only worth twenty dollars because the person I am giving it to as well as myself agree and accept that it is indeed worth twenty arbitrary units of repayment.

Size, weight, and quantity are all arbitrary methods of measurement. There is no reason why an inch is as long as it is but because the United States accepts it as such, that's how long it is. If everyone tomorrow was to accept the inch as a little but shorter, that would unquestionably change our perception of the inch. Same with the pound, the gallon, etc.

This relates to Socrates' challenge of Euthyphro's seemingly arbitrary proposition of piety. I won't get into piety because that again brings in "faith" which is neither quantitative nor qualitative. But the point is that I think it's very interesting how all of these mathematical systems are virtually meaningless without the global acceptance of their standards. (The respect I have for Socrates comes from his methods rather than the conclusions he wants to suss out of people)

Thus, it would be possible to have a universal standard for beauty, righteousness, and all other things that are unable to be quantified if we were to all simply to accept a standard for these things. It's not that we can't, it's that we won't. We just all can't agree on standards for these things which is why everyone's opinion differs.

An inch is an inch because no one can come up with anything better, nor rally the support for a new measurement system. Beauty for one person isn't beauty for another for more psychological reasons of course but no one will agree. Righteousness can't be agreed on of course because people will always want to be able to do what we want in a society where the liberal media says that's okay. Nevertheless, people still follow the laws set forth by the Constitution and by states because that's what they are told to do, because it is universally accepted that these laws have meaning.

Righteousness, it could be argued, was founded in religious tenets that said that the Gods have put forth these laws and we should obey them because that is what the Gods would want. For the longest time people were totally cool with that. People now say that they shouldn't have to not do what they want just because a God tells them to. They cite religious rules as arbitrary and meaningless which is only so because they do not accept them. The same people follow secular laws (which again, are founded on mostly ancient religious laws) because they ACCEPT the governments rule which in essence is equally as arbitrary. All atheists can trace their lineage back to parents who were devout and pious. just thought I would point that out.

I think that's all I have for this.

Sub-prime crisis

Watching a video by Niall Ferguson on the historical origins of the economic crisis...

Basically, a sub-prime loan is when mortgages are given to people with "patchy credit histories." These are also called NINJA loans. (NO INCOME NO JOB NO ASSETS) Essentially in 2002 Bush said everyone in America should own a home. This gave more than 5 million renting and non-home-owning minorities mortgages due to relaxed standards by credit agencies.

The agencies felt fine because of a convoluted system of securities that "ensured" the money would be there if the owner defaulted on the loan.

To sum up, they de-regulated the market and gave mortgages to people who couldn't pay because Bush said it was okay..


Most of these people were minorities in ghettos... With no jobs...



I'll say no more.

A Day in the Life... (and a little bit of whining)

So my average day tends to go as follows:

My alarm cuts through the silence as I lie warmly in my bed. Disgusted, I roll over, fumbling for the device and quickly shutting it off. My average reaction time is about 5 seconds.

I return to a comfortable position and cold-start my brain. I commence a thousand calculations concerning my plans, classes, homework, and exactly how much time I have before I need to begin these things. I try to determine if I have even another 15 minutes of untapped sleeping time before I have to force myself to get up.

Whenever I manage it, I get up, grab my towel, and head to the showers. I brush my teeth while the old pipes fetch whatever is left of the warm water after the other 5 showers in the building have already had at it. This generally takes about 3 minutes.

After I shower, I sit around to dry off; I check my email, text my girlfriend, just about anything that comes to mind.

Donning my headphones, I grab my bag and head to the cafeteria. Once inside, I walk around trying to decide what my body can afford to consume since it's far too late in the day for their greasy breakfast. I sit by myself as always. As I eat, I watch people. I watch them talk, I watch them eat, I watch them study...

Creepy as it sounds, its fun to watch people. To see what they do, how they tick, how they interact. You learn a lot. Walking to class I'll see people absently passing me by, their tunnel vision fixed on their destination. The people here rise from their homes and come to their classes, taking off at dismissal to go back home or to work. The students walk briskly by on the way to their cars, classes, or dorms. There is little communication and other than ambient noise it seems like conversations are a rarity.

George Mason University has disappointed me. I was led to believe that college was a unifying experience where you get to see what it's like to be part of a larger community--a much larger network. I feel like I missed the memo where someone tells you that's not the case. Maybe it's just me and all of my friends going to other schools, but I haven't been part of a large group of friends since high school. What it seems to me is that everyone I know has one of those in college. I don't know... but I think it must be something about Mason. There aren't a lot of unifying factors with only about 28% of it's undergrad community living on campus, all of which are conveniently divided into literally 5 separate and autonomous living communities.

What I think is also contributing is going to be a little touchy.

Mason waves this massive banner over the university with a massive golden and embroidered "D" on the front. That, of course, is D for Diversity. George Mason doesn't hesitate to tell everyone it can that it is the most diverse university in the universe. You've got students here from every state and all over the world, which is great for something like the UN. But this poses a serious issue with building some sort of community. The colossal language, cultural, and identity barriers that diversity puts up alienates the entire student body. The ethnic clubs on campus further reinforce cultural identity, forming cliques and separating the interests of the students as a whole.

I realize it's important to find people you vibe with or whatever and it's certainly important to never forget or deny who you are... but I just think that with the sheer amount of differences we have with each other with our cultures and languages, it just seems like we're only defining the lines that form between us. I'm certainly not an expert on international relations or anthropology but there has to be some way to force things to get mixed up. I just simply don't see the students at Mason being able to come together because of something they all have in common.

I'm not saying anyone is better than anyone else or that anyone is discriminating or segregating, but I think that if you look at it psychologically and sociologically, people feel most comfortable in their own groups. With Mason already segregating students with its inordinate amount of commuter students compared to its on-campus students, there are so many lines drawn between us that we can all hardly call ourselves devout Patriots, much less a community. But I suppose I have to concede that it is in the same fashion we all call ourselves American. From a sociological standpoint, we don't draw these distinctions on purpose, it just kind of happens.

Okay, so maybe I pictured college to be this Athenian community of learning where people held seminars on the grassy lawns and students walked shoulder to shoulder having intelligent conversations and everyone stayed on campus to enjoy indie music and each other's company. Where people would go from dorm to dorm from open door to open door shaking hands and introducing themselves. A place where in 20 years you could meet someone from the same institution and be proud to have common ground.

Well George Mason is building new residence halls and parking decks over those grassy lawns.

Who knows maybe my thoughts and conclusions are unfounded based on an entirely limited scope of observation and maybe the limited enjoyment I'm getting is a direct result of what I'm putting into it. Maybe also colleges everywhere are like this. Maybe since we're not all forced to be in the same school in the same classes with the same people for four years and forced to go to pep rallies and have school spirit we are finally allowed to break the mold and be our own people, forming our own tight-knit group based on close associations of commonalities and values.

I also think it would help to be somewhere where 84% of the student body doesn't drive away every night.


more to come on this subject I think.

Group thought

Working together without being together involves everyone having a full and correct understanding of the situation.

In a recent experiment I partook in, we were randomly and anonymously assigned groups and were instructed to be working towards a common goal. What I assumed would happen is... well what happened. People got greedy and lost sight of reason and ended up short-changing the rest of us quite literally.

If everyone knew the intricacies of the instructions and knew how to maximize their part of the experiment without messing up the rest of us, things would have turned out a lot better. Since we couldn't communicate, it was impossible and all I could do is hope they came around.

Point is, I think this applies to the world in a lot of ways. There are common goals out there that people of different locations share, and I think the reason a lot of things don't get done very quickly, very efficiently, or at all is because people don't understand what's going on completely.

It just seems hopeless when people don't communicate about the problems they're experiencing and we run circles instead of getting things done.

This came out a lot more vague than I thought lol.

Still pending: G.I. Joe review, Paramore, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin reviews. I can probably do those three this weekend. We'll see.