The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living/Who is the Modern Gadfly?

"The unexamined life is no worth living for a human being" 

To me this quote tells me that there is no point in living a life that has no meaning to you or two others. The sad truth is that many people do live this life and it goes to show that people are acting without thinking. Imagine if everyone lived a life where they had taken the time to question themselves and their choices, there would be more happy people and ideally less problems. Of course there is still the great possibility that there would be those who find their life so deplorable that they would go into deep depression or even wish to die.
According to Socrates's principle, a person can only be truly and completely human if they subject their life to the tests of critical self-examination and through that examination they can finally achieve their greatest happiness. I agree with this principle but living in a society where many things do not require much thought doing this for everyone would be nearly impossible. People are not willing to question themselves, because sadly many of us think that how we are living is set on stone. Most people believe what they feel, think and know is the only correct thing and would not be willing to go through the series of critical questions. I wish we could all go through self-examination to reach that fulfillment but I know that it can never truly be a reality.

Michael Moore

According to many dictionaries a gadfly is a person who upsets the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, making people think he is just an irritant person. Many politicians and social commentators are said to be modern gadflies. Michael Moore is an American liberal filmmaker, social critic, author and activist  and he would be one of many modern gadflies. He has written many works that criticize globalization, national and international corporations, weapon ownership, U.S Presidents (George W. Bush and Bill Clinton among others), the Iraq war and many other things. Michael Moore is known widely for his liberal political activism, he refuses to accept the title by merely saying "If we're not politically active, it ceases to be a democracy." With this he defends his critiques by saying that if people do not question the government and the status quo then democracy, or the rule of the many as Socrates defined it, would not be in existence. Michael Moore takes the role of examining life in the United States for us, he questions the actions of our leaders and many people do not like that because it goes against what they believe. In a way the modern gadfly examines the life we currently life in and exposes to the population giving them the option to take it a step further and examine it for themselves.

Eulogy

Carmen was known for a variety of things among her friends and family. For her friends and family she was known to be talkative and friendly. In school, people saw her as a quiet girl who never really put herself out there. It was not that she was shy, but that she had her reservations about people. It took her while to feel comfortable around people who she did not know. One of her best qualities was the fact that she was a great active listener. She did not just hear people, she listened to them. Carmen also believed that everyone was their own person and that we were all entitled to do whatever they wanted. It all came down to the morals of that person if what they did was productive or destructive to themselves and others.

As she began to grow up she developed her own interests and activities. She accomplished many things during her childhood, some which followed her to high school. She has maintained Honor Roll/Principal’s List honor since 2^nd grade. She competed in swimming competitions until 7^th grade and then stopped taking Track & Field as a sport in high school. She learned to play the piano at a young aged and continued to practice it well into her teenage years. Everyone that knew her would agree with the fact that she was in love with the idea of traveling and exploring the world. This lead to her goal of self-teaching herself two languages, Portuguese and Turkish. Through her determination she managed to achieve an intermediate level of fluency in Portuguese. She also loved to volunteer at a local community center, where she used to help either the administration or the ESL evening classes.

Carmen never liked giving up. Her greatest fear was letting others and herself down. Her greatest goal was to move and work abroad. She might not have all the trophies and medals to count for her achievements but her achievements were personal and gave her experience. She learned through her achievements what she valued the most; fairness, helping others and pushing oneself to the limit. This also led her to know what she hated the most; stubbornness and ignorance. Carmen was a nice person most of the times, she had her flaws like everyone does but she believed those flaws made her learn and grow as a person, she did not like dwelling in the wrongs of others or even her own wrongs.