King is still King?

Everyone knows who Dr. Martin Luther King is, and if you do not shame on you! It must mean you did not pay attention in any of your US History classes. I feel like the only reason people know of Dr. King is because of their history classes. People just know that he did something for civil rights but when I ask them more about it they give me a blank look. "Why should we care? It already happened...," is the usual response I get. Although, I will admit I know the basics of Dr. King's accomplishments and life I am far more aware of his importance to our current day life. Now, no one questions the fact that there are blacks, whites, browns, yellows, whatever color you decide to add in there, interacting with each other in a regular basis. People don't realize that this a few decades ago would have been unimaginable.
Maybe socially King is not the King. His accomplishments will always make him a King, but if people do not take the effort to keep his name and image alive he will fade like many, many, many, historical figures have. I believe that what Dr. King was fighting for has not been fully accomplished and because his fight still lives on to this day, maybe in different forms but in the end it is the same basic problem. Because of this, Dr. King should still be King. People need to use him, and many of the other civil rights figures, to keep on fighting and to draw support and knowledge from. People can still take so much from what he achieved, from his speeches and images and ideas.
I fear for King, I fear that he will soon just become a historical figure that we need to learn. I am afraid that he will become a vacant name although what he fought for has taken a different form, perhaps now different people are being attacked. To me King will not stop being King until another King comes in to further out his story/legacy.

Die Antwoord

Yo-Landi Vi$$er and Ninja

Most people are surprised when they catch a glimpse of the music that is found on my laptop, phone, and iPod. Two summers ago, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I first heard of this South African rap-rave group, Die Antwoord "The Answer". From the first song I heard I realized that every video, every track, every appearance should be labeled with a warning label.
This South African group can be simply described as "Brilliant Weirdness", people have to be able to stomach the graphic images and very blunt and obscene language. Yet, Die Antwoord is not simply a very weird and strange rap group, it is a rap-rave group that borrows tales and values from the South African Zef culture, they borrow the trashy and disregarded cultural elements. They take the 'ugly' of a culture and turn it into a very interesting form of music. Die Antwoord breaks many Afrikaans stereotypes, borrowing from the recently oppressed black community. What captivates me most from their music is not the surreal imagery they use in their videos but how they manage to mix three languages into their music; Afrikaans, Xhosa, and English. I also love how they manage to bring up a cultural item into all of their songs, from Evil Boy which deals with tribal rituals. Die Antwoord is a refreshing thing, out of the ordinary but very interesting. Their very pronounced South African accent adds more to their style, and their hip-hop fusion with rave is very new and thrilling.
But like I said earlier on, listen to them with caution. You have to be very open minded to be able to really listen to them.

Die Antwoord- Baby's on Fire http://youtu.be/tpNvk4iE0V4
Die Antwoord- I fink U freeky http://youtu.be/QGIbDQpVqX4
Die Antwoord- Faty Boom Boom http://youtu.be/bWEJHg4Hgqc
Die Antwoord- Fok Julle naaiers http://youtu.be/ektsOP8yOQM

Solititude

Reflecting on solitude led me to realize that almost everyone in my family are solitary people. I do not like being around a lot of people, I do not like having to socialize when I don't feel like it. Ever since I was a young girl, I never liked hanging out in crowds. While there are people who yearn for the company of others, I prefer being by myself. If society didn't frown down upon solitude as much as it does, I would probably not care for being social. There is always this constant pressure that makes me look for people, to be their friend and to have them keep me company. I do not like this pressure, but at the same time I do not like others giving me pitiful looks because I am sitting alone or walking alone. Physically I am never alone but emotionally and mentally I am, and there is nothing wrong with that. I might have someone to keep me physical company but there is no one that understands how I think and how I feel. I like having life this way, it creates a sense of privacy and feeling of self. Being alone gives me the opportunity to find things I am happy for, I do not have to pretend to like something or to act one way. Yes, perhaps I need to find other friends who I have more in common but it is hard to do that, to establish friendships on common things because if people are like me, I will never know when they are truly are being sincere or they too are changing just so they can have someone and not be alone. Being alone is not bad, and I will never understand why society sees is as a bad stigma.

I Know This Means Something

Everyone always has those days where we have a sudden epiphany. You might be driving down the street, or sitting out somewhere, where there is no one that keeps distracting you. You are paying attention to the road or to nothing, just alone with your thoughts. When you reach that moment of thinking where you go over what you do and why you do it you often get that feeling of either satisfaction, indifference, or panic. Some people will be happy to realize that everything they do is for something and has a meaning. Those people might make themselves happy or others happy. At the end they are satisfied with what they do and with the meaning that their life and actions have. Then, there are the indifferent people. They don't mind their life like it is. Yeah, sometimes it must suck but they deal with it. They might not find meaning in all of their actions  but they know that there are some in between that do. To them, they are not sure if there is meaning in something but they won't take the extra step to figure it out. Let it come to them if there is, if not then oh well. Lastly, we have our panickers. The people who left alone in their thoughts will panic because they realize that what they are doing has no direction. Sometimes they over analyze things to the point where they have no distinction on what is enjoyable and what is not. They do not know if something means something, if they do not see it right infront of them then they won't believe it. They do not know what to do with themselves and if you do not know what to do with yourself, how can you know things have meaning or not? If you have not found your individual meaning?
I am probably way off, or wrong in most of this. But I do not care, or mind, because it is something I think of often. Something that somehow makes sense to me. I often have those days where I am alone with my thoughts and I just think. Every time this happens I go over events that have happened to me and I think to myself, "This happened for a reason. The reason might not be explained right now, but maybe it will be later on. But this has a reason." If you believe something happens for a reason then you must know it means something. Everyone has to know something means something in their life, some come to the realization sooner than others but it happens. You just have to wait.

Frankl-ly Speaking/Thankful for a Classmate

I like history. European history, American history, Latin American history, Asian history...just give me history and I'll love it. I thought I was pretty informed and educated about WWII. It is possibly one of my favorite periods of history, people often do not understand why but they do not understand or see what I see amid all the troublesome images. Frankl was able to give me a more personal meaning to their sufferings. His book is a first, where he did not go in depth about the horrors of life as a inmate in a concentration camp. No, he took his time to explain to us what kept him alive. His wife and the manuscript were what kept him afloat at the camp. Frankl mentioned that many of the inmates did not commit suicide because they had that someone or something for them out there, or so they hoped. I liked how Frankl went over the different stages that prisoners went through when first arriving at the camp. I was vaguely aware of them but the way he went out explained them really made me understand the reasons behind it. Frankl did not just explain life at a concentration camp, he showed us how many prisoners, including himself, were able to survive such a life. They all found meaning in their suffering, it was the only way that they could keep on living. 

Thankful for a classmate. I am thankful to have Sydney in my class. I have never had a class with her before but this year I have two with her, Philosophy being one of course. I am thankful for her because she always contributes to the conversation and because she was probably one of the four people I knew in that class. I always have someone to talk to during group discussions. Shes very outspoken and funny. I am thankful that I got to know her more through this class because she cracks me up every day. 

A Direction the Class Needs

I honestly like the way class is going right now. There is always a lot of discussion and view points, everyone so far has been respectful of everyone's point of view. I like the fact that the class is not a one-man show or a two-man show. I do not know what there could be less off...maybe changing group work to just individual work? That's all we do, and I think it is much faster to get through. Though, sometimes working as a group can help clarify questions about the reading. So maybe that is a good thing.
Even though I keep quiet during class, I pay attention to everything everyone is saying. I have agreed with a majority of the things said in class, and I haven't reached the point where I have to speak out my opinion just yet. I don't really think there is anything in the class that there should be less. I like the direction the class started in and the direction it has stayed. It should stay the same, as long as the participation of people keeps being like it is at the moment.

Voltaire and Camu Vote for....

The 2012 U.S Presidential elections are nearing. Next Tuesday, November 6th a large number of Americans will vote. 

I do not see Voltaire voting for any of our two big parties, he is not going to vote for Romney or Obama. Voltaire will go up to the polling place and either vote for a third party, such as Gary Johnson. Voltaire values civil liberties, something that in his earlier life had been severely restricted. Voltaire criticized everyone and their mother in his books, and under Johnson his personal freedom would still be protected. The government under Johnson, as Voltaire sees it, be more efficient. Either he'll vote for a third party or do his own write-in candidate. Who knows, he might write himself in. 

Camu would not show up to vote at all. I feel like Camu sees no point in going to vote. The views that any parties showcase are not something that he would be attracted to vote to. He gave raise to the idea of Absurdism, which states that it doesn't matter how much or long we try to look for the meaning of human life we will fail inevitably. So, I do not think that Camu would show up to vote at all.