BLOG # 7

Fatema tuz zohora

Eng 101-0786

Dr. Vasileiou

Blog 07

Date: 10.24.2012

Allegory of the cave

In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Socrates states that humans were trapped their whole life in a cave. Humans were chained in cave and can only see right in front of them. They had a fire burning behind them, and they saw shadows of people walking by carrying odd shaped objects. They knew nothing but these shadows and truly do belief they were real. One day one of the prisoners released and let out into the real world. His eyes were dazzled and could not see anything. After a few moments he had experienced many different things like the sun light that burned his eyes, as he finally got his sight back it became clear to him that what he believed was the real world was only his imagination. When he ran back to the cave to tell the other prisoners, they didn’t believe him. They thought that he was being crazy and they did not allow him live in the cave. In my opinion, our life is controlled by just like puppet show. People today are still kept in the dark by the government, and television and the media. They don’t believe what the reality is, they don’t find the truth, they just live on lie.

In pre Islamic Arabia, women had no rights. They were not considered equal to man and even if women gave birth to girl, people in Arabia killed the infant girl. A female baby was considered a disgrace to the family and female infanticide was a common response. Female baby was thought to be evil, many of them were sold or buried alive. There many people today believe that women are not equal and women have no rights to speech and women have no rights to live in the world. Women have rights to give birth to children and produce male offspring and also do their household work. Today people in many Islamic countries change their thoughts. Women are now getting education. People are giving the rights to women do job and also female baby killing is now less. So today these illusion become wrong to people. Few people who are not get enlightened by education they believe these illusion.

So in conclusion, today world is similar to plato's cave and prisoners are the humans and shadow was the family, government, TV, radio, newspaper, and internet and many more things. People don't want to believe outside the world and they don't want to move forward. We are blinded by the monstrous hands of the government. Media we view could possibly have been censored by the government, so we are actually viewing what the government wants us to see, not the original article or film. So Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is very relevant to society today.

 

Blog 6

A man cannot escape his destiny

The myth of Oedipus revolves around a man destined to suffer a horrible fate. He was born in a wealthy family but had little control over how he would take control of the wealth. He was born when both his parents were alive but was responsible for their eventual death. He was born with eye sight but was the reason for becoming blind. It was his destiny that propelled him toward those unfortunate circumstances despite his several attempt to escape those.

Oedipus’ first destiny was that he lived despite his parents’ wishes. When his parents learnt that their son would kill the father and marry the mother, they gave him away to have him killed. Unfortunately the prospective be killer pitied on the child and let him live. Thus Oedipus starts his childhood in Cornith although he was born in Thebes. This paves a path toward his ultimate destiny.

As a grown up when he learnt about his destiny, he tried to escape it by leaving Cornith. Little did he know that the Polybus and mother Merope were only his foster parents in Cornith. His ignorance that his actual parents lived in Thebes where he chose to start a new life made his attempt to escape his fate futile. In his words, “it was my fate to defile my mother’s bed, to bring forth to men a human family that people could not bear to look upon, to murder the father who endangered me”. (951-954). Despite his desperate measures to escape it, he started his journey to fulfilling the Oracle’s prophecy.

On his way to Thebes, Oedipus engaged in a fight with his father King Laius. Not knowing that it was his own father, he killed King Laius and his companions. When he finally arrived in Thebes, he solved the sphinx riddle and became the king of Thebes and married his mother Jocasta. After many years, when there was a deadly plague was ruining peoples lives, people came to Oedipus for help. Oedipus then sent Creon to the temple of Apollo to find the destiny of Thebes. He found out that it was the killer of the King Laius who was responsible for the plague. Alas he was yet to know that it was him who killed King Laius.

Even after Teiresias informed Oedipus that he was King Laius’ killer, he was not convinced. He continued to deny that his actions caused the plague in Thebes. Furthermore when Creon supported Teiresias’ prophecy, Oedipus humiliated both of them. This also is an indication that Oedipus’s fate was to marry his own mother and eventually be the reason of her death. He started to realize what might have happened only after Jocasta confirmed that “Oracle said Laius was fated to be killed by a child conceived by him and me” (857-858). At this point, there was nothing else that Oedipus could do to save his father.

However he could have saved his mother’s life by listening to her when she pleaded not to call upon the shepherd who was commissioned to kill him as a child. Alas he did not heed and confirmed that it was none but him who was the murderer of his father. When truth became apparent, his mother committed suicide and a sense of tremendous guilt engulfed him. He punished himself by taking his own eye-sight which further proved the accuracy of Teiresias’ prediction “those in the world below and those….from this land in exile. Those eyes of yours….clearly will be dark” (503-507). Thus the fate of Oedipus came to a full circle when he not only ruined his parent’s lives but also his own.

In conclusion, we can say that no one can change his destiny. Oedipus tried to change his fate more than once but he failed every time.

Blog # 5

Fatema Tuz Zohora

ENGL 101 – 0768

Dr. Vasileiou

Essay 01

Date: 10.15.2012

The feud between the Superhuman and ‘the other’

Genetic engineering is a term that some people associate with living a healthier life while others associate with meddling with human life form as we know it. Some people think that it is a way to live life at its fullest and others think that it is playing God. If used properly, genetic engineering can improve peoples’ lives by removing diseases from our bodies. At the same time, it can also remove our flaws and weaknesses that make us human. If we create genetically superior human, ‘the other’ human or the people who are born without any superior abilities would not support them.  On the other hand, the superior human may consider themselves entitled to take advantage of’ the other’ humans because they are not as capable as themselves. In Gattaca, we have seen an ordinary man Vincent to succumb to the circumstances and pose as Jerome Morrow in order to fulfill his dream to travel to the space. Although he did not commit any murder, he did disrupt the peace in the utopia known as Gattaca. So if created genetically engineered humans would seek to control their counterparts or destroy them. Thus a feud will ensue between these two groups. Historically similar feuds have caused loss of many lives.

         If genetically engineered represent the superior humans, they would seek to control the other and the superior humans want to take benefit from other people who were not genetically proved. This is so because super human would consider the others as “subhuman”. When we look back, the religious crusades that took place in the past, we see that a group or a missionary considered that people in a certain region were not enlightened and thus needed a new religion or a culture. The dominant group first tried convincing the sub humans verbally then forcibly and in the worst case annihilated them mercilessly. When Christopher Columbus conquered the new world inhabited by native people, he treated them as savages and took many lives. In Gattaca, there were two types of people – valid and invalid. The valid were genetically engineered, had no illnesses and possessed superior physical and mental abilities. The invalid were naturally born “God Children” who had flaws and were prone to illnesses. The superior believed that the invalid did not belong in their society and thus systematically restricted their access to opportunities in life. In order to attain the highest success in life, one must be born as valid in Gattaca. Otherwise a life full of humiliation and misery awaits the invalid. These two examples were Columbus and Gattaca society who thought that they were superior and tried to seek control over other.

No one likes a life of misery; especially when that person does not have any control over the situation. In a society where a group of people seek to dominate the others, sometimes the reaction of ‘the other’ is nothing but violence. We worship our football heroes, our actors, and famous people but if all of heroes came from genetically engineered children, the rest of us may not revere them as much. Instead we may resent their success as we cannot aspire to be like them. Similarly if using of genetic engineering enabled us to invent cancer drugs, it is unlikely that the drug will be free and will be accessible to ordinary people. In such a situation, the ordinary people will have no choice but to fight for their lives whether it is by stealing money to buy the drug or stealing the drug itself. The peace in the society will be disrupted though by the weaker group of people. In the essay, “The Man on the Moon” George J Annas explained that humans could be become immortal if their body functions were performed by machines but this will be the eradication of both human body and mind. So genetic engineering altering our genes, bring the gift of immortality to our species has placed us risk.

          In conclusion we should consider genetic engineering a risky science. The risk is in the hands of people who use this. We can use the science to cure diseases and grow better crops but we can also create an artificial scarcity of basic human necessities by restricting access to them to the less fortunate. Under no circumstances should we create a superior version of human as it is destined to create unrest in society. We should use this great science for the greater good of humanity where all people can live alongside each other with no concerns of being oppressed by the others.

 

                                                          

Blog # 4

Fatema Tuz Zohora

ENGL 101 – 0768

Dr. Vasileiou

Essay 01

Date: 10.10.2012

The feud between the Superhuman and ‘the other’

Genetic engineering is a term that some people associate with living a healthier life while others associate with meddling with human life form as we know it. Some people think that it is a way to live life at its fullest and others think that it is playing God. If used properly, genetic engineering can improve peoples’ lives by removing diseases from our bodies. At the same time, it can also remove our flaws and weaknesses that make us human. If we create genetically superior human, ‘the other’ human or the people who are born without any superior abilities would not support them.  On the other hand, the superior human may consider themselves entitled to take advantage of’ the other’ humans because they are not as capable as themselves. In Gattaca, we have seen an ordinary man Vincent to succumb to the circumstances and pose as Jerome Morrow in order to fulfill his dream to travel to the space. Although he did not commit any murder, he did disrupt the peace in the utopia known as Gattaca. So if created genetically engineered humans would seek to control their counterparts or destroy them. Thus a feud will ensue between these two groups. Historically similar feuds have caused loss of many lives.

         If genetically engineered represent the superior humans, they would seek to control the other and the superior humans want to take benefit from other people who were not genetically proved. This is so because super human would consider the others as “subhuman”. When we look back, the religious crusades that took place in the past, we see that a group or a missionary considered that people in a certain region were not enlightened and thus needed a new religion or a culture. The dominant group first tried convincing the sub humans verbally then forcibly and in the worst case annihilated them mercilessly. When Christopher Columbus conquered the new world inhabited by native people, he treated them as savages and took many lives. In Gattaca, there were two types of people – valid and invalid. The valid were genetically engineered, had no illnesses and possessed superior physical and mental abilities. The invalid were naturally born “God Children” who had flaws and were prone to illnesses. The superior believed that the invalid did not belong in their society and thus systematically restricted their access to opportunities in life. In order to attain the highest success in life, one must be born as valid in Gattaca. Otherwise a life full of humiliation and misery awaits the invalid. These two examples Columbus and Gattaca were society who thought that they were superior and tried to seek control over other.

No one likes a life of misery; especially when that person does not have any control over the situation. In a society where a group of people seek to dominate the others, sometimes the reaction of ‘the other’ is nothing but violence. We worship our football heroes, our actors, and famous people but if all of heroes came from genetically engineered children, the rest of us may not revere them as much. Instead we may resent their success as we cannot aspire to be like them. Similarly if using of genetic engineering enabled us to invent cancer drugs, it is unlikely that the drug will be free and will be accessible to ordinary people. In such a situation, the ordinary people will have no choice but to fight for their lives whether it is by stealing money to buy the drug or stealing the drug itself. The peace in the society will be disrupted though by the weaker group of people. In the essay, “The man on the moon” George J Annas explained that humans could be become immortal if their body functions were performed by machines but this will be the eradication of both human body and mind. So genetic engineering altering our genes, bring the gift of immortality to our species has placed us risk.

In present, scientists use genetic engineering to create better animals and food. But the genetic engineering food is an expensive technology. The farmers of developing countries could not be able to afford this. If all people will buy genetically modified food, the farmers of the world will causes genocidal destruction. Genetically engineering food will not be good for people’s health. It will create risk to people’s life expectancy. In the essay, Annas also explained that if these processes also apply to children or embryos improving their memory, immunity, strength and characteristics. This is dangerous for children because its poses a threat to children of treating them as manufactured products and also there are surgical ways to achieve this goal. So we should regulate species endangering experiments.

          In conclusion we should consider genetic engineering a risky science. The risk is in the hands of people who use this. We can use the science to cure diseases and grow better crops but we can also create an artificial scarcity of basic human necessities by restricting access to them to the less fortunate. Under no circumstances should we create a superior version of human as it is destined to create unrest in society. We should use this great science for the greater good of humanity where all people can live alongside each other with no concerns of being oppressed by the others.