This video does a fairly good job of showing why many Americans are afraid of Muslims and the Middle East, but this also shows how ignorant Americans can really be. Judging all Muslims based on this extremist viewpoint would be the same as saying all Christians think like the Westboro Baptist Church which as we all know they don’t. While what these extremists have done over the past 30 is horrible videos like these serve to only promote ignorance and more hate. This idea of a Jihad has been around for far longer than these terrorist attacks, and the purpose of this video would seem to be a warning against Muslims and their hateful ways that they all possess. The cause of this violence contrary to what the video would have you think is not simply Islam but more likely a few corrupt, greedy and power hungry Islamic leaders. If someone from Iowa started a hate group that bombed buildings all over the world our opinion or Iowans wouldn’t change we would understand it was done by a group of hatemongering psychopaths. However one religion becomes involved so many become so willing to demonize the other side denouncing it as evil and hateful. Being brought up without religion has allowed me to sit on the sidelines and watch, in amazement, as one side points fingers and says look! Look what they did while they themselves turn a blind eye to what their religion has done in the past or even what is going on right now. While religion is a big aspect to this conflict in interests that all it is trivial differences in what you would want to call god and which old book of faire tales and magic, that has been changed manipulated and made up, you want to read and believe. That being said if the middle east were predominantly Christian the people who hate the west would hate the west all be it for different reasons than just being Christian perhaps they being protestants would have a problem with the catholic leader in the was claiming influence from the Vatican. The hatred in some people around the world has become irrational they just hide behind trivial differences as a cause.

It is absolutely staggering how much money the United States spends on our military. I’ve know for a while that our country almost spends more on its military that the remainder of the world. When Sam asked how much of the pie chart would we need to control to feel safe I was fairly surprised when people said all of it. I still not sure if those people truly thought we the United States need to fully control the military might of the world or if not having time to think about their answer they just spat out “all of it”. In truth we probably only need a budget as large as our allies’ maybe a little larger to account of the pensions we should be paying our veterans. I often wonder if our government and the people with money and power in our country are convinced that the best course of action of us is to create this global network of U.S. backed oil producing countries which is essentially our oil empire; or if they know exactly what they are doing in creating this empire doomed to fail with a steep divide between middle class and the rich to keep power. The primary reason I wonder this is because of the recent crisis on Wall Street. During the collapse the clearly saw coming the rich and powerful companies and bank were able to turn a profit from the market tanking. They then went on to take more money from the government and us the tax payers. Either way be they blundering idiots or cold calculated power hungry people controlled by the dark side it’s clear that our oil economy will be supported by wars until the already dwindling fossil fuel runs out… then it on to Natural Gas
There is another side to this argument though. As Americans we want our soldiers to be as well protected as possible. In doing this the government would need to pay a lot into R and D. If we can supply our troops with unparalleled Fire power and technology far fewer of them will die on the battle field.

History is cyclical and the power struggles and social inequality of the world fall easily with in these cycles. Rome is a perfect example of this cycle the Roman Empire was democratic at first. The Roman people, at first, elected people into “office”. The Roman Empire as many civilizations did expanded its borders looking for power and resources. As time progressed the ruling elite took power beginning with Julius Caesar Augustus who had the backing of the military. At this point the only way the greedy and destructively decadent elite could sustain their lust for power and lifestyles was to wage war on the surrounding civilizations plundering their wealth and taking their slaves for cheap labor. This type of empire can never sustain itself. The Romans could not keep control of such a large empire with the infighting and power crazed leaders they subsequently split and collapsed leaving in their wake the dark ages. The British hundreds of years later followed a similar pattern their greed for power resources and cheap labor lead them to become the world’s biggest imperial power. They spread to India the Americas and Africa they ruled with an iron fist, even subjects in their own country were largely impoverished. The difference this time was that they were better connected with the rest of the world they could make money through trade no just conquest and slave labor through that was used. A second difference was that peoples in these countries ware better educated. It was the age of enlightenment and thinkers from the colonies were not going to sit by and let their fellow colonists get crushed, so they rebelled. One was violent and hated taxation without representation and wanted freedom for all. That little colony was us but we were doomed to repeat history. America today is a mockery of what we fought to become. We look down on those who are different and we sit in front of TV’s sedated by society while the rich get richer and rob us of our freedoms and money. The ruling elite have shown up in history again this time as corporations. This iteration of the powerful are the cleverest yet. They out sores labor in a new and innovative way to exploit poorer peoples. They hide behind the American government that they control like a puppet assuring the people that everything is fine and that they are here to help. They can even convince us that the poor union workers are making too much while they destroy our world economy and profit from it. If history is any indication, unless the power hungry can keep us complacent indefinitely this time, the masses will stand up and rally for a revolution of sorts whether it will be peaceful or violent is yet to be seen.

I saw this article on Reddit a few weeks ago and even before reading it then I had heard that Religion worldwide was in decline. As people become more educated and better connected with the world around themselves through the internet and other forms of communication we do a better job of thinking critically about the things that influence our lives. Its clear that religions of all kinds dont escape this fact. The article states that nine countries around the world are on the fast track to religious extinction. With the hypocrisies of many religions and the recent stance against current social issues like birth control gay marriage and gays in general and many others I not to surprised that people shy away from organized religion. A few months ago I can remember seeing a campaign online asking Agnostics and Atheists in the UK and Europe to come forward for this coming census and mark no religious affiliation. In the past a lot of these people had apparently been marking other and filling in Jedi for religious beliefs which apparently was the most popular joke to do. The article states that even deeply Catholic Ireland will head toward religious extinction. One theory for this could be that after the hardships endured by the Irish people many would find it difficult to see god in the way the Catholic Church portrays him. As stated in the article America doesnt have a place to put what your religious affiliation, or lack thereof, is. However I have read in a few places that if atheism was a religion it would be the fastest growing religion in the United States history. I would like see the United States add a section to the census. It would give us a better idea of just how much of the country is Christian considering many people call the US a Christian nation completely disregarding the fact it was founded on religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In the long run it will be interesting to see how this all plays out and how it affects the overall state of the world.

This video shows how factors outside of our control and outside of society can affect our lives. Here in state college we can almost all say that we wake up with the sun having already risen no matter what time of year; while the people of Helsinki have to deal with both waking up in darkness and only having 5 hours of sunlight in the winter. The people in the video say the find themselves to be a little more depressed, hungrier and more tired that in months with more light. These feelings could be on top of or due to the affect that winter seems to have on people all over the world. I think we could all say that the winter has a draining affect on us whether it is the cold or the amount of light. Helsinki’s solution to this problem is very creative. Instead of being cold (pardon the pun) and giving people light while telling them to cheer up the city decided to illuminate the buildings and landmarks in a way that could be considered art. The government’s decision to also provide people with the tour of the lights around the city helps break up the monotony of the cold, dark winters there. My first thought when seeing the “light boxes” was how simple of a solution they were and according to the people of Helsinki they are very effective. The need of these intense light shows just how important the sun and light is to us as a species. It’s interesting to think that the amount of light we are exposed in a day directly affects our overall mood and mental health. I have been long told that the cities in the United Stated with the highest suicide rates also receive the highest annual rainfall. Seeing this video makes me wonder if the amount of sunlight received in an area has any long turn affect on this as well. If it does countries and cities and cities at latitudes farther away from the equator should take similar steps as Finland into helping the citizens cope with the lack of light in the winter.

This Video brings up many great points about today’s education. The one I find the most interesting is the point about the over medication of today’s children. Even when I was in school I thought it was ridicules that kids my age were given drugs to focus when most of knew even at that young age that we could focus if we wanted to. The only thing we seemed to lack was the self control or discipline to make ourselves pay attention. This isn’t to say that there are some people out there that do need the medication however it is far fewer than doctors proscribe the medication too. At one time I was going to be put on riddlin however that’s when I spoke up and said no I don’t need this I’m choosing to not pay attention. I think as many do that only those who truly can’t control the impulse to not pay attention should be medicated. This may be hard but if doctors were more willing to understand the patient and not as quick to simply say ok this pill will help with that we would see less of these “epidemics” sweeping the nation. The need to medicate the instant we think we have a problem is horribly destructive. I’m not talking about a sickness where not taking medical action is foolish but emotional or behavioral issues. Parents seem too quick to hear that pill X will “fix” their child when really the issue is with the parents or guardians unwillingness to take the time to parent properly. On the topic of education I have had a few friends drop out of College because it “wasn’t for them”. They both found the structured format of College opposed their normal thinking style. One of them was far more intelligent than any of my friends he did extraordinarily well in high school. He was one of the many people who were prescribed Medication for ADD but in the end he still found that he preferred learning by doing not sitting in a class of 200 kids. I’m sure it would benefit many people if there were alternate choices that could be made but for now its College of nothing or at least that is the way most of moder society sees it.

I find Tim Minchin Hilarious he has more than a few songs that poke fun at society and the absurd things we seem to do, but I hadnt yet seen this awesome song so thanks Sam. One comment about this video caught my interest it stated that Valentines Day is a made up holiday. However for the sake of argument we could say any holiday is made up. For example an Atheist family could say that Christmas has no point other than to force us to spend money on family and friends and to spend time with them (god forbid). On the other hand a Christian family could say no youre missing the point its really about the celebration the birth or our lord and the love of our family. In the end its what you make of it you can do something special for someone any day of the year and you dont have to spend a cent to make it memorable. You can even look at in the extremely abstract way that a holiday is as made up as the idea of a week. A week is nothing more than a way to group days and a holiday is nothing more than a day that we say is special its just a human idea that we add to ourselves to make it seem like something more. On a more video related note Tim Does a great job of showing how comical our current views of love and relationships are. People seem to always think that while they are in a relationship or even just after one that the person they were or are dating was/is somehow special form the other 3 billion give or take women on this plaint. But as he points out that there are more than likely other people who you can have a relationship with although they might be slightly different or better at tracing things... He also points that the idea of fate is ridicules by saying if his first girlfriend hadnt broken up with him over kissing another girl he may have never met his wife. Really in the end, who we spend time with is all chance and a little bit of patience.

What the man in the video is saying I find very interesting. At first he talks about what is really the science behind why we want to “fit in” in society. What we as humans and some other mammals experience as empathy is really a programmed response deep within us that can only be explained as something that was evolutionarily beneficial. We can still see today that fitting in has a large benefit on our lives both socially and personally. I don’t think however that empathy comes from the knowledge of our ultimate demise. Our subconscious doesn’t actively know or make decisions based on the fact that we will die one day. I think it’s purely based on millions years of action consequence scenarios that have shaped us unknowingly into the social creatures. The next point he makes really made me think the idea that we began to seek out empathetic ties with others is a view I had never taken when looking at the way the world began to “shrink”. As people we seek out others who think that same way we do his examples are religion and country. It seems that as the world becomes smaller do to technology and faster travel humans seek out larger and ever changing social structures. The idea that they empathic makes sense the friends we make are most often the easiest to empathies with. We are even beginning to show we can empathies with peoples outside our country as exampled by Hattie. As the human race we are showing that we can more and more that we can stand together as a people. Look at Egypt they all had a common goal freedom. Peoples from all walks of life came together. Christens and Muslims stood side by side with religious symbols in hand in defiance of their Government. People, who many ignorant Americans would call terrorists simply because of geography, are showing that they can set aside old hatred and coexist in a better world. In the end it would appear that we will overcome our short sightedness and empathy may just have a large influence on that.

I think everyones initial reaction to this video is to laugh or at least to realize the humor in the situation. The sight of a man turning in time with three other people who are in on the experiment is at first funny, but as you think about it its amazing how far the people in the elevator are able to take it. You would think as an outsider that under the same circumstance we would not act the same way. However as a part of the human condition we all seem to want to fit in and Im not necessarily talking about how we dress or current fads. While fads are certainly influenced by the desire to fit in we also act inventory for example on the highway as one car passes another the slower of the two will often speed up to match the speed of the faster car. With the exception of a few jerks the majority of drivers do not even realize that they have increased their speed to keep up. Its these unseen influences that have no explanation other than an innate desire to be part of a group that are interesting. Examples like these often make me wonder what I have done to fit in. I know in guilty of matching speeds in the highway, and as I sit here thinking about it there have been time where I have checked the time on my phone simply because people around me have. At the time I thought nothing of it but looking back I only look because the student next to me checked the time. I also wonder if crossing my arms while waiting for a bus has ever been influenced be other potential passengers. However their so many other situations where people would unknowingly act to fit in the variables are nearly endless. In the video the prank was kept relatively simple the variables were the direction people were looking and weather the riders were wearing their hats or not. It would be interesting to see what else people would do either knowingly or unknowingly. In the future I will certainly be looking for situations where Im being influenced without knowing.

As we live our day to day lives we over look our constant choices. They can be as simple as crossing a street of choosing to walk through the hub instead of walking around it. However until the majority of our choices are taken away we wouldn’t even notice them. After reading this it’s interesting how the seemingly mundane actions taken throughout the day are what someone with limited choices and freedoms. Some of the things listed I would consider a nuisance. For example hearing children playing right now would be a distraction for me right now while I’m trying to write this blog post. Vacuuming is something also I couldn’t normally see myself missing. Having the choice to not vacuum and play videogames or watching TV I see it as boring in comparison. Lastly blaring sirens serve to only make me pause and look out my window for a moment. I never stop to think what if this was the last time I heard these things. In normal situations I wouldn’t think of these ordinary smells like car exhaust, gas fumes, or street tar. However after years of only having the sterile smell of a government prison and a stale bunk I could easily find myself missing the smells of walking down a street in New York City or the smell of the water in Annapolis’ bay. As I sit here and wonder what I would miss if it were all taken away from me one thing I’m sure of is that I can’t hope to imagine some of the seemly random smells would be. One thing the inmate does point out is that they can never take away the freedom in your mind. If I were in his place I would most likely take this in the direction of drawing anything really just to escape from the monotony of being locked up. I could also see myself writing, poorly of course, but writing never the less. I can’t begin to imagine how I would react if were put away for life but reading this puts an interesting perspective on the things we take for granted.