en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2455853 Comments by manisatarzani http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/12/02/voices-from-the-classroom-89/#IDComment232001446 It is funny how I knew that Sam was going to say something about State Patty`s day. Sincerely I know he think it’s amazing, yeah amazingly stupid. I am sure he thinks that way. I think Sam is one the smartest professors on this campus, a men who admits he is a knucklehead must be smart. At least he realizes is there is so much to learn compare to the knowledge he has. So this is why I respect him as a teacher and as a person, this is why I respect his perspectives and his opinions. He is right when he says this is going to burry us. It truly will hinder our opportunities of getting into good career paths. First of all, the student body already looks bad enough because of the riots. I mean I said this on previous posts as well. The riot was pointless, and I get it sometimes people react to certain circumstances in a way that is not approved of but what bothers me about everything going is that the students should be able to see how wrong and untimely their reactions were once they have a chance to really think about it for themselves, and they simply don’t. What bothers is so many students still think there actions were justified; I am certainly opposed to that view point. I think it should not even matter at this point if the riots were justified or not, how come everyone is like, oh yeah we are here for the victims we support them this and that and as soon as something is asked of us we say how is it going to benefit us. How do you even ask that question how do you even think about that, we talked extensively about what we can do for the victims in group sessions and the idea was as we are outsiders to the incident- meaning that many of us are not connected to the victims we cannot really do much except symbolic gestures like the candle light vigil that took place, but we also said that when the chance arose we would do everything we could I don’t know what other people think in class but this was something we agreed on in our discussion group. Well, here is the chance, here is the chance to show that you haven’t forgotten about the victims just after a few weeks, why not go spend the whole state paddy`s day in front of old main doing another big gathering and remembering the victims. And I ask you again how do you even talk about how this is going to benefit us, we should do this not because it is going to benefit us, not because we are trying to lay low and do not want attract any more negative media coverage but we should do this for the victims, and that’s the bottom line forget about joepa, forget about if we are going to have jobs when we graduate forget about it all and just try to think about what these victims had to go through. Am I mad because so many people rather would drink and get drunk maybe hoping to get some that day rather than do what is right? I don’t know you tell me, be honest with yourselves that’s all I am asking. Sat, 3 Dec 2011 05:56:30 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/12/02/voices-from-the-classroom-89/#IDComment232001446 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/12/soc-119-lecture-on-the-penn-state-crisis/#IDComment227382490 I really don’t how to respond to everything that has been going on related to this incident. I am trying wrap my mind around all that is relevant to the topic and be able see from everyone’s perspective but it is very hard. At least I want to begin by saying that I do not support JoePa one bit, and that is not an easy statement to make, because think about it for a while try to understand his situation in this hectic environment. Even though I do not support him, I can say with honesty that compared to most people who support him I am more open minded and understand his situation better than most. For the people who support him, it is pretty much instinctual he is, was the symbol of Penn state, and for everyone who thought this place to be their home, their family, he is almost like a father figure. Mind you, it is an emotional reaction, so many people know what Joe did was wrong and they still support him, and so many people probably felt insane, until Sam explained it is perfectly normal to have contradictory thoughts and both have merit in them. See, many people do not take the time to just think and meditate once in a while, if they did they would see that mind does not think in two dimensions and it is not always black and white, indeed its mostly a tint of the infinite greys in the spectrum. This might sound cliché but it is what it is. There is something called selective perspective, it can act as a defensive mechanism we use to justify things that we do or other people do that we know are wrong. We are very good at rationalizing when we need to. So this is what happens when you fall in love (in a guy’s perspective) with a girl and you don’t see any faults in her, to you she is perfect, but to your sister and everyone around you that does not have an emotional connection to her, they see her as she is, a total crazy person. In our case JoePa is our total crazy person. Now this is the situation or the mindset of the most of the supporters of Joe, you know the dude was wrong but you have emotional connections that are too strong and you can’t help but support him. On a side note before I go into my perspective of all this I want to mention something about the riot. There are so many people that think JoePa is not getting the right treatment and that is why we rioted. I refuse to see any merit in that thought. When the board announced JoePa fired, I was coming out of an exam and everyone was running to the Hub, I analyzed people around and they were just excited that something big was going on to break their monotonous day. No one really gave it much thought. I asked a friend what was going on and he pretty much sum it up perfectly. He said “I don’t know why we are rioting but we are rioting that is all that matters.” So there it is. I can’t say I gave it much thought either at first. Everything seemed unreal but I was at least rational enough to not go and tear down lamp posts for someone who was involved in such big scandal. In reality though no one knows what went behind closed doors no one really knows what the incentives or priorities of the people were who let this happen. Joe could have been threatened who knows. Perhaps, even some of the board members knew about what was going on and because of Sundunsky`s strong ties no one really could say anything. Really who knows? So even though I ultimately do not support Joe, it should not be that easy to condemn people, just stop and think for little try to rid yourself of biases and look at the picture as a whole or is that too much work. I am just going to say one more thing to sum up my anger. You can’t have a fucking library named after you, your own statue and be this living legend and not report a crime that affected many children in a tremendous way. Oh yeah he did his legal responsibility and told his superiors, that is what an average person does my men, not a guy who has his own statue. So there it is, this my perspective even his life was at the hands of sundusky he should have reported it he has no excuses. Fri, 25 Nov 2011 23:41:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/12/soc-119-lecture-on-the-penn-state-crisis/#IDComment227382490 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/occupy-cairo-and-oakland-the-world-comes-full-circle/#IDComment217136259 I can’t tell you how upset I am about this, and none of the major media is reporting this I went and searched occupy Oakland and the only coverage came out of RT , which is Russia Today, I am presuming it’s a global independent news agency in Russia may be something close to AL Jazeera. So much for all the conspiracy theorist being crazy and out of their minds. As these events take place we are still sleeping. Calling people who care people who do the research, and have an open perspective to what is going on in the world- those people who stand up for themselves- we call them crazy, while we are always busy doing important things like deciding what to wear for Halloween. Just stop and think for a second a country all the way across the world where the half of the population lives on 2 dollars a day and they are over there protesting, trying to defend our rights, trying to support us about a situation we do not even know that exists. Yeah, as if they do not have more important things to do like figuring out how to put food on the table today… Can you comprehend what is going on here? Can you wrap your mind around the fact of how oblivious and inhuman we have become over the years. Keep chasing that imaginary American dream, while we feed you with biased bull shit that helps us –as in Sam`s words- “bend you over.” This all it comes down to man. I am amazed truly amazed how people refuse to see these simple things. Let’s use some common sense. For instance let’s say we have a small village that is owned by a rich man. This man will take every measure to remain in power and keep the dwellers uneducated – blissfully ignorant as they say. That is exactly what the government is doing. We are the peasants of the 21st century. Nothing has changed; those castles are still there on the hill tops my friends. They used to provide you with a place to sleep and food to eat now they give you a piece of paper that has no intrinsic value to buy your own food and buy your own house and they keep in depth for a lifetime with the little money they give, well because there is such a thing as economics an interest and inflation all the bullshit that helps them justify that the effort you put in today is obsolete and not worth a damn thing tomorrow. After all that they feed you with jersey shore instead of what’s going on in Oakland but that is alright because tomorrow is Halloween and the only thing in your mind is will I get some a@$ if I dress as the situation. That’s all I got to say Sat, 5 Nov 2011 04:10:08 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/occupy-cairo-and-oakland-the-world-comes-full-circle/#IDComment217136259 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/20/voices-from-the-classroom-52/#IDComment210858719 Racism served the best interests of the European and their imperialistic ways for generations. I am going to be really honest in this post and try to explain why racism exist weather latent or out in the open whichever the case maybe. If you did all the online articles and videos assigned for the exam you would have come across Tim Wise and if you listened to his speech you don’t even have to read on. As much as I like to believe the glass is half full, as much as I want to say people have common courtesy and are caring, fair – simply to be human is to have a heart and have some decency- as much as I want believe that, we see more than 80 percent of the world living on 2 dollars a day, now how is that for decency. Money and power corrupts people. The rich make the rules; nothing absolutely nothing is un lawful for the rich (the people in power). They use everything to their advantage even the bible. Didn’t they use the bible to justify slavery in this country – a disgusting measure taken by government- and what do you know it was legal. Oh yeah it sounds crazy now, yeah racism is a terrible thing most everyone would agree now, but then it was normal, it was normal like having coffee every day, it was normal as breathing, it was normal as eating, it was normal- just like it was normal to listen to people`s phone, arresting people without charging them with a crime, holding them in prison for months and not admitting to their families that they are being held in those prison during post 9/11. What happened to no cruel and unusual punishment- just until yesterday we were waterboarding prisoners in Guantanamo and who knows what other torture method they used. This was the normal of yesterday, normal as breathing. Scare people enough they will give up everything for protection they don’t even need. Tell them there is a monster behind that door and they will never walk through the door. Racism is just like any other strategy people in power used, just a tool to further their cause. It was what Hitler did in 1940s, it was what King Jackson did to the Native Americans in the early 1800 with trail of tears, it is what we do to many third world countries today bringing democracy to oil rich countries fighting terrorists in oil rich countries while mass genocide happens in Rwanda. Guess what this is all normal, normal as breathing. Latent, blatant doesn’t matter, what matters is they have infected us with the poison and it will never truly clear out of our system, even if it does, they will find other ways to alienate us and divide us, like teaching about a huge imaginary personal space bubble in elementary school. Don’t trust them oh no they are black don’t trust those over there they are Mexican, oh those to the right they are Asian never trust Asian people, well of course you can’t trust white people because there is competition you got to chase the American dream man. Privacy is good as long as they see fit, as far as they have a need to listen to your phones again. But the easy answer would be amongst white people it is latent because there is guilt and of course its not politically correct to be open about something’s. For black people it’s blatant because as they are the victims they have more free discussions, racism is a reality for them. For white people, the approach is that lets not say anything maybe they will forget we used to whip their grandfathers. Sat, 22 Oct 2011 09:10:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/20/voices-from-the-classroom-52/#IDComment210858719 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment207704164 Like I said earlier I have European blood that my parents probably won’t admit to but my aunt married a Bulgarian Christian so least to say they are not very convincing at their accounts. Now you know the context of my words; yeah I look very white but I don’t identify myself as white so I don’t know why I am answering this question because it most definitely was asked at white people, I guess I unconsciously identify with my whiteness oh well, if you ask me what I am I would say I have Asian ancestry but people find that hard to believe so I pass as white on the census forms. So in my socially constructed whiteness I say I am at stage 6 and I look forward to being a better stage 6 person. I don’t care about the race of other people. Skin color is not a main factor in my life, being a Muslim I believe that we are created differently we speak different languages just so that we may get to know each other, discover our different cultures, traditions and odd ways , and so we may learn to love each other. The world would be too boring with just one race, one language one way of living, don’t you think so? I think we are doing just fine. Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:03:51 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment207704164 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment207703294 I pass on as white because I mean I have a pretty white complexion. I was born in Bulgaria. My parents claim to be what was left over from the Ottomon Empire turks back in the day. But I`m guessing I have fair amount of European blood, because there probably was a lot of intermarriage across races or ethnicities whatever you want to call it. First of all turks were nomadic people if you think as back as Atilla the Hun. So our ancestry could be traced back to the highlands of Asia in a place between the Russians and Chinese. In addition turks have entered Anatolia in 1074 after winnig the Malazgirt War- I don’t know how it would translate in English- an encountered and married from many different civilization. So today we have turks of every kind from very Asian looking like Kazaks or people of Turkistan located to the northwest of china to middle eastern looking and very European looking blond and blue eyes turks. According to an article that I read (I cant really cite because, well it has been along time since I read it) people of Anatolia have the most mixed genes of everyone in the world. I`m not sure how true that is but it is fair to say that turks have a very mixed background, you could see it in people`s faces. Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:02:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment207703294 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment204280088 Why do women wear uncomfortable clothing I don’t know, you should be asking yourself that (of course I am talking to the ladies in the video). Can we talk about society pressure here, maybe, nah… I don’t think so I think we have a pretty free society where we can do whatever we want. So really I don’t know why girls wear uncomfortable clothes. I could put a counter argument together and say guys have to wear suits and tuxedos and they are not always comfortable either, but I am not going to do that, because in general terms girls spend hours getting ready whereas guys could care less. See I want to know why that is when we think of a guy looking good we think button up shirt jacket maybe even a suit, but girls on the other hand think of ridiculously short and tight skirts and heels they barely can walk in. So for a guy more and more elaborate clothing is defined as good but for a girl less; showing more skin is better. Blame the media and forces of society for making women all nothing but a symbol of sex- yeap there is an easy escape for the people who are too lazy to think for themselves. I have read a prior post about this saying that clothing has become a personal preference and it truly has. if girls are dressing a certain way that is their own choice. All that to snatch a drunken college kid from the bar. It’s obvious a girl who dresses a certain way enjoys the attention and wants to get looks from the opposite sex. I think if a girl has guys approaching her because the way she looks it`s for all the wrong reasons, but who knows those wrong reasons maybe the right reasons for someone else. I am not saying girls shouldn’t wear high heels and short skirts, on the contrary by all means if you want to show your assets go right ahead, but know that it was your own choice whatever might be the reason of you dressing a certain way you chose it so there is no need to whine about it afterwards. First of all I am a guy who takes pride in looking good in my clothes but then again I am European. I also know when enough is enough. As guys I think we are happy with a shirt and pant. I don’t have time to waste thinking about what to wear there is more important issues running through my mind. So that is my personal preference. In addition there are guys out there who wear nothing but polos and khakis and do not go out the door without a jacket /blazer. Fri, 7 Oct 2011 09:01:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment204280088 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-21/#IDComment201593678 First of all I don’t believe that women are more innocent then men. There is always this idea of if women ruled the world if and only if… things would be much better, there would be no wars. I always see these anecdotes such as pictures or videos showing how much better the world would be if women ruled the world because supposedly women are more innocent then men and many of us truly believe that this is the case. Many of us don’t realize everything a man does in life revolves around a woman. There is this comedy sketch by Kat Williams talking about why men do some of things they do. For instance own a nice home or a nice car, its not exactly appropriate and a bit exaggerated so I will not talk about the content, but it is fair to say men are vulnerable to women`s whispers. Think back as far as the Stone Age women have said “go hunt a dinosaur and I will show you something very interesting in the cave”… I am sorry to say but men are that simple and they always have been that way. For instance just observe men when they fight, just a simple fight after a drunk night (more than likely they will be fighting for a girl), they will fight and they will work things out just that second, but when you see women fight or disagree over something they won’t talk to each other for ages. I do not want to generalize (of course not everyone fits this example) but these have been my observations so far. To remark upon the other question why certain races are more innocent then others? I think that’s a matter of culture and tradition, and it depends how much that culture or people have been in contact with outsiders. If you define innocence by being pure and knowing nothing else, an amazon tribe would be the most innocent people on earth. But it depends on how you define innocence. In addition, no one can say the white race is innocent. I personally find the African race if such thing exists- more innocent than any other race (scientifically race does not exist we have not been here long enough to evolve and divide to different races). I mean we pull this topic anywhere by asking what race is if it exists or what innocence is and how we define innocence. It all depends on perspective, we can rationalize and say pretty much anything it will sound reasonable, however there is no way to deny what white men has done on a global scale in the name religion or other ideologies to this world. I don’t know who is innocent but I know we are not. Sat, 1 Oct 2011 03:28:32 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/27/voices-from-the-classroom-21/#IDComment201593678 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/20/everyone-respond-to-this/#IDComment197795153 After looking at most of the videos and reading about the entrepreneurs in Haiti. I have noticed that many of these people, who are struggling to provide livelihood for themselves and their family, depend on nothing but their own two hands. Many of these entrepreneurs also take pride in their work and do their best to put quality goods out there. It is evident in many of the videos; the insulated bags, the designer clothes, sandals, evening wear, floral arrangements, all of these done by one or few people with the help of couple outdated machinery. We have a saying in Turkish; it goes something like “winning your bread from stone” this was probably said for the unforgiving work the miners did few decades ago but you can think of it as involving any type of hard work and skillful craftsmanship. – I mean yes some of this is very hard labor but it is not as simple as picking up a box from a conveyer belt and putting it on another conveyer belt, so the work they do in these ill provided resources , - you just can’t fail to notice. We also moved from Bulgaria to Turkey to the states, and if you were to check the standards of living and the economic course you would quickly realize that I come from a very poor background myself. My dad has gone from working in the plastic industry to steel industry to being a truck driver to running his own business now. So coming from a blue collar family myself I have a very different level of appreciation for what these Haitians are doing. Now I want to start out from my own experiences, exposure to different cultures just learning new things and of course education has changed my family a lot over the years. So I can definitely say that the biggest thing they need is education in Haiti. Second to that is resources, I saw in many of the videos dealing with the production of bags, clothes, and sandals, many of the entrepreneurs were dissatisfied with raw materials and their availability. Also all this work was done on many cases nothing more than a sewing machine and everything required skillful labor. Now again I do have a lot of respect for what they do but with newer machinery and handy tools we make the everyday tasks of these people a lot easier. But I want to also put emphasis on how much has to be done to better the infrastructure of the country as a whole for instance Suze made candied peanuts had to travel 3 hours and spend the whole day in the market by raw peanuts and other materials and there was virtually no public transportation. So I think before we think of ways to help out separate individuals we should come up with projects that will benefit the masses. Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:13:41 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/20/everyone-respond-to-this/#IDComment197795153 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/08/voices-from-the-classroom-5/#IDComment191788332 This is a very interesting subject to think about. Is technology going to be so advanced that our ways of communicating with each other going to be so easy? So the idea is that this advancement will derail the old dogma trains and make people more accepting of others. I truly do not have a clear answer, so I find it best to argue both view points; yes it will change our perspectives – well let me rephrase that , since everything is ever-changing and evolving of course our perspectives are going to change but whether it will a positive change or a negative change that I don’t know. That is my point of, that is what I believe in. I am an economics major so I am going to try to approach this with an economics example that will hopefully make sense. Now in economics there is something called a business cycle? This composed two things; a period of time when economy thrives which we call expansion and a period of time when economic performance falls which we call recessions. Humanity is the same way I think. We our times when civilizations thrive and we have those dark days. Just look at any history book and you will find the golden ages of Romans, the Greek, the Persian Empire, the Ottomans. They all had their time where law ruled the land every type of peoples that were conquered in the past lived together with understanding and with respect to each other. However we also see these dark ages where people are violent , unhappy with their lives, there is no advancement in livelihood so they blame each other, because ethnic background because of race because of skin color… and they fight wars. So I think we are always going to have this cycle no matter how far we advance. We `ll have our times when everything is good we all get along we are all balloons, cotton candy, happy thoughts, until something like 9/11 happens and we are scared shitless than all Muslims become terrorist . We can fly to the moon man come on, what are you talking about technology ... we have the time to send aliens which we have no idea if they exist but we can’t find the time to talk to our next door neighbor… and you know what you don’t even need to send out a space shuttle to communicate with your neighbor, all you need is willingness to say how are you?, and listen ,willingness to listen, not while your texting on your phone, not while you are running late to some important meeting. So yeah everything is going to change but the way we see each other is not going to change because some scientist is going to invent some magical glasses that will make you see without all prejudice and with understanding of other peoples… no man it’s all in our hearts… the rest is bullshit. Sat, 10 Sep 2011 04:48:08 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/08/voices-from-the-classroom-5/#IDComment191788332 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/01/do-you-still-believe-in-evolution-and-superiority/#IDComment189233105 After today’s class am I still a creationist or have my views changed? I think it takes more than a two minute video of sarcasm galore to change an intelligent person belief system. Now I am not saying that I am indeed a creationist, I am just trying to remark upon the fact that it is usually very hard to change a person’s views in such haste. Creationism vs Evolutionism, Communism vs Capitalism, Democracy vs Authoritarian- there are many belief systems that clash every second of the day. What makes one better than the other? What makes one thought that originates in a mind from Asia better than the other that originates in Africa? What makes one mind better than the other? Is it race, ethnicity, skin color, private schools, unfair opportunities that result from unproven dogmas that are held up by made up pillars of arbitrary standards. Truly no one knows, no one realizes how stupid we really are. Sam was talking about this from day one he repeatedly said he had no idea what he was talking about and he said he was a knucklehead from day one, well because he is, because everyone is a knucklehead, the lucky ones are the ones who realize that. Compared to how much knowledge there is out there to how much of it we understand we are merely a baby that is barely learning how to walk (and this is a very modest example). I think everyone has something to offer. Those opposing ideas exist because there is always some truth in every one of them. We are just too lazy to learn and process it all so we act like we know it all. There is no point of arguing one way or the other because we all know people are just so damn good at rationalizing that the same person could argue the both sides and come up with so many ways to prove the opposing idea wrong. Where does this get people- maybe a sense of false entitlement and a boost of ego nothing more? I could give you verses from Bible and try to convince you that evolution is blasphemy or I could grab a biology book and make a very good case about God being a total joke. So I don’t even feel like talking about my personal believes here, because there will be someone out there thinking it’s a bunch of crap. I could only say that at least we should realize how limited we are how stupid we are and not be lazy about learning. We are all bunch of monkeys who think we are really cool when we hide our eyes behind some shades. Sat, 3 Sep 2011 04:10:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/09/01/do-you-still-believe-in-evolution-and-superiority/#IDComment189233105 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/what-americans-fear/#IDComment145353418 What americans fear? What people fear in general is the unknown, ıt`s not just americans who have fear, everyone fears the unkown and ıt ıs very apparent that so many amerıcans are very ıgnorant to other people`s belıeves. Also I hate the way how U.S always plays the victim while its military goes on to play hero on other peoples countries. Allmost all terrorist groups are funded by governments and so terrorist attacks are carried out by governments hands.No one really knows whose hand is in whose pocket. This is the first thing american population has to realize that all governments are corrupt, whıch ıs an illness, a desease caused by money. In this day and age no country goes from murdering thousands of native americans, working the african american people to death and treating them like animals to being the hero of the world - sell democracy and freedom to the world. The key word is sell because thats exactly what the us goverment ıs doıng selling lies and at this point no one is buying. When is the last time you ve seen the u.s fight a war in its own soil and the media keeps trying to convice us that we are fighting defensive wars. Hiroshima was a perfect reason to test the new bomb. Nagazaki was just overkill. We are searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when we have enough nuclear heads to blow up the whole universe. We pick a president for two terms who cant even say the word nuclear. I am just disgusted by how stupid become. Our population has become very gullible against these scare tactics, that we believe everything that this government says and willingly surrender our rights to feel a bit more safe. We become silenced but we dont realize that the governments asinine policies rupture our relationships with other cultures dammages the american reputation. We are not fighting defense wars we are simply invading countries, destroying economies and infrastructures, killing civilians, raping women: because that is what war is, because war is never pretty, because organized millitary is the biggest terrorist group of the 21st century. All ın all ı can understand how some people mıght be scared but ı blame all of thıs on the u.s government. If you put apple seeds on the ground you are goıng to get an apple tree, you cant get an orange tree from apple seeds. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 09:16:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/what-americans-fear/#IDComment145353418 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143298212 Labeling is what we call a grown ups name calling. Just as a liıttle child calls his/her friend an undesirable name labeling is just the such. Basically labeling occurs through naivity under education or just simply misunderstandings. When a law abiding citizen whom goes about his own business is wronged in a society where justice both blind and death he tends to take matters into his own hands. Even the most calm and friendly of men can be absorbed into an instance of violence. After all one of the most important aspect of a law-abiding citizens life is the feeling of protection by the laws in which he himself follows. When the laws he takes into such careful consideration dont even protect him, there are a myriad of instantaneous feelings which may change his label from a law abiding citizen to a murder,felon, or a criminal. As we saw in many cases these who we call lifers. Are not actually the instigators. Had they not been instigated they would not been in this situation as lifers. After all what is the difference between an easily angered person who has not yet been pushed to an extent where he commits a crime. And a lifer, who has been psuhed to that extent. Putting all this aside I think we label people because It’s how we make sense of things. We separate the world into categories so we can understand it more easily. Also we most often try to be a part of a group to have a sense of belonging or reject a group that clashes with our way of thinking. Its simply how people deal with the world. From the time we enter school we here thing like the jocs, the nerds, terms like greaser and much more. I think it’s a way to escape having to try to understand people. We grow up putting people into bags like sorting out apples from oranges. We have to be willing to make an effort to try to connect with people on a deeper level we must understand that every individual has different ideas to offer. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:03:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143298212 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/#IDComment141100097 When i started reading this article about how a men should act around a woman and what qualities a man should have I definitely thought it was written by a women and I was ready to say BULL SHIT. I realized how differently I looked at the article once I realized it was written by a man. My initial reaction was going to be that women should behave like women if they want us to behave like the oldies chivalric men. I am old fashioned guy so as I was reading the article I was saying to myself women should take off the pants and wear their skirts and their aprons and get to work in the kitchen. Now this might sound very rash but I use this in a metaphorical sense then a literal one. I’m trying to say that a perfect men doesn’t exist because the perfect women does not exist. Well this my first reaction. But when he mentioned he was an inmate who had troublesome relationships with women in his past I was most surprised because until the very end of the article I was sure this was written with a women`s prespective. This shows how accurately he has grasped the women`s perspective at matter like this. More importantly it took him years of isolation in prison to get a sense of this. Hence, it is not wrong to say that prison teaches better manners and a sense of reality than society can. There is something outrageously wrong about this statement. It shows how society fails time after time to raise quality individuals. Also he mentioned that his delusional views about women in the past were fed by what he saw on tv and how women behaved on mainstream media. I don’t know about other people but I think tv is like mine set the pillars of morality, eroding away our system of values. I ve said this in many blog entries before but I don’t think it could be said enough , every problem in society stems from souring divorce rates and the collapse of the American family. So many kids left battered with psychological damage, we fail terribly at raising our young. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 22:07:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/#IDComment141100097 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137620597 I was raised in a not very religious muslim family. I remeber praying in mescid maybe twice a year which was ofcourse during the two big religious holidays. My extended family mostly is made up of non practcing muslims. So my family eventhough very traditional never has really been strict on religion. Especially my dad he even kept a copy of the bible at home that he would read from time to time. But you know we were muslims … I mean try to think this the other way around. In whıch christian family are you going to find a Qur`an readily available, yeah maybe some intelect that is very zelous about religion, but the highschool graduate counterpart that my dad is- my answer is to you sir is NO. Your never going to find some highschool graduate who works doubleshifts at the local warehouse spending his pass time by reading reveletions from Torah. I guess what Im trying to say is that my undereducated eastern european family was in fact much more open-minded towards others perspectives then you mıght think. Seeing my dad read the Bible during the limited pass time he had later on gave me the courge to explore other relıgıons. I could casually pıck up a Bible at the doctors waiting lounge and read it. Now take it to consederation that ı was raısed as a muslım and was at 16 at the time. Also even though we all try to be politically correct we cant deny the religious conflict that exists in the world especially between Christianity and İslam- and among all this ı could pick up a Bible and read it without being afraid that I would be shunned by my family and relatives. So ı was very free to explore other relıgıons other than my own whıle growıng up.But enough about my relıgıous background. The article above suggests that accordıng to some statistics we can predict that orginezed relıgıons are dwindling and are soon to become extinct. Well ı say that is bullshit. As an econ major having extensive courses in statitics ı know how you can use it to allmost support any kind of insane hypotheses. I never have read of a time in world hıstory where any kınd of religion did not exist. There is no proof of a tıme perıod of no religious actıvıty in the hıstory books as far as you can go back, why should we beleıve that there wıll be a tıme lıke that ın the fututre. In the artıcle they use the declıne ın relıgous affılıatıon over some decades to support theır conclusıon that relıgıons wıll become extınct ın the future. But when actually looked at the more broad pıcture and one can see that ın human hıstory as we know ıt people always have beleıved ın somethıng even though ıt may be bızzare as bowıng down before cream cheese but relıgıon was always there. So thıs artıcle doesnt prove anythıng at all and ın fact ı fınd ıt to be very skewed and a faılure of a research. Sat, 26 Mar 2011 02:43:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137620597 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/28/the-lottery-as-a-blessing-or-a-curse/#IDComment135960476 I myself was the child of a somewhat wealthy family consedering a village society. My parents all lived in a big house with my grandparents. Years after I went back to bulgaria and saw the house I made ıt to be the bıggest house I ve seen there. My family was farming tabbaco at the time. It wasnt that the income was so great but they new how to handle their finances. So I could say ı was born ınto a well off family but didnt reap the benefits as much. Short after I was born to escape the communıst regıme they moved to Turkey leaving everythıng behınd only to start from zero. I dıdnt see my mom or dad for days because they would work 3 to 4 consecutive shifts. Besıdes from the tımes ı was sent away to live with grandparents, ı was practıcally raısed in the streets. This continued until ı was at school age whıch ıs the tıme of course we bought our own house.Hence I was brought up ın a famıly who valued hard work. Now speakıng for myself ı thınk that ı am pretty grounded ın my values and a mıllıon dollars over nıght would not change me much. I say thıs because my life has already changed substatıally ın a matter of two decades from a communıst country to a one party democracy whıch was the most crooked government ı had seen – though ı should say Turkey has ımproved alot sınce then- to United States whıch of course still has one of the strongest economies in the world. In conclusıon ı dont thınk my lıfe would change much wıth wınnıng the lottery suddenly. Speakıng generally though, surely that amount of money can have a toll on someones life. Especially with the relationships people have with others. For instance long lost relatives mıght surface and tell you how much they ve missed you. Things like that. Offcourse your social status also has a great inluence on how things would play out. For ınsatance a famıly that has been oil rıch for generatıons wınnıng the lottery would not really change much for them. Well would they really play lottery in the fırst place? Eventhough this would be an extreme ı guess what I am sayıng ıs that a homeless person wınnıng and a doctor wınnıng would have very dıfferent consequences. But does money brıng happınes? I cant really answer that. Eventhough ı thınk to be well grounded I stıll dont know what my dad s ıncome ıs because ı am afraıd knowıng my dads ıncome would change me still. So there is no denying money changes peoples lives: for the worst or better that ı cant tell. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 02:23:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/28/the-lottery-as-a-blessing-or-a-curse/#IDComment135960476 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/01/lighting-our-way/#IDComment134335156 Even though scıentıfıcly we are not suppose to be vıctıms of weather condıtıons outsıde there ıs certaınly somethıng there as far as a connectıon between raın and depressıon. I dont know about helsınkı but for me even the wınters we have ın Pa are pretty long and depressıng. Once we get snow ıt stays on the ground for weeks. However ı dont agree wıth the ınvısıble strıngs theory that much. Well ı admıt that there are certaın ınstıgators that ınspıre the way we structure our lıves, but callıng them ınvısıble –as there was no way that we could recognıze these ınstıgators whıch ınfluence our choıces ın lıfe – and scapegoatıng our subconcıous for ıt seems…. Least to say very very lazy ın our part. I guess ıt could be saıd that we as humans have a lazy nature. I am an economıcs major so ı know how much emphesıs we put on doıng as much as less work whıle ıncreasıng the output. However wıth matters lıke thıs we actually mıght have to put a lıttle work ın and thınk – just thınk about everythıng and anythıng. To realıze where we stand ın lıfe, to know our place, we must thınk about “the way we thınk”. ı have probably mentıoned thıs ın other posts but ın other words we have to become a stranger to ourselves to better understand the essence of our beıng. You mıght say how can you get to know yourself better ıf you become a stanger to yourself… well the ıdea ıs that strangers look at us from a thırd person vıew. Most ımportantly they can be more objectıve and recognıze many lıttle thıngs that has become a habıt ın our lıves and that we ourselves cant really recognıze. But a thırd person(eventhough objectıve) cant really read your mınd. Thıs ıs why we need the objectıvıty of a strangers perspectıve but the closeness of the ego ıtself to be able to gaze upon the mınd. Thıs way ıf we trully try and ponder upon the way we thınk- that ıs to examıne our own thınkıng process- the ınvısıble strıngs wıll become not so ınvıble anymore. You see, Its not ımportant ıf ıts the sun that makes us happy or the raın that puts us ınto a depressıon, or the abusıve father that has an ınfluence on hıs kıd that later on becomes an abuser hımself. THE IMPORTANT THING IS WHERE EVER THAT INVISIBLE STRING IS ATTACHED TO YOU WHATEVER PART OF YOUR LIFE IT AFFECTS ONLY YOU CAN MAKE IT APPEAR AS CLEAR AS WATCHING THE EL-CLASICO RIGHT BEHIND THE BENCH SEATS OF NOU CAMP. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 01:40:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/01/lighting-our-way/#IDComment134335156 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/rethinking-education/#IDComment130766201 In my point of view this guy has everthing right and I wish he thought at pennstate. At least if had seminars anywhere in the radius of 150 miles of here ı would not think twice about going. But from the accent its easy to assume that he is pretty far away. Like the commentator said our education system is based on the foundations of the industrial revelution that took place in the late 1800s. So our education system is far off from where it should be. I mean the last reform of educatıon ı remember came while bush was in office, the so called no chıld left behind bill: and we all know how well that worked out. A friend of mine had this to say about the school system “ you go to school for 25 years and you get out into the real world and now you need 25 more years to forget what learned at school in order to survive in the real world circumstances, because nothing you learn in school is the same once you start paying your own bills. Its not wrong to say going from school to real world is lilke going from an army game to actually becoming a soldier. Hence we have this delusion that we are preparing students at school for circumstances thay wiil face later on in their lives. In fact all we are doing is confusing them, and even isolating them to a point that they feel as if they are in a horse race. I come from an eruropean background, so even looking upon the hıghschools around , I see how depressing they look from outside. Some schools I ve seen you cant tell if its actually an environment where students learn to become usefull and productive individuals to society or if its a down right maximum securıty prison. I know schools that have barbed wire walls and fences, even steel caged windows. We have to be honest with ourselves and admit that we are very lazy at raising our children and we are very very lazy when it comes to utilizing a persons special traits as if all of us have to be exactly the same and go through the same system and methods of education. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 05:00:47 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/rethinking-education/#IDComment130766201 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment126081410 There is story about a village that was told to me over and over again by different people in my life to warn me against conforming to wrong doings. This ranged from bad habits such as smoking to drinking. In fact my father started smoking when he was twenty years old while he was in the army and still he kept warning me about smoking. He would always tel me that your friends make you what you really are. He would always say tell me your friend and I will tell who you are. Of course at the rebelious age 15-16 ı always thought ı was different from everyone and ı told myself ı would never start smokıng or drınkıng. Let me tell you thıs ı started drınkıng and smokıng socıally after lıvıng wıth my roommates just for a couple weeks. That ıs all ıt took for me to loose my ındıvıdualıty 2 weeks at best. Thıs tells me how weak we really are ınsıde agaınst socıal norms. What the majorıty does becomes the rule for everyone and ıt does not necessarily have to be right. For instance with drinking ı doubt that people actually like the taste of beer. I doubt that many college students fancy being so drunk that they puke everywhere at the end of the nıght. But stıll we go through thıs ordeal every weekend. I sıt at the lıbrary sometımes and thınk – are these the people who cause all thıs raucous on the weekends. You could walk ın the campus grounds wıthout even sayıng hı to anyone, no one even would notıce you. But all of a sudden there ıs dısco ball over your head some black lıghts and a shıty Dj, people could spend the nıght together wıth these people whom under normal condıtıons wont even converse wıth each other. So ı guess what ım tryıng to say ıs that once you try to see thıngs for what they are we try to be lıke other people so that we coub be lıked by them even though theır actions mıght be worng. In the lıbrary we study because other people study, ın partıes we drınk because other people drınk. We do keg stands not because ıts an effıcıent way to drınk beer but sımpley because other dudes do ıt, and ıts that sımple everythıng we do we do ıt because other people do ıt. And yeah the story about the vılllage was that people of the vıllage went cray from drınkıng contamınted water and there was only one famıly left healthy. In the end thay wıllıngly drank the contamınated water because they felt left out Sat, 5 Feb 2011 05:38:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment126081410 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/americans-gone-wild/#IDComment124459409 After reading about news like these I am very angry about the erosion of morals in the society because the traditional american family structure has collapsed. It seems that now a days we overthink everythıng and make life a lot more diffucult then ıt should be. The child bringing a gun to school.- a 5 year old boy to be exact- I think this is just a way for some people in the school to get attention from the media. I cannot even begin to think why the administration would suspend a 5 year old over an incedent like this where it singles out the child and makes him look like he has done something terrible. If you call some one stupid enough they will think they are stupid and start to act in a stupid manner even though there was nothing wrong with them at the first place. So there is no way to tell now what kind of an affect this will have on the child¬’s life in the future because some amateurs ( who’d be scared from their own shit if they saw it in the bathroom) had to blow this out of proportion. Now let me tell you what my teacher would have done back in day: he would probably smack me across the head and the school administration would promptly have called my father… Emphasis on the word FATHER not stepfather like the news said in the article. That made the whole difference, we grew up with only one father and a mother cherished and loved not wıth a stepmother who hated our guts or wıth a stepfather who had drinking problems. Hence a weak smack across the head or spank on the but meant we were doing something wrong. It didnt mean we were going to grow up to be fucked up individuals. If we were to bring a gun to school it meant there was an honest mistake and people would understand a 5 year old children who still puts everything he sees in his mouth has no idea of what he has done. In conclusion we seperate over stupıd reasons and destroy our families wıth divorces leaving our children with wounds while they lead difficult lives. Hence juvenile crimes, teenage pregnancies increase. So now we are justified to think that a 5 yearold boy would be crazy enough to shoot someone with a gun because we have faıled to raise generations of chldren. Cut those invisible strings by providing a healthy environment for yout kids to grow in. Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:43:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/americans-gone-wild/#IDComment124459409