Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Welcome to the RW4 Peaceful Warrior novel blog
This blog will be your "journal" for the class. Every week, I will post a question or quote, based on the class novel. Your job is to respond to the question or quote with insight. Your journal should be 400-500 words. Your grammar will NOT be graded. Rather, your INSIGHT and THOUGHTFUL RESPONSES will be graded. This journal is to help you demonstrate your reading comprehension. Therefore, when you respond to the quote/question, you must show that you read and understand the novel. Do not just write what you think. You must also use quotes and examples from the novel to explain your ideas.
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Elly Mourcy
Socrates says “ and unconscious, compulsive ritual is a problem” and by this he means any actions that are taken without any thought or choice. Socrates believes that these actions are problematic because there is no responsibility behind these actions.
I, myself, have “unconscious, compulsive rituals”. These are eating, going to school, emptying my insides and other activities that are necessary in my life. I would say that these are more or less rituals to me because I do not think about them and just do what needs to be done. Because these actions are necessary, I do not try to change them. I could not live without the majority of my ‘rituals’. I think that if Socrates was talking to me, he would tell me that I need to break away from my everyday life and that I need to make more conscious choices. Like with school and eating, I need to actually choose to do these things and for the right reasons, not just because it is the appropriate time to eat or that the Saudi government sent me here. I need to recognize why I choose to do these things and decide how important they are to me.
I think that Socrates opinion of “good and bad” is different than society’s opinion `because Socrates’ is is less realistic than then real world and his opinions don’t always work in our society. Society believes in addiction in regard to items like cigarettes and alcohol. Socrates believes that smoking should not be a compulsive action and that one should make a conscious choice to smoke. In reality, those who are addicted to smoking don’t always choose to smoke, and often want to be able to stop. Even if they make the decision to quite, they are not always able. This is not due to having weak minds though, as it has been shown that smoking is addictive and grows to me more than a choice, but rather a necessity. This being said, I admire many of Socrates’ viewpoints and ideas and particularly like this idea being discussed that compulsive actions are problematic and that people should consciously make daily choices. I find it very important that people should be held responsible for their actions and I particularly like his idea that responsibility makes the good and the bad choices exemplified so that they can be enjoyed more or learned from instead. Without knowledge of a choosing and action, it is quite impossible to learn from it.
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