1. Fate is a set path you will follow in life to reach a certain outcome, your lot in life. Fate determines your life as a human being on earth. Whatever you do and whatever happens is all your fate, and there isn’t a way to change it. I believe that if you have a specific fate, you can’t do anything to change it. Your free will may cause you to think you have changed your fate, but I believe that in fact, that was your fate all along. An example of this is in the play, Oedipus. King Laius and Queen Jocasta had Oedipus as a son, and it was a prophecy that Oedipus would kill his father, and sleep with his mother. To change their fate they chained him to a mountain as an infant, letting him die. He ended up surviving, and full filling this prophecy without even knowing it. Even though the king and the queen attempted to stop this prophecy from happening, their efforts proved to be futile.
Free Will is the ability to make choices based on your own beliefs and opinions and to make your own choices regardless of any kinds of constraints. My own free will is something that can’t be taken away from me, but it doesn’t affect your fate. As I said before I think that your fate is your fate, and everything that happens in your life including the decisions you make, all are apart of that. When it comes to being born, my gender, and other things that aren’t in my control, I believe that it just happens. Genetics play a role in who I am, and I see that my personality has derived from my father. However, I still do believe in fate. Things like genetics just play a role in that.
Without a doubt in my mind, I think everybody is here on earth for a reason, regardless of whether there is a higher power or not. Each individual person has a fate, and a set path of life that they will follow. People’s fate’s link together at some points, and at others they are set apart. With that being said, you cannot change the path that is set out for you. In Oedipus's case, even his parents free will to have him killed did not change his prophecy, in a way it made it more likely to happen.
2. Lying is something that we are taught at a very young age not to do. Young children see a lie as bad, no matter the size of the lie or the circumstances. As you get older you learn the difference between a lie, and white lie. Sometimes, people have to lie because it will protect somebody, or maybe they will just tell the truth at a later date. This can be okay in certain situations, but in everyday situations, lying isn’t okay. A person can’t always make the decision for somebody that it is in their best interest not to know the truth.
Off the top of my head I can think of two solid examples of situations where lying is acceptable, and is for the better. One example involves slavery. There were many people who had safe houses for African American runaways from plantations across the south. The people who helped out the African American slaves, would clearly lie and hide them if somebody had come to look for them. This was in their best interest, it protected them. A very similar example was people who protected the Jewish from Nazi soldiers in World War II. Those who protected them lied about having them in their houses, and tried to stray the soldiers off track. Those are two noble lies, because not only is it protecting somebody else, its putting your own life at risk because of the lie you told.
There are times when lies can be seen as important or beneficial, but there still are many cases where lies are just lies, and they can be hurtful. More times than not, I want to hear the truth when I'm looking for an answer. The truth isn’t always pretty, and sometimes it can even be hurtful to hear, but telling the truth when it’s hurtful is even harder than hearing it. If someone were to do me wrong, but they had the courage to tell me the truth right away, I would look at them as a better person, because they could look me in the eye and tell me something truthful even if the truth was unfortunate.
As different individuals with different personalities, some people don’t have as much of a guilty conscience as others. I for one have a very guilty conscience, and because of that I feel a lot better when I tell the truth. If it came down to it, and I was in a situation where lying was probably the better decision, I would lie. I do believe that the stronger person in any situation will be able to fess up or tell the truth, even if it hurts people that you care about. Overall, lying is a bad habit, and it can become a habit very easily. The truth is almost always the better option.
3. After the play Oedipus had been written, Sigmund Freud came up with a a theory that related directly to the play. Basically what the Oedipus complex is that young boys have the desire to kill their father’s and sleep with their mothers. They are supposed to continue along with their psycho-sexual development, but when they don’t progress like they should, they stay in this stage. This can still play out in abnormal or exaggerated ways. I think there can be some truth to this theory, and there are also reasons why this theory wouldn’t be true.
If you really think about it, this would be a good explanation for some of the very disturbed crimes that you read about. There are a lot of people out there who commit sexual crimes on children and other people, this could be related. I’ve also even seen a few stories on the news about boys who killed either just their father, or both their parents. The complex says that this desire may be carried out in abnormal or exaggerated ways, and it is a solid idea. There has to be a reason that certain people make those decisions, and Freud suggests that these are the people that haven’t progressed correctly.
On the flip side, people can look at this is completely bogus. If this were true, wouldn’t young boys show signs of these desires? It isn’t commonly known for boys to show aggression against their fathers. They have shown attachment to their mothers, but so do young girls. Also, if this were to be true, wouldn’t you remember it? It seems hard to believe that your brain will block out these phases, you have no recollection of them at all. With this being said, I have come to my own personal conclusion that the Oedipus Complex isn’t real. It doesn’t all add up quite right, and there is no way to prove it. I find it hard to believe in just a theory.
4. Antigone is a great example of somebody who shows great courage and selflessness. She knows that if she tries to bury her brother and gets caught, she will probably die. This doesn’t stop her. It’s noble and admirable, but it’s also very risky. I know that if it were me, I probably wouldn’t have done that. I think that she gets her courage to do this because of all that her father went through. I’m sure she knows, and it probably made her think that if he went through such hardship, she could go through something hard too. I make my decisions on a case by case basis, there isn’t something specific I follow everyday. I deal with thing as they come along. Some rules are more fair than others, so depending on the rule, I may bend break or follow it.
A rule that I can think of that I break is cell phone and ipod usage in school. I have a VHS period in the library and a study period in the library, both which I typically am by myself. I see no problem with taking out my phone to throw a text out to my mom or one of my friends. I do that at home when I'm getting work done too. When it comes to my ipod, if I'm not on the computer using Pandora, I'll be sitting at a table with my ipod. Music actually help me concentrate, especially when there are people in the library. I’ve been told before my teachers to put away my electronics, but that’s one rule I probably won’t stop breaking.
Times that I bend the rules are times that I use the computer for a little longer than my parents would like, or if I come home a little too late on a school night. These rules aren’t necessarily breakable because they aren’t set in stone rules, more like guidelines i should follow everyday. There are rules that I follow everyday and won’t break, because they’re there for my own good. Things like texting while driving and wearing my seat belt. It would be dangerous not to follow those types of rules. If I can see reasoning for a rule, most likely I'll respect that and follow it. If a rule seems stupid to me, I'm not afraid of getting in trouble for doing what I believe is fair and right. Rules and laws that are there to protect you, are the ones that are fair. An unjust law is something like Gay Marriage. That’s not hurting anybody, and it doesn’t effect anybody.
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