Poverty As a Choice?

I think that poverty is a situation you are born into, just like any other financial class. It is definitely possible to move between classes, but it is harder than most people think. The reason that stories about poor people coming into money or rich people loosing it all are so popular is that it isn't very common. When I look back at my parents' childhood, I see a story of success. Both of their families had a lot of kids and not much money, but now everybody is doing pretty well. I am proud of this aspect of my family, and it gives me hope for the future. But I don't look forward to a future where I have bucketfuls of money and a private jet. I will spare you of my nasty stereotype of super rich people. I am more scared of becoming poor than ambitious to be rich. I would be content being in this same financial situation forever.
I believe that this way of thinking is what is keeping so many people in poverty. In All Souls, the author remembers how they looked at the black people in Roxbury and would do anything to not look as poor as them. As long as someone was worse off, it didn't matter how poor they were. They scoffed at the middle class liberals and marveled at their rich cousins and their strange habits. The people of Old Colony belonged there. Why venture into a strange place when you know and love the community of your current home?

1st Half of Malcolm X and The Harlem Renaissance

Having grown up on so many of the great musicians of the Harlem Renaissance, I've developed a quite romantic view of that time period. The smoky jazz clubs and swinging dance halls have always held a sort of magical allure for me. Though I've obviously never experienced them, I miss the days when all the young people would go out dancing all the time. Real, big band dancing.
Needless to say, I loved reading about Malcolm X's experiences in this era. I expected to be caught off guard by descriptions of the less-glamorous sides of Harlem, like the blatant racism, poverty, and drug trade, but even all of this failed to muddy my opinion. It may have been my own biased view, but it seemed to me that Malcolm described this part of his life as though he thoroughly enjoyed it as much as I imagine I would have, even though he is looking back on it through the eyes of a much wiser man.
I never really thought about the more controversial race aspects of Harlem much. I was always taught that the Harlem Renaissance was just that: a cultural rebirth of African American identity. But the acute observations of Malcolm X bring this idea back to Earth. He describes the constant struggle of the black American of the time, even in Harlem, and he makes some generalizations about white people that I find incredibly offensive, but may very well have held some truth back then, no matter how hard it is for me to imagine ever thinking in such a way.
This book makes me wonder, above all else, whether or not the thoughts of the young Malcolm X were unique to him. It seems he was an exceptionally race-conscious person, but that may just be because I think so little of race, having grown up in the 21st century. Did many if the blacks of Harlem think so poorly of the whites who found their way into the restaurants and clubs or Harlem every night in search of "that Negro feel"?

twenty | one | pilots

I discovered Twenty One Pilots when they signed with Fueled By Ramen a year ago and they instantly became one of my favorite bands. The band consists of Tyler Joseph, vocalist and pianist, and Josh Dun, drummer. They have a decent following in their hometown in Ohio, but I was sad to find that they are pretty much unheard of elsewhere. I think they deserve a lot more recognition for their music because it has such a fresh, new sound. They combine rap and rock and electronic in a genre that can only be described as alternative, for lack of a better term.
The first thing of theirs I saw was this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5daYd91k4ws&list=FL8kZHBpLsPH-yw-ggYHd-Sw&index=41 I was blown away by the simplicity and raw emotion of it all. It is a good introduction to their unconventional style of rap and phenomenal lyrics. Every time I listen to any of their songs, I get a new meaning and connection to it. Their music is incredibly relatable, because it is about things like life and death and mortality and the human condition. It consequently gets pretty philosophical, as in March to the Sea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suq35iak57U) which parallels a march in unison to living an unexamined life.
Their first album is rawer and has a lighter sound, while their second, Regional At Best(which,sadly, was taken off of iTunes for some stupid reason, though they do have a new one coming out next Tuesday)sounds more poppy. I'll let the music speak for itself, so here are some of my favorite songs from them. If you don't love them after hearing these.....
Glowing Eyes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47AtclpkF-o
Isle of Flightless Birds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMD141I5ERU
Car Radio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmTc0sx_E5g
Guns for Hands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu8s3ucBEL8
and, not my favorite song but their only music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktBMxkLUIwY

Voltaire, Camus, and the Election

If Camus had the same view of life as his main character Mersault in The Stranger, he wouldn't vote at all. He would say that it wouldn't matter either way who lead the country, that they didn't even have much power, and his vote wouldn't make any difference anyways.
The moral of Voltaire's Candide is that one must "cultivate their own gardens." Keeping this in mind, he wouldn't be in favor of much government aid. He thought people should help themselves, making a republican candidate more appealing than a democratic one. Then again, I could also see Voltaire not voting. It seems that he would always be trying to make a statement against the established government.

First of all, let's be clear. I know, without any trace of a doubt, that life is just life is just life. There is no ultimate purpose or meaning. But none of all that matters. Once you fully realize the nothingness of everything, you're left in a downward spiral of despair. Ain't nobody got time for that. Finding meaning in the meaningless is perfectly fine, as long as you first realize the truth. Downward spirals are themselves completely pointless, even in the less-than-grand scheme of our tiny human lives. What's the point of life, you ask? Why even try?
Well, why not? What is the point of not trying? You only have one life, so why spend it lonely and miserable? We should spend what little time we've been allowed doing the things we enjoy. In order to achieve happiness, one must tuck away that knowledge of meaninglessness and invent some fantastic reason for being. Why not be happy?

crime and punishment

The only "crime" Candide is guilty of is being completely innocent and impressionable. He really doesn't know anything in the beginning, but this is by no fault of his own. He is like a child who must be taught the ways of the world. When a child gets curious and starts hitting people, its parents scold it because hitting people is wrong. They might decide to show it this wrongness by scolding in terms the child can better understand, like revoking certain privileges like television and sweets. Eventually, the kid will begin to understand that what was done was wrong. Candide has obviously either been brought up in some other, less effective way, or is just too stupid to learn this way.
The first punishment, the one that sets off every other painful experience Candide has, was being kicked out of the castle for going after Cunegonde. This action was arguably not wrong at all, just the product of young love, but it was deemed inappropriate by the king. If Candide had any sense at all, he would have made an effort to keep his affair a secret, but we know this is not the case. The king doesn't really realize how dumb Candide is, and isn't really in the wrong for kicking him out because anybody else would have known better. Candide doesn't really deserve this punishment because something less harsh might have actually taught him better to at least be more discreet in his pursuits of Cunegonde. It's not his fault that nobody ever taught him the ways of the world, but anyone who is still so ignorant by the time they reach that age can't expect anything less than harsh punishment and repulsion from society.

knowing

How do I know what I know? The only thing I know for sure is that I don't know how I know what I know.

I know most things, common, everyday things, because I am told them by people with more experience in that area. There isn't any really reliable way to check if they actually know. I just take it on faith.

A better question would be: Do I know anything? If you have an idea, no matter how close to the truth it may be, you don't know it if you aren't positive that it is right.

There isn't some all-knowing presence with which to check our facts. So we can't ever be positive that anything is right, so we can't every really know anything. Who's to say that there isn't a real name for the color of the sky, one true thing to call it, something other than "blue"? We don't really know anything, we name things and speculate and use science until we are as close to the truth as we can ever hope to be. And yet that truth may be the complete opposite. Some people realize this and try to search for it, but this is certainly in vain. I don't know that it's in vain, but I assume it and accept it because it's all I can do.