Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Eloquence


"We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire" - Henry David Thoreau

I firmly disagree with Thoreau. His sentences themselves are eloquent. Thoreau explains things in a way that are overly expressive and yet while reading this, I couldn't help but think that it sounded pretty. He himself was wrong in his opinions and he used eloquence to make others think that he sounded smart, but, he did sound pretty.

I love eloquence. Even simple ideas or sentences can make you feel something. For example, one of my favorite songs Bravado by Lorde is really eloquent but it really makes me feel empowered and strong even when I'm feeling down. Here's some of the lyrics:


All my lifeI've been fighting a warI can't talk to you or your friendsIt's not only youMy heart jumps around when I'm alluded toThis will not do
'Cause I was raised upTo be admired to be noticedBut when you're withdrawn it's the closest thingTo assault when all eyes are on youThis will not do
I'm faking gloryLick my lips toss my hairAnd turn the smile onAnd the story's brand-newBut I can take it from hereI'll find my own bravado 


It's poetic. It sounds pretty. If the lyrics were just "be strong" or "everything will be okay", the message wouldn't be effective as much. Eloquence does inspire heroism and no I don't just like it because it sounds pretty. It allows me give a voice to the feelings that I've felt before but could never quite state it in a way that made it sound greater than what it actually was. 

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Old School Feminism

 

Personally as a male, any time that I talk about feminism I think I sound like the cover of this magazine right here. It's a touchy subject to most people and a lot of people don't like talking about it but, being a guy, I think it can be tricky especially since most people believe that men can't be feminists. Yet, here I am, ready to talk about it because, that's right everyone, feminism is about men too (just like almost everything else unfortunately).

Today in class we read The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson and The Declaration of Sentiments by Elizabeth Cady Stanton from the Seneca Falls Convention. Stylistically the feminist one was much easier to read. The original Declaration had a lot of pretentious diction and flowery writing. Although it was specific by pointing out a list of grievances, it sounded like it was trying too hard to be formal, almost as if they knew that they weren't going to be taken seriously. Wow. Wouldn't that be awful.

Speaking of that, the whole purpose of the Seneca Falls Convention was so that women would finally start being taken seriously. More on the background of the convention can be found here. This was the main event that sparked the women's rights movement, This was the birth of feminism in the United States. Women and men (Men were allowed to attend only the second day of the convention) finally were not going to sit around and take this injustice in silence. They read their list of grievances because no one was taking them seriously. It will take years, and years, until this movement will finally catch fire and yet still, there is so much more farther that we have to go. Not everyone today takes feminism seriously.

Both of these works have a single purpose. To list their injustices that they feel that current conditions have placed upon them. The original document was written by a group of old white men, who could care less about other peoples' (women, African Americans, the poor, pretty much everyone else who wasn't them, etc.) opinions. However, the feminist Bible that was written by Stanton serves as the basis of the feminist movement that still is in effect today. She has expanded upon the original ideals of Jefferson and has made them right, or I should say, "more inclusive". Men and women are entitled to certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and if they are not guaranteed these rights they can and should do something about it. So feminists, keep doing something about it, because it is going to all of us, even men, to make things better for everyone.

Monday, January 25, 2016

John Adams Has Had Enough Of Your Vanity

Well, the good news is that we got to read something historical in class today. (I love history.) The bad news, is that I had no clue how to interpret it because the diction was so outdated. The quote below is from John Adams' letter to his wife Abigail. The message itself can be connected to today, however here in 2016, I doubt the average person is aware of their unruly love of "pomp and dress".

"Whenever Vanity, and Gaiety, a Love of Pomp and Dress, Furniture, Equipage, Buildings, great Company, expensive Diversions, and elegant Entertainments get the better of the Principles and Judgments of Men or Women there is no knowing where they will stop, nor into what evils, natural, moral, or political, they will lead us." - John Adams

Now that sounded pretty but what does it actually mean?

Allow to me clarify. What Adams is trying to say is that people want material possessions, for example, "furniture, equipage,... expensive diversions, and elegant entertainments", to make themselves look good, People surround themselves with "great company", they have a lot of "pomp", (defined as a vain display of dignity or importance), they wear the best "dress". But what is the outcome? Often times, this changes people into fake wannabees that are consistently trying to outdo one another.

Does this still happen in 2016?  ----  Of course.

 
The picture above is consistently re-posted on social media. People today, much like back then, want each other to be true to themselves. They don't want their friends being exact copies of them, they want people who have different interests and ideals. The diversity among us is what makes life interesting. So when people try outdoing each other, this leads to a whole mess of things like pettiness, envy, and animosity towards each other. No one needs that in their life. John Adams certainty did not want it either.  

This chaos is not only in small social circles but also more wide-spread. When people are constantly trying to get the next best thing and keep up with everyone else, they lose track of their role as a citizen and more importantly, as a human. Now John Adams was not saying self-driven interests are bad. However, they can get out of hand when people become so overwhelmed with vanity that they don't care about the welfare of anyone else. We should be building each other up, not trying to tear each other down. We have to start becoming more aware of this since nothing has apparently changed since 1776. Why can't people just be friendly and get along?