Another Example of Life

The famous Allegory of the Cave, originally by Plato; "where Plato lets Socrates describe a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato's Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners."
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave


The allegory of the Cave is another example of how we interpreted our lives. We often believe that everything, every time and anywhere is a reality. The simplest example given in this story is where humans are chained and they thought the shadows in front of them really exists is actually what humans are facing in real world without realising it.


These objects are the main element in a story:


1. The prisoner.
Represent ourselves in this world.


2. The chains.
What binds us.


3. The fire.
The source of our life in the first place.


4. The shadows and the images.
The lies/illusions.


5. The puppet players.
Who controls us.


6. The old man.
Our savior.


My example of Plato's Cave, is from a movie called The Legend of 1900. The prisoner would be Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred '1900' (Tim Roth). The chains would be his life in the ship. As for the fire is how 1900 grew up as an orphan. The shadows is the other side of reality (the land). The puppet player is 1900 own perspective and lastly the old man would be 1900's best friend, Max Tooney (Pruitt Taylor Vince).


It is very nice movie talking about the limits in life. Here is a monologue from the movie that I'd like to share.


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The Legend of 1900
written by Giuseppe Tornatore, from a monologue by Alessandro Baricco


Nineteen Hundred: All that city. You just couldn't see the end to it. The end? Please? You please just show me where it ends? It was all very fine on that gangway. And I was grand too, in my overcoat. I cut quite a figure. And I was getting off. Guaranteed. It wasn't what I saw that stopped me, Max. It was what I didn't see. You understand that? What I didn't see. In all that sprawling city there was everything except an end. There was no end. What I did not see was where the whole thing came to an end. The end of the world...
Take a piano. The keys begin, the keys end. You know there are eighty-eight of them, nobody can tell you any different. They are not infinite. You are infinite. And on these keys the music that you can make is infinite. I like that. That I can live by.
You get me up on that gangway and you're rolling out in front of me a keyboard of millions of keys, millions and billions of keys that never end, and that's the truth, Max. That they never end. That keyboard is infinite. And if that keyboard is infinite, then on that keyboard there is no music you can play. You're sitting on the wrong bench. That's God's piano.

Christ! Did you see the streets? Just the streets… There were thousands of them! And how do you do it down there? How do you choose just one? One woman, one house, one piece of land to call your own, one landscape to look at, one way to die...
All that world is weighing down on me, you don't even know where it comes to an end, and aren't you ever just scared of breaking apart at the thought of it? The enormity of living it.
I was born on this ship. And the world passed me by. But two thousand people at a time, and there were wishes here, but never more than fit between prow and stern. You played out your happiness, but on a piano that was not infinite. I learned to live that way. Land? Land is a ship too big for me. It's a woman too beautiful; a voyage too long, a perfume too strong. It's a music I don't know how to make. I could never get off this ship. At best, I can step off my life. After all, I don't exist for anyone. You're an exception, Max, you're the only one who knows I'm here. You're a minority, and you better get used to it.
Forgive me, my friend, but I'm not getting off.

As If We Were There

The murder of Julius Caesar by his adopted son, Brutus was acted out in our class. We can actually feel how it really happened when Caesar was murdered by the council men and sadly Brutus was involved in the murder. To summarize the story, Brutus was misguided by the council men and he was told that if Caesar is unstoppable, his ambitiousness will destroy Rome.

A lot of good values were shown in this play. I can see how deep Caesar's love towards Brutus and Rome. Even when he was in the glimpse of death, Caesar said "et tu, Brute" means 'you too, Brutus' as a caution for Brutus to watch for his back. As for Brutus, he was too naive and he used the excuse of he loves Rome more than Caesar, which I found quite ridiculous. After the death of Caesar, Brutus gave a speech to convince the citizens of Rome.

He told them how ambitious Caesar was and that would bring a downfall to the Rome empire. But then came Mark Antony who is a good friend of Caesar, to counter Brutus' speech. He told how great Caesar's love towards the poor citizens and the Rome empire itself and often share his wealth with Rome. Even if Caesar was too ambitious, he refused the the crown third time. What more can say about that?

The citizens of Rome was confused to trust either Brutus or Antony, so they split into two and soon a great civil war had started. In the end, Antony won the civil war with the help of  Octavian and Lepidus.

Apart from experiencing the murder of Julius Caesar, we also learned about syllogism. Syllogism is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition (the conclusion) is inferred from two or more others (the premises) of a certain form. One of the syllogism example that was related to the story is;

Brutus is an honorable man,

Honorable man does not kill people,

Brutus killed Caesar,

Therefore, Brutus is not an honorable man.

Syllogism is quite fun when you are criticizing certain stuff. Try it yourself. 

Truthful Language is What We Actually Need

Euphemism is a structure of harmless word that substitutes an offensive or suggestive one. Some euphemisms are used to amuse people and other than that intend to give positive appearances to any negative statements. The opposite of euphemism would be dysphemism.


Mr. Kamar taught us in-depth about euphemistic language and it really caught my attention. All this while I thought people are being sarcastic and not knowing that euphemistic language does exists. To avoid giving a negative statements, some people are very good in using euphemistic language.


For example, "she's very healthy" referring to those fat people out there. Knowing the real truth would be hurtful but sometimes in unavoidable circumstances to care about other's feelings, we have to use euphemistic language. Mr. Kamar showed to us a stand up comedy by George Carlin. I admit, he is very good in giving out examples of euphemistic language. You can search for his video at youtube.


The side-effects of euphemistic language should also be considered as people are expecting you to tell the truth instead of hiding it. Some people don't even care and some people like to use euphemistic language just to fit in. It is your choice people. Choose wisely.

Let's Talk About Death

Every time when an Apple products are being mentioned, people will automatically think of Steve Jobs. Who is Steve Jobs?

Steve Jobs was born in February 24, 1955. He was adopted at birth by Paul Reinhold Jobs and Clara Jobs. Though he is smart but he led a directionless kind of life at younger age. Jobs experimented with different pursuits before starting Apple Computers with Stephen Wozniak in the Jobs' family garage. Soon, Apple's revolutionary products, which include the iPod, iPhone and iPad, are now seen as dictating the evolution of modern technology.

The world was shock about Steve Jobs death on October 5, 2011. But I know that his workers and close ones have expected of this. Steve Jobs talks about death a lot to his workers when they work late at night. Even though Jobs always showed his abrasive personality, he was actually tried to prove something.

Jobs talked about death is his commencement speech at Stanford and shared his experience in facing death. He gave an inspirational talk saying that, he cannot predict death and what would happen if he dies today? From that, we can see clearly why he acted such ways. He was trying to show that improvement is needed when one push himself to the fullest.

Everyone should do their best every day because they would not know if that particular day would be their last day. This idea of death by Steve Jobs inspired me and I believe he inspired people all over the world. It is true if we know that we are about to face death, we would give our best to do everything and show our effort in every thing we do.

People should give attention to his words of wisdom instead of chasing his products. Steve Jobs was a great person despite of his childhood problems and his daughter, Lisa. He can be a very good example of a person who doesn't even know what is the meaning of surrender.

Anti-social is a Major Problem

People say Facebook is the main problem of teenagers being anti-social. I agree on this but I have a better idea of why teenagers are being anti-social. If you ask me, I would blame the technologies.

"The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In the excerpt 'All The Cool Kids Are Quitting Facebook' by Jenna Wortham said that Facebook really connects people with each other but the side-effect would be less face-to-face communication. Humans become lazier each day and hoping that Facebook would connect them. They think that it easier and less time consuming by communicating through Facebook. This is true and after Facebook, variety of new machines exist.

Back to my first point. technologies nowadays have advanced itself until humans forget how to communicate properly. For example, the existence of smart phones. To be more accurate, I would like to talk about Blackberry phone. Blackberry phone consist of variety of applications that can connect people in a split-second. What would be the effects?

Less communication, people get lazier, fully depend on such machines and would hold on to it all the time (if possible). These effects clearly leave an impact in creating a productive society. People sit in one table but everyone is holding onto their phones and focus more on it.

People should be aware of how important this problem is. It can affect the productivity of future generations and it will turn humans into slaves. I personally think that people should spend most of their time communicate with other people by seeing face to face. With that, it will increase the brain development instead of sitting in one corner and play with the phones.

Jack the Ripper

The famous case of Jack the Ripper has been known throughout the world since it has started. My class did a court-like debate to identify who is Jack the Ripper really is. Here is brief information about Jack the Ripper.

‘Jack the Ripper’ is a serial killer who murdered and mutilated at least five prostitutes in the East End of London in 1888. The name ‘Jack the Ripper’ is originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, later it was disseminated in the media. Other than that, he is also known as the ‘Whitechapel Murderer’ or ‘Leather Apron’.

Based from my background reading and what I have learned in class, Jack the Ripper killed only four prostitutes during his spree and the victims are:

1. Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols, murdered on Bucks' Row, Friday, August 31, 1888.

2. Annie Chapman, murdered at 29 Hanbury Street, Saturday, September 8, 1888.

3. Elizabeth Stride, murdered on Berner Street, Sunday, September 30, 1888.

4. Catharine Eddowes, murdered in Mitre Square, Sunday, September 30, 1888.

5. Mary Jane (Marie Jeanette) Kelly, murdered at Number 13 Miller's Court, Friday, November 9, 1888.

SOURCE: http://crime.about.com/od/history/a/ripper040721.htm

In this particular debate, we were required to use the Elementary Process where students have to prepare claims and follow up by counter-arguments to argue until to the last remaining claim. Elementary Process is a good method in order to analyze such crime and it was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

This method is also used by Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes is famous for his logical reasoning, good in forensic science skills to solve cases and his ability to disguise.

Back to our class activity, a serious debate had occurred and here are the most suspected people to be Jack the Ripper:

1. Melville Mcnaghten

2. Thomas Neil Cream

3. Francis Tumblety

4. James Kelly

Even though we didn’t manage to figure out who Jack the Ripper is, I am pretty sure it was a fun debate we had in class. Thank you to Mr Kamar for teaching us one of the important methods of analyzing a crime which is the Elementary Process.

Of Crystal Masks and Plain Desert

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”

by William Shakespeare

What can you interpret from the quote above? The reason I chose crystal masks and plain desert is because humans are born with masks, be it a plain mask or a crystal mask. Plain mask shows nothing but oneself while crystal mask will reflect everything of what people expect you to be, as good as being an actor.

As for plain desert, imagine if this beautiful world is a plain desert. Everyone would be in a panic stage, whereby, requires bad behaviors (greed, lust, etc..) in order to survive. Everything is limited and as a human, we are bound to follow the deadly sins instead of doing the good stuff. We show no mercy to other people, we tell lies, we take things for granted, we force other people to do our works, and far more greater, we control some people.

Even the great Machiavelli wrote, “Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.” It is okay to be a good person but remember that you will be an easy target to your enemies around you. Even though it is not necessarily to be bad, a person has to learn the basic of seducing, deceiving and being a charm. By this, you can control people without them realising it or at least to defense yourself from the manipulator.

Talking about the manipulator, people who are hungry for power but not showing it is the most dangerous people, be aware. These people will show no interest at all but they are too smart that they organize a plan to take over control behind your back. They are very good at manipulating by acting out their weaknesses and show a lack of power. You should know that by showing weaknesses, people will actually buy it because humans are stubborn and too blind to put their ego aside. Thus, you are indirectly being manipulated by these smart people in a blink of an eye.

A simple reminder should be given out to those who are too comfortable playing their part in this world, in other word, being a slave in this twisted world. If you are comfortable in your workplace, just make sure that you are not being fooled by your neighbors. Remember, “Those who make a show or display of innocence are the least innocent of all”.