Metacognition: Mash-up

Throughout the course of this project I have learned a tremendous amount about my cognition as an intellectual. Looking through this mashup was honestly much more challenging than I thought it once would be. This mash up is intellectually building because it allows us to combine and witness a multitude of intellects. Not only is this exposure to multiple intellects fantastic, creating this delineation and the thread of these ideas was mentally refreshing. I found that I obtained an ability in a multitude of areas:

a) cognitive organization: I found that I had the ability to comprehensively organize an array of ideas and threading them into a single flow of ideas- this was incredibly surprising, for I was never actually challenged to create a single voice or idea from such an array of ideas

b) Comprehensive understanding- to create a single voice, one really has to understand the material that one goes through- I found that I had a greater capacity for comprehension through an array of complicated materials and the ability to construe them all was refreshing

c) inherent understanding- there was something that really surprised me, that was the ability to quickly process so much information and making these delineations to my single voice and line of thought. This came with an inherent understanding of thought and many concepts that I had no idea I obtained the capability to comprehend.

I do believe that I should make a change however, I should be more open to these ideas and challenge myself to look into more than I believe I can hold. You see, I often will look over some ideas because I believe that they have no value to my idea at first thought, but I should ultimately look deeper into these ideas. For, often, the best ideas are the ones that are entirely unexpected.

Ultimately however, I do believe that this project has shown me an immense amount of internal thought and understanding of my own cognition. 

An Inconvenient Truth: The best will not always end on top

Throughout the course of this weekend, I was in Scranton, Pennsylvania because there was a debate tournament that took place in this small town. It was a little surprising to be honest, I expected the place to be more exciting, as it held the setting for the show: The Office, but it was horribly boring. Something else surprised me however, a young team from Georgia achieved an unexpected goal. That goal, was of getting to the semi finals of this national tournament.

They were surprisingly fantastic at this particular tournament, and being just a sophomore and junior were the farthest thing from expected to reach the final 4 of this pool of 70 teams, many being the premier seniors  in America. Better yet, they beat two of the top 10 teams in the nation. One from the Boston area and another from Washington D.C. This was absolutely phenomenal and being close friends with this team, I was ecstatic and incredibly joyful for them. However, the two older teams they defeated in elimination rounds were not. Then I came to a conclusion, deep in thought, about how this upset could have occurred. That conclusion was that the best will not always end up on top. Given that this young team was absolutely excellent, they were simply disadvantaged from the more experience these other teams had on them.

This rubs me the wrong way, because it shows that however hard you work, or whatever you do to become the best will never be enough to win or to get that promotion. There are just too many external factors to guarantee success. It showed me that everything is ultimately put to some risk or chance in decisively winning.

Well, to come to terms with this, I eventually came to yield some fruit from this truth. I realized that all you can do is perform to the best of your abilities and that should be enough, I also recognized that this could always come to my advantage and to never give up. Being younger than most debaters, I know that anybody could beat anybody and that you should never tell yourself that you've already lost because anything can happen.

Maybe this truth isn't so inconvenient at all.

360 degrees: Democracy

The ideals of the free. The soverign liberator of all political binds and chains. Democracy. 

What is democracy? Can it be defined within a sole phrase or idea? Does it remain constant throughout a culture and people? Is it fluid, and it's ideals forever molding to a set of beliefs and morals? 

These are all questions prompted by a multitude of views of what democracy is, and we can recognize that democracy is not the United State's constitutional structure of government or the governmental basis that Germany stands upon, or even the system under the nation of India. It is all of those things, yet definitively not excluded to a single ruling system. The idea of democracy should be viewed  from all angles, or 360 degrees.

One of the perspectives that democracy stands upon is the United State's system of checks and balances and constitutional engagement, in a government for the people and by the people.

Another mold of democracy is Germany, where we do see a varied spin of a democratic model, in a more complicated system. In Germany we recognize a multitude of parties and a system of engagement in a more "intricate" democratic manner.

We also see a varied view of democracy within the crisis of the Middle East. We continually recognize a call for democracy, yet we fail to recognize what many middle easterners view as democracy is radically different from our view of a democratic foundation. They may view it as a system of liberation but not the constitutional system of a separation of powers. An example of this altered view is Nazi Germany, even Hitler believed he was under a democracy.

As we can see, democracy is a fluid ideal and not isolated under one model of a political foundation. We truly do have to look at it from 360 degrees.

Dialectics: Scientific Creationism and Evolution

Evolution: Why the hell am I in a room with this myth? This theory is incredibly overblown; the scientific foundation that I stand upon isn’t nearly comparable to this psychotic fake.

Scientific Creationism: Unbelievable, we stand upon the foundation of faith and belief. Furthermore, even science points to creationism, the meticulous structure that this world stands upon- it’s only logical to see the creator behind our lives.

Evolution: Are you kidding me? We only see the consistently evolving structures of life and the adaptation that is involved with the biosphere. This is an internal process due to natural selection and the inherent order.

Scientific Creationism: Unbelievable… so ignorant.

Wait…

Why is this contradicting? - The basis of Evolutionism doesn’t contradict with a natural creator- simply the process we abide by- what if a creator created this inherent order in which people do scientifically change. I mean, we actually do see some modern evolution within our lives.

Evolution: Hmm… Wow… this is true… but only to an extent. This theory only stands in a world where there aren’t adaptations or theories behind the basis of Evolutionism. For example, Darwinian Evolution, contradicts with the foundation of life- resting upon the Big Bang theory, where a creator plays absolutely no role. 

Scientific Creationism: This of course is true, we do have contradictions within the theories that obtain Evolution within how we as humans and life became, these changes, however, become inevitable, but why are we portrayed in direct rebuttal of one another?

Evolution: I believe it occurs in a misconstrued assimilation of Evolutionism and these theories that attempt to explain the beginning of life. Creationism, the presentation of our societal representations can be misconstructed at times.

Scientific Creationism: This is almost enlightening- and not to mention excellent. I’d like to thank you for this. It shows that not everything doesn’t have to conflict directly with one another, conflation becomes incessant, although we must recognize that there are differences do become inevitable.

Best of Today: Innovation

Today was about ideas. Not just grand ideas, or overlying AH HA'S!!!! But today was really about innovation. Minute distinctions that are refined for changing times. This was done in the discussion on the word facile. Believe it or not, this actually had an incredible impact on my outlook of genius.

I learned that genius today didn't always have to be discovering the theory of relativity, or creating the world's first computer. But, that it was about refinement and adaptation of the little things to adapt to the culture around you. It was about the little things and what today's society would inherently swarm towards. 

Mr. Allen brought this idea of curation to the table, the process of pooling together information and presenting it on one search engine that would provide incredible analysis and aid, catering to what web surfers like us, need. At first, I thought it was nothing more than a good website, simply taking out the step of searching a term on google, that it was nothing more than a convenience, nonetheless, the "next big thing".

Then, I saw it. 

1) convenience is HUGE in today's society- that in itself was genius

2) The process of information was completely different. The beauty of this idea was it broke from the "scripted code" of sites like google and bing, detracting from the thesis and core of these sites, not presenting the information in an advertised order.

It's actually quite amazing.

It's amazing to see how much these minute things, have the biggest impact on how we view this world.

Best of Week: Behind the Lines

 I achieved a profound realization this week, more specifically, today in English class. This realization arose from a near joke, or a warning of what one must be wary of. This warning was of Mr.Allen's narration of an unacceptable short story ending, as he rambled off into a tale about leaping monsters, caving walls, and a tale of spontaneous terror. Although, I'm sure he meant what he said, I believe he was almost opening a door of meaning. That he was telling us, in an ironic sense, that although it'd be awful to write a meaningless story about horror and monsters; that it'd be almost extraordinary to find a deeper meaning or connection within an ostensibly empty idea. I drew an extrapolation from Charles Simic's "A Stone", that one can create something out of nothing and draw out deeper meaning in something that seems all too simple like a stone.

You see, the profound realization wasn't found alone within the idea that one can create something out of nothing (although that is significant) or the irony, or even the inherent connections to poetry and even literature such as Heart of Darkness (something can come out of nothing). The epiphany arrived throughout a combination of everything involved in Mr.Allen's 30 second narrative. It showed me how significant of a role literature, poetry, Shakespeare, and just about everything we've studied, plays within our everyday lives. That there is meaning of what we study, outside of the classroom. I mean, I was this multiplicity in Mr. Allen's informative speech upon our short stories (also eludes to Post/Modernism).

I'm not quite sure of what's to come, but I really believe that this realization, will allow me to see other instances of our studies becoming extremely pronounced outside of the classroom. To be honest, the extrapolations I made surprised me, but it was a pleasant surprise. A surprise that gives me something to look forward to, in all things, even those that may appear seemingly mundane.

Thankyou Mr. Allen

An Inconvenient Truth: Backfiring Efforts

I've recently come across an inconvenient truth that can truly be seen in almost all instances of being. That is, when you attempt to achieve something, often that effort, will be the causal root for your failure. Given, this
'de facto' ordainment, it persists in an incredible number of events. A primary example is the crisis in Egypt. Government officials attempted to suppress technological and communicational ventures, but contrary to their efforts, it sparked retaliation and a spike in global connections. On a historical scale, we see an incredible amount of this theory played out in revolutions of our world. I'm currently studying the Haitian revolution, and much of the revolution was carried out by African slaves. The vast oppression that they faced by Plantation Owners in order to maintain a stable and disciplined labor system, eventually led to rebellion and the overturning of this institutional framework. As you can see, this largely applies to a vast overview of our history, but as all laws should, it applies to everyday life. Often, one goes out of their way in order to achieve something, whether it's to make the team, get the grade, or whatnot. Albeit, in many instances, trying hard will get you a goal, but when one takes unnecessary or extreme measure it will often be their downfall. For example, one could over study to unnecessary means late into the night out of extreme fear and lose out on sleep and do poorly on the test due to sleep deprivation.

You see, this theory of Backfiring Efforts isn't unconditional, it just persists in being in many aspects of our lives. Knowing that often efforts can backfire, bother me. Because it shows me that nothing is guaranteed, and that all things exist outside our control. Even us attempting something to the best of our ability will often cause us to fall. There are just somethings that are outside of our realm of ability, and I guess I just have to accept this.