“Those who trust in their riches will wither,
but the righteous will flourish like green leaves.
Those who trouble their households will inherit the wind,
and the fool will be servant to the wise.”
Proverbs 11:28-29
Oops - I completely forgot to blog last night, at least right until I was already in bed and tired and ready to sleep. So here goes just a quick entry for the 10th day.
The only class I had today was Archery, which is actually a lot of fun. The first two times shooting the arrow, I didn’t move my arm right, so a spot near my elbow got skinned! But after that I learned my lesson, and I learned that I’m not too bad. I hit the board each time, at least! There was no target (yet), but there is a bit of “inner” and “outer” divisions. I hit the inner division (closest to where the bullseye would be) except 1 or 2 times, out of about 15 times of shooting. Not bad for a first try!
My biggest problem is my left arm, which draws the bow. Not only is it my weakest arm, but both my arms are pretty weak. When I draw the string back, it shakes like crazy. I need to work out - that’s so pathetic, haha.
I planned to spend the rest of the day cleaning up my room or going to the library. I chose the former, but didn’t accomplish very much, unfortunately. Oh well, maybe the rest of the weekend will be productive. Monday is Labor Day, so it’s a 3 day weekend!
Just a word or two about the hurricane (Katrina). Biola students are arguing about the best way to help out. A bunch of people want to get a group together to fly down and help out, but others say that it’s too dangerous right now, and that we should just send money for the time being. I’m in the latter camp. Being an aid worker and being shot at is not my idea of supporting a people in need of help. In either case, we can pray. Biola is doing this “24 hours of prayer”, where they have one student pray for an hour around the clock. That’s cool, but we need to do more I think, and people are wrestling with exactly how to help. I just pray that the ones that fly over will be safe and protected…
And just a bit of something that might get a little political. It’s become apparent that the vast majority of the hurricane victims are black, so now we have the predictable reaction that there must be racism involved. This is just a bunch of people seeing a correlation and assuming, with no evidence, that the cause is racism. For instance, I have heard of no reports of individual racism. You need cases of individual racism to build a case for racism directed at the entire group (this is assuming that racism can only exist with individual racists and individual cases). As it turns out, blacks are the majority in New Orleans, so it would be no surprise that those people who are poor and couldn’t get out of the city are black.
However, it is a bit more than this - like 90% of the victims left behind are black. So there are accusations that the government wants to make black people poor and has racist policies. And since George Bush is solely in charge of the government, he must be racist and hate black people. This isn’t a strawman argument - take a look at what the highly respectable Kanye West, a rapper, said today (Friday) on an NBC fundraiser:
“I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they’re looting, [If] you see a white family, it says they’re looking for food” … “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”
…
George Bush is not solely running the government, but an entire representative body elected by the people. PEOPLE HAVE STOPPED TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS. THIS IS WHAT WILL DESTROY AMERICA. Let me clarify this - not surprisingly, the poor are the victims who couldn’t afford to evacuate the city. Whose fault is it that they are poor? This is the real question.
On the one hand, I can see that government has some responsibility in educated the masses, and to create an environment where they can reach their full potential. However, there is only so much the government can do. If it fails, and there still exist a large body of poor people, and these people happen to be black, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the government is racist! Ok, so I’l add to what is destroying America: lack of education in general, and lack of education in logic. People who know about LOGIC don’t draw stupid conclusions like these, and throw around the word “racist” whenever over 50% of the people affected by something are of one race.
Whose fault is it that they are poor? Is it fair to say that it is AT LEAST somewhat their own fault? From here the debateable issue is exactly HOW MUCH they are responsible. I can see the role both of individual responsibility and governmental responsibility here. Anyone who blames the government says that the government is mostly responsible, which means that a person is less responsible of themselves than the government is of them. To me, this seems quite wrong.
However, there are analogies to Plato here. Plato said that the ideal government is totalitarian, and controls everything, in order to make a perfect society. I am somewhat drawn to this. So was Adolf Hitler, unfortunately. World War II is a war that was fought AGAINST totalitarianism, thereby asserting that the majority of the world prefers that mostly individuals be responsible of themselves, with a minority of governmental responsibility for their wellbeing.
If the government is mostly responsible for the existence of poor black people in New Orleans, then we are one step closer to totalitarianism.
Ok, that was more than “a bit” political..
“A slack hand causes poverty,
but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
A child who gathers in summer is prudent,
but a child who sleep in harvest brings shame.”
Proverbs 10:4-5
Oh dear, another night when I’m just dead tired. I’m living such long days recently, it’s very tiring! I get up for the 9:30 chapels (there’s one tomorrow too) and then pretty much stay up the whole day until midnight at least. I’m not used to that I guess!
Today was another typical Modern Philosophy / Epistemology day, so nothing unexpected or anything. After class I came home to wait for dinner. It turns out mom wasn’t hungry, so dad made some macaroni and cheese (affectionately known by my sister [and other crazies] as Mac and Cheese). I just had a bowl and that was it. I didn’t have lunch either, just sort of snacked on junk.. That couldn’t be good.
A while later I left to go study in the library. I had to leave at around 11:00pm because I was falling asleep. I got most of my Philosophy Seminar reading done though, which is typically the hardest reading I will have this semester. I like the style of this book MUCH better than the one for last semester, which had many dull articles written for mostly specialists in Free Will arguments.
I’m finding out a little more about currents trends in philosophy. Apparently the book for seminar last semester wasn’t unusual in using the pronoun “she” in examples. Apparently the feminists got all the philosophers to change it from “him” to “she”, which is the accepted standard. I say there should either be equal use of the pronouns or just get rid of the gender thing altogether - it IS possible to write about people without mentioning their sex. I just find it so annoying. Even philosophy, which is supposed to realize itself to be as objective as possible, comes with extra added institutional bias. Oh well, it’s only distracting, but I can get used to it (a lot of times, mention of ANY gender in examples out of the blue is distracting).
Tomorrow I want to write about the Problem of the Criterion - this is just a little note to myself! I know everyone is dying to know about it.
“Whoever corrects a scoffer wins
abuse;
whoever rebukes the wicked
gets hurt.
A scoffer who is rebuked will only
hate you;
the wise, when rebuked, will
love you.”
Proverbs 9:7-8
Note: Nothing much to note here, but I read the translation out of the New King James version and it sounded a lot more elegant than this translation (NRSV). I guess this version is supposed to be scholarly and accurate, but it sacrifices some elegance that the King James Version or the New International Version carry. Oh well!