Andy Howe

Reflection Paper: How does Moses help create Israel? What is the definition of a nation/people?

1/27/04



Throughout the book of Exodus Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and across great distances in order to establish a new city. Moses plays such an important role throughout the makings of Israel. Without Moses, the future Israelites would never have organized an escape from Egypt without being brought back by the Egyptian Army, let alone having the courage to survive in the wilderness until the city had been established.

From the beginning, the king of Egypt declared, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country” (Exodus 1:9-10). On this hauntingly bad note for the Hebrews’ fortune in Egypt, all of the male infants were to be drowned in the Nile. One Hebrew mother sent her child, Moses, down the river in a basket. The daughter of the king of Egypt later raised him. When Moses was grown up and fled Egypt from fear of punishment for killing an Egyptian slave overseer, God came to him saying that Moses must be God’s messenger in setting the Hebrews free from Egyptian cruelty.

“And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:9-10). After being sent by God to retrieve all of the Israelites (Hebrews) out of Egypt, Moses found that the Pharaoh refused to release the Israelites from Egypt forcing Moses to plan the Israelite’s escape. Once the plan was executed, the army of Egypt followed them to a great body of water. Moses uses the staff God gave him in order to clear a path in the water for himself and the Israelites to pass through while flooding the army behind them.

After this courageous act, Moses led the celebrating Israelites into the wilderness to the mountain of Sinai. There, the people camped out and Moses went up the mountain and obtained the Ten Commandments from God for the Israelites. Overall, through Moses, the messenger of God, the people of the new civilization of Israel have been lead out of Egypt making their new civilization possible. In addition, the law structure, order, and foundation of the civilization had been given through Moses from God: the Ten Commandments, establishing the Israelites as a nation.

It is amazing how Moses brought a group of people, the Hebrews/Israelites, who all had life values and religion in common with each other, which set them aside from all of the other peoples of Egypt, and made them into a nation. “…they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly… The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ‘When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him but if it is a girl, let her live. The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live’” (Exodus 1:12-16). Through this quote it is evident that the Egyptian king singles out the Hebrews as a separate group of people from the Egyptians, due to their customs and religion. Clearly a group of people alone can be distinguished from a nation in that they are bound together by their morals, beliefs, lifestyles, and the like.

In contrast a nation is a group or groups of people living together and governed by the same body. Here, the Egyptian king threatened when this group of people becomes impressively numerous and he worsens their work and living conditions. Eventually the king resorted to ordering the midwives to kill all of the male infants of the Israelites at birth. When they did not follow the king’s infanticide orders, sparks of the need for rebellion and an establishment of a separate and new nation ignited.

- posted by Anonymous @ 10:15 AM

 
Andy Howe
What are the basic principals of a just society that takes into consideration the environment?
12/8/03

When considering a society that takes the environment into account as a major concern, one must venture for environmentally sound resources. Through the example set by the Gaviotan society, there are many solutions for environmental issues. The people of Gaviotas engineered multiple different devices and systems to provide cheap and environmentally safe sources of energy and water, they used solar power and different natural oils that are renewable and can be used around the clock.

It is often a misconception that technology has to always be shiny and ‘eye-candy,’ but the engineers of Gaviotas have utilized natural resources such as clay to irrigate their fields. “Gómez’s system consisted of flexible quarter-inch tubing through which water flowed directly from a faucet to a plant’s roots, as in a typical drip-irrigation system” (Gaviotas, 63). Utilizing modern techniques of drip-irrigation systems and applied environmentally friendly materials underscore this concept: they enhance the basic technology in the sense that no computers or any other technology are needed because the clay will dish out water in the correct concentration due to the change in soil temperature.

By utilizing inexpensive materials to create genius creations solar powered machines, the culture of the society must be versatile. The Gaviotans utilize most of the techniques and equipment that they invent and or sell, prompting smooth societal functioning. This is not the case for many other already established societies due to cultural beliefs, disallowing certain techniques presented to them because of cultural denial. The great thing about Gaviotas is that the society was new and past notions were forgotten in an effort to accomplish a beautiful topia where the needs of the individual, society, and the environment are simultaneously met. Meeting the needs of the individual and the society were relatively simple, thanks to references such as Plato’s Republic etc., but the environment variable was one that needed more attention. In order to meet the needs of the environment post cultural beliefs were discarded and by doing this the people of Gaviotas could achieve moderation with all three variables.

With cultural bias beliefs pushed aside, Gaviotas was ready to be put in motion. Paolo Lugari, founder of Gaviotas, can be quoted, “I want Gaviotas to be real. I’m tired of reading about all these places that sound so perfect but never get lifted off the page into reality. Just for once, I’d like to see humans go from fantasy to fact. From utopia to topia” (Gaviotas, 43). Through this quote, Paolo expresses the motivation and attitude of the entire population of Gaviotas. Paolo and everyone else are willing to make the Gaviotan experiment work at almost any cost.

Derived from this philosophy of experimentation and a positive attitude to achieve success brings the Gaviotans to a progressive position. Wielding the power of the mind to make their reality, they approach what might be conceived as “obstacles,” but the Gaviotans would view the situation as an opportunity in “disguise,” (quote) “‘Every obstacle is really an opportunity in disguise.’ The idea, he kept reminding everybody, was to try absolutely everything, to see what would work to make llano life livable” (Gaviotas, 46). It is very imperative for the peoples of the Gaviotas society to maintain this attitude and methodology of thinking in order for their success in the llanos.

By combining the technology, the attitude, and moderation, the Gaviotans have come enviously close to the ideals of a utopia. Although we will never know the lasting results of their society, in the short term they accomplished one of the more real societies this world has ever seen.





- posted by Anonymous @ 11:44 PM

 
Andy Howe
11/17/03
Subject of the jones: Why is Winston Smith rebelling against Big Brother? Can he possibly succeed?

According the first half of the book 1984, by George Orwell, Winston Smith is a middle-aged man who works in the Records Department in the Ministry of Truth in the perceived year of 1984 through the eyes of 1948. Winston Smith lives in a very dreadfully oppressed and controlled society. The government or Big Brother controls literally everything that went on, goes on, and what continues to go on. Meaning, Big Brother does not only control what happens to the society’s population in a physical sense but he (or ‘they,’ Big Brother may not just be one person) also controls the population’s minds, controlling their perception of history, the present, and the future. With total manipulation, Big Brother can accomplish anything without question, a totalitarian, having people working for him and his manipulative purposes at all times.
Winston, having access to accurate history documents through newspapers and other print, he is able to gain enough knowledge to form a hypothesis stating that conditions of life in the past were not as bad and restrictive as the current conditions. At one point, Winston is at work and he finds a picture of some early revolutionary fathers with Big Brother and they are on enemy soil; Winston begins to question the government’s integrity. “The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth. Just once in his life he had possessed-after the event: that was what counted-concrete, unmistakable evidence of an act of falsification. He held it in his fingers for as long as thirty seconds… Some time after their release Winston had actually seen all three of them in the Chestnut Tree Café. He remembered the sort of terrified fascination with which he had watched them out of the corner of his eye” (75-76). It is evident that Winston Smith’s suspicions of the government deceit have been proved correct. Winston finds a picture of three revolutionary leaders who had been accused of being traitors and had been supposedly “vaporized” but in reality they were not. Smith soon saw all three of them at a local café and he could not believe his eyes, realization set in.
Winston thinks that Big Brother is a false evil figure, and he rebels against it. Rebelling against Big Brother is almost literally impossible without getting “vaporized.” Telescreens, tools used by the thought police to monitor all activity that goes on in the city, make it almost impossible to initiate any sort of rebellion against Big Brother. So Winston resorts to things like thought crime by writing in a secret journal and he puts down Big Brother and writes about things that could get him killed. Smith also rebels by having a sexual relationship, going into shops, utilizing the proles, and by not applauding the telescreen’s announcements. In his mind he is trying in a subtle way to template people by showing them that he does not believe in the views of Big Brother, yet he is not trying to deal with the Thought Police by making a substantial impression on them. This fear of the Thought Police and of being “vaporized” keeps Winston and the rest of the population in line with what Big Brother wants.
There is no possible way for Winston Smith to successfully rebel against the Party of Big Brother. A successful rebellion against Big Brother would be to completely overthrow the government and establish a replacement. In the text it mentions that the only real chance of rebellion would have to come from the proles, who make up about 85% of the population. This shows little evidence of any sort of hope for a successful rebellion, but it gets shot down without mercy. Big Brother is simply too strong to be successfully overturned. The facts are that Big Brother has people from the Thought Police stationed everywhere where any possible chance of rebellion might begin.
Hence, Mr. Carrington, middle aged man, working for the Thought Police and is stationed in an antique shop and living with the proles. This is genius of Big Brother because he stops any sort of realization or enlightenment from occurring within the proles, so obviously no rebellion through the masses could occur; which is a main ingredient for a rebellion in the first place. Even if by chance, about two hundred people became enlightened and crawled back in the cave to pull others out, it would be ‘peaches’ for Big Brother to simply eliminate them and ‘bam’ the revolution/rebellion is terminated. Another important point is that Big Brother creates a fake ‘rebel’ organization called, ‘The Brotherhood,” which the people who are questioning the government will seek out. So with Thought Police agents as the contacts and handlers of the ‘Brotherhood’ information, they will be able to know everyone who is committing ‘thought crimes’ and opposes the government. The rebels are sabotaged at the outset.
By having Big Brother also control the fake rebellion, the ‘Brotherhood,’ it is impossible for anyone of any class to succeed in rebelling and overthrowing Big Brother. The rigid Big Brother has complete control and manipulation over the entire population and there is not any room for change or outside influence. Thus the country could never end war and live in peace with the other two countries for fear of influence and enlightenment. Big Brother ‘rules with an iron fist’ and will not tolerate genuine though; rebellion is an illusion.


- posted by Anonymous @ 12:26 AM

 
Andy Howe
Stasis: Is the cave a noble lie?
11/2/03
Is ‘the cave’ a noble lie? Well that depends on many different factors. In the polis the cave is a noble lie, but in present reality, the cave is a scam. The determining factors defining the line between being something noble and a nasty scam depend on the ruling class of the society.
The people in the Polis are being taught to value publicity, moderation, courage, equality, and personal greatness wielded for the gain of the city as a whole. In the interpretive essay, Allen Bloom points out, “friends in the city have all things in common-including women and children-for this total lack of privacy means that man cannot have a life of his own. Therefore a man’s soul must be satisfied by the community or not be satisfied at all… Socrates proceeds to try to make public or common everything that remains private… abolition of private property but also the sharing of women and children…” (Interpretive essay, 379, 380) It is evident here that in the Polis, Socrates is planning to make all things public to the point where people share women and children. This eliminates jealousy and having people feel their duty more towards their family than towards the city. By having everyone’s focus on the city, making them dependent on it, love it, putting their duty towards the city. Once everything in city becomes public less shame is produced through things that are usually private, such as nakedness.
The people in the Polis are also taught to believe in equality, quoting Socrates “one nature must practice one thing and a different nature must practice a different thing, and that women and men are different. But at present we are asserting that different natures must practice the same things.” (453 e) Meaning that even though men and women are not entirely equal in reality, the population must be taught in their education that they are because then women would serve as a weakness in the men’s efforts to protect them. The people must work together and the differences of men and women should not be acknowledged, also being achieved by making everything public. On the public note, moderation is also dealt out by lowering the sexual desires by making it common to witness the nakedness of the opposite sex.
With respect to the Polis; the cave is a noble lie. This can be rationalized through the rule of philosophers in the ideal aristocracy. By creating the cave, which is entirely unnatural, forces humans to function together in harmony and their beliefs and values support this success of the city as a whole.
A lie in this fashion and extent is collectively believed and proven through history that this does not happen. The Polis is the ideal, but as we all know; the ideal cannot be met, although one can get close. Somewhere on the spectrum falls the reality of our society, where people instead of valuing the good of the city as a whole, we value self-achievements and personal gain. Instead of working together as a team to produce necessities and pleasures for each other and to love the city instead of privacy which eliminates competition or converts those energies into positive efforts, we compete with each other for many things; largely dealing with material goods.
Instead of leading the life of harmony and lucidity, people live the life privacy and ignorance. People will commit countless injustices in order to accumulate wealth or to achieve the upper hand on almost everything. Roger Waters of Pink Floyd can be quoted, “You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed…
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.
And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye, and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in.
You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder
You know it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you get older
And in the end you'll pack up, fly down south
Hide your head in the sand
Just another sad old man
All alone and dying of cancer.
And when you loose control, you'll reap the harvest that you've sown
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone
And it's too late to loose the weight you used to need to throw around
So have a good drown, as you go down, alone…
I gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused
Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used
Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise
If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze?
Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending…
And you believe at heart, everyone's a killer.
Who was born in a house full of pain
Who was trained not to spit in the fan
Who was told what to do by the man
Who was broken by trained personnel
Who was fitted with collar and chain
Who was given a pat on the back
Who was breaking away from the pack” (Pink Floyd, “Dogs”)

Roger Waters (songwriter and bassist for Pink Floyd) has philosophized about what cave we are born into and how it is evil in the ways of injustices. Waters describes our society as a battlefield where the strategy is taking advantage and deceiving. “You gotta sleep on your toes… You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed… You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking…” saying that in order to succeed in our cave of society, one must do these injustices without being caught. This is followed by “…you can work on points for style… like the club tie, and the firm handshake…” alluding to after having mastered the earlier, more necessary/dirty work, skills; one can work on the trust and nobility of his or hers reputation, “You have to be trusted by the people who you lie to.”
Practicing the “seemingly” skill of casting the illusion of being something without actually being it, by backstabbing them when they turn on you. The song goes on to explain how lives are lead by always looking out for what you have and protecting it from intruders, and how to win in this battle you have to play the ‘game.’ Where you lie and deceive, and then once you have succeeded; you go south and rot like every other old person and no one will care about you anymore because you cannot help them accumulate more wealth anymore. While you’re in this time, you begin to realize that all your old friends were not actual friends and that you could have possibly just been another resource for them, which can be backed up by Waters, “I gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused. Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used. Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise. If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze? Deaf, dumb, and blind, you just keep on pretending…” where he also adds in the part of denial about one’s life of falsehood and that they need to keep on pretending to escape the pains of their realization.
Achieved through this realization, of which the last part of “Dogs,” is about says that one who is going through these realizations will reflect how they were born into this world of chaos and how they were brought up to believe, do, and be rewarded for doing injustices which produce profits only for money-loving individuals. His or hers nature for anything else has been molded towards personal gain by the propaganda army and all of the evils of our society today. These things are evident when Waters says, “who was told by the man, who was broken by trained personnel, who was fitted with collar and chain, who was given a pat on the back, who was breaking away from the pack.”
All of this competition for personal gain and selfishness has been created by the capitalistic views of the American government. Which was created as a lie, which is and has never been ‘noble.’ This life style has been chosen by the ruling class, who in fact are not philosophers unlike those who rule in the Polis, because it distracts the attention of the population away from the injustices and scams of the government, to things like competition for money and social views on topics such as fashion; which in reality should not have very much significance at all.
Thus, its is very evident that in the Polis, the cave is created as a noble lie, whereas in the reality of our current day society, it is created in the efforts of a scam. The rulers of the Polis are philosophers and are always thinking for the good of the population as a whole and never of just themselves, contrary to the selfish rulers of or current government and reality.






- posted by Anonymous @ 11:20 PM

 
Andy Howe
Objective: Our government through the eyes of Plato
In pinpointing the development of our government system rich philosophic views, were used to acquire this philosophical wisdom that lead to the collective belief of ‘democracy,’ or government ruled by the people. This sounds all nice, pretty, and plutonic, but ye eyes are deceived when one applies true plutonic beliefs as the rubric for early American government. Upon holding the original American government system up to enviable this rubric, one can conclude that what is labeled ‘democracy’ through the eyes of Americans of that time does not draw significant enough parallels required to inherit the label of democracy.
First, the ‘democratic’ leaders of the American nation are the richest of the land, are the best educated, and are the most highly respected. This formula instantly creates an aristocratic/oligarchic atmosphere, which is further proceeded by the clear fact that not everyone is politically equal, hence the leader(s) ‘whom we rightly assert that he is both good and just.” (544 e) Leaders during this time in America lead the country with the best interests of the country in mind and not always for themselves by any means. However, they continue to hold traces of old political experiences from Europe, still not having a true democratic government. The population still embraced slavery restricting women, children, and men, who do not own land, from their rightful status as full citizens. They were denied political influence and a chance for high social status through means other than wealth.
Bringing the focus up to the present day, America through the plutonic lens reveals that the country is run by an oligarchic/free market government with democratic views. According to Plato, an oligarchy is “when wealth and the wealthy are honored in a city, virtue and the good men are less honorable.” (551 a) Put another way, this is when a city advocates people higher in government based almost entirely on their superior socioeconomic status. In addition, Plato defines a democratic government as being run by the people, and having free market. Something illuminating success through smart economic decisions and basing business and moneymaking dependent on human interactions, meaning people will be dependent on their city.
Given these economic interests, the government cannot and will not support communism by any means, being that of true socioeconomic equality but lacking true political equality an without representation. It would be impossible to run a country that embraced true democratic political ideals and deny representation. At the same time, oddly, the country confuses its democratic spirit and leadership. The mindless sheep elect leaders with questionable backgrounds but who are popular with the population. Hence eliminating the possibility of any sort of true aristocracy. Ironically, having the population under the illusion that they are being run/running a democratic government, run by the people, where in reality they are being distracted by the competition of free- market, which draws attention away from the government, and by political figures that can be molded by the media to satisfy popular appetites.
Thus, a system of oligarchic/illusions of democracy or skewed interpretations of it; run the country of America in a fairly desirable fashion.

- posted by Anonymous @ 10:39 PM

 
ridicule**** (my deepest apologies)
- posted by Anonymous @ 8:03 PM

 
In response to Tobi's question for Aaron (/giggle)
-> When Aaron says this 'baggage' is keeping him from a "higher degree of thinking," maybe he has pre-supposed your example of self-confidence. To me, your example has very little affect on anything new on what Aaron has already said; because, isn't lack of self-confidence just another thing that holds people back from a "higher degree of thinking." For, obviously one could not process information with an impressive level of clarity if they have a mental block(s) such as self-confidence, an enemy of the mind which soils ideas before they can evolve from their womb. Fault due to lack of courage behind the idea, deminishing its existance for fear of public redicule or a product of self protection.
Does this clear anything up?

- posted by Anonymous @ 7:46 PM

 
Testing
- posted by Rob Skiff @ 3:05 PM