Month: December 2019

Extra Credit — What Does it Mean to Live a Life with Honor?

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Achilles, the most celebrated ancient warrior, was given a  choice by his mother: live a short life filled with honor, or live a long, unknown life. His prize was upheld too, 3,000 years later, he is still known. Honor inspires action in the hearts of people and creates heroes. Honor drives people to do great, extraordinary things. The stakes are high, and to die or shed blood for honor is often required. The Trojan war was an entire war waged over the honor of one man being disrespected. Thousands of people fought on both sides for the chance to gain honor. 

Honor is an ideal that requires public recognition. An individual cannot bestow honor on themselves. It is a public quality that must be awarded through significant actions. It is a function of reputation, but much more meaningful because a person internally also has to believe they have honor. Both internal and external components of honor are what drive people to act in extraordinary ways. Honor is comprised of integrity, bravery, morality, and reputation. It is these components that drive the individual to do what must be done, no matter what the cost. What causes someone to risk their life, or even die, for honor is because it transcends death. Your honor will live on long after you die.

However, we no longer live in a world of the duel. People do not fight to the death to defend their honor anymore, and it is almost something that is no longer practiced. The invention of anonymity is to blame for this. When you live in a world that you can slip by unnoticed, the emphasis of honor disappears. Honor does not exist in small acts, quiet acts, or secret acts. If no one sees or cares about your actions, it does not matter what you do even if it is morally right if no one sees, and it provides public incentive to strive for honor. 

Honor is also not following a prescribed code of ethics. The internal part of honor is as important as the public aspect. If a person simply goes along for what the majority of people are chanting around them, then they lose their integrity and principles. Being honorable is about living your truth. To have principles and stand for what you believe to be right in the face of people who disagree is courageous. It is honorable to hold yourself accountable and to embody your principles in every action that one takes, even if that means making difficult decisions. Often times will have an antenna that receives opinions of other people on what is right and wrong, but this means the individual is susceptible to change their moral ideas and have intellectually inconsistent stances. A person needs to be a critical thinker about the world and the information they are receiving to make the best-informed decisions they can. 

If someone does not have concrete stances on their belief, then their actions will fluctuate to whatever is accessible at the moment, which is the result of focusing only on the external forces of honor. This also leads to a toxic race for fame and of indulgement of ambition. Ambition, fame, and power is an enticing drug that often hypnotizes people under their spell in the pursuit of honor. It causes people to be apathetic to others, willing to crush anyone that gets in their way even though they have done nothing to harm the individual. When someone loses the internal aspect of what it means to be honorable, then they succumb to these forces and lose their honor among the people. This is what makes the pursuit of honor so dangerous; it is easy to become the villain when someone is trying to be a hero. 

For ancient heroes like Achilles, the honor was everything to them. Honor then was the very essence of the hero’s soul, which is why people were so willing to die for honor. However, today, honor is just a word we use. Honor is not essential to an individual to find purpose in life, and the focus has shifted to living a life of ethics and reviewing your actions internally. Honor is not supposed to be ethical. It is not considered ethical to use violence to defend your reputation, but it is honorable. The honor comes at a high price that not everyone can afford. Even Achilles, the Greek hero who chose honor over a long life, admitted to Odysseus that it was not worth it. It is much better to live the life of an unknown farmer than in pursuit of all the supposed awards of honor. Today, the idea of honor is no longer an intrinsic part of our society. The cost is just too high. So a life of honor, perhaps, means to live a life that is no longer valued.

John Brown Mini Series Coming in 2020

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This is quite exciting news! A John Brown mini-series has just finished filming and is planning to be aired sometime early next year. The show is based on a historical fiction that was written about the life of John Brown called ‘The Good Lord Bird’ by James McBride. I read this book last year and I thought it was very well written and engaging. It is told through the eyes of a young boy, who is called Onion, who was a former slave. John Brown mistook the boy for a girl and thus in his time with John Brown he is dressed as a girl. Onion goes with Brown on all the important battles in Kansas, he goes touring with Brown up and down the East Coast as Brown is trying to raise money, and finally when Brown executes his raid on harpers ferry. It is quite comical at times and overall a really great portrayal of John Brown. McBride portrays Brown as a religious fanatic. Brown is often spouting off random bible verses that are not actually in the bible, or he is engaged in hours-long prayer. I particularly like how he ended with the book with Brown’s death acting as an inspiration for people to continuing the fight for justice.

James McBride, author of The Good Lord Bird

 

Now to the show, before I even heard they were doing a mini-series my friends and I were theorizing who would be a good fit to play, John Brown. And one of the names we tossed around was Ethan Hawke, and sure enough, he was actually cast for the part. I put aside by side comparison of Brown and Hawke below, and I think they look pretty similar.

 

John Brown

 

 

Ethan Hawke as John Brown

 

I am very curious about how he will decide to portray Brown considering the controversy that surrounds John Brown. I also think it is interesting that this story is reentering popular consciousness at this time, considering all the political tension surrounding the confederate flags and statues, and the question of how to accurately portray American history. I think Brown is an important figure that should be talked and debated about more, as he has influenced countless of American poets, artists, and storytelling. I think to leave him out of the national conversation is a disservice to everyone. That does not mean that he should not be looked at with a critical eye, but the hard questions should be asked. Was it ethical for John Brown to use violence?  Do the ends justify the means? When did the idea that using violence to end tyranny lose popular favor? What does it mean to be an activist in the 21st century?  I hope this tv series is a step in the direction to get people talking about these tough questions, and I hope next semester to address some of these questions more in my blogs.

 

My Perception of Rhetoric and Civic Life

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At the beginning of this semester, I already had quite a bit of knowledge about rhetoric, and the way it influences our everyday life. However, I think the biggest shift in my perception would be that rhetoric extends past just speeches and words. Pictures and designs are packed with meaning that is attempting to connect to their views on an emotional, logical, and ethical level. I think the exercises that we did in a class where analyzed different ads were a good example of this. They attempted to connect to the targeted audience in the presentation of the clothes and the models in an attempt to convince people to buy their products.

I also learned more about the specific uses of rhetoric and the specific formulations you use in different situations. for example, the uses of the epideictic and apologia rhetoric. I never realized how important it is to consider your objective in your speech and crafting it aligned with specific uses of rhetoric. It is also difficult to not hear political ads and think about what rhetorical devices they are using, especially since it is an election cycle. This has also made me more aware of the different persuasive tactics of candidates in an attempt to appeal to voters and get them to donate money, volunteer, and vote for them. Especially with such a diverse democratic lineup that each have different approaches in reaching voters. This class has also made me think about what qualifies as civic life because it is not just being involved in politics. It is about engaging and interacting with your community. I also found it challenging in this course to put the rhetorical uses into practice and gained a greater appreciation for the art that is public speaking.

John Brown Frees 11 People – part one

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Before I get into todays topic, it is worth mentioning that December 2nd was the 160th anniversary of the hanging of John Brown.

“Talk! Talk! Talk! That will never free the slaves. What is needed is action — action!” – John Brown

Around Christmas time in the year 1858, john brown received word of a man named Daniel crossing from Missouri to Kansas seeking help to stop the salve of his family. Daniel and his family were enslaved by someone in Missouri, and their owner wanted to sell them. Often this meant the family being split up and sold to harsher plantations in the deeper south. So for Daniel, escaping in to Kansas and pleading for help was his last option — and even that was a hail mary. Typically people who are apart of the underground railroad, including John Brown, believed it was not worth exposing their entire operation to stop one sale. They thought it was better to wait until a moment where you could free hundreds of slaves. However, John Brown decided to help Daniel and his family. Brown was able to gather about twenty men and they rode into Missouri on December 20th. Half of the group went to free Daniel and his family, which they were able to do. They held the slaveholder at gunpoint while they freed Daniels family. The other group went to a neighboring property to free other enslaved people. They were successful and the two groups freed a totl of eleven people. The only person that died in this rescue mission was a slaveholder, but Brown’s men claimed that it was done in self-defense.

John Brown and his men now had the responsibility of making sure these people were able to make it to safety. So, in the middle of the grueling winter Brown led these people through Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. The from Iowa, Brown made sure they had safe passage by train to Chicago, Michigan and then eventually Canada. This process took months to get these people to safety, and it was especially difficult in the middle of the winter and because they were being hunted by pro-slavery forces. I also think it is worth mentioning that one of the women on the journey gave birth to a baby boy, and named him John Brown.

This story is important because it shows Brown’s dedication to free people who were in slavery. I included the quote in the beginning about action because that is what peaked my interest in John Brown in the first place. That it is all find to have the debates about slavery, but real change comes from putting yourself into the situation. In my next blog I will talk about in more detail the journey and how they dealt with being chased by slave catchers.

 

source

John Brown’s Christmas Raid into Missouri 1858

Animal testing script

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Part of the history of Animal testing with biomedical research

Animal testing for medical purposes can be traced back thousands of years to Ancient Greek. Animals are often seen as inferior to people and in that way can justify testing on animals.  Also, it is necessary to experiment on animals in order to advance in lifesaving medicine. (link)

Claude Bernard was a 19th century psychologist who is credited with setting out the principals of experimental medicine and was very influential in the justification of experimenting on animals. His belief was very influential on biomedical research. He thought that the only way to advance in medicine is through labatory experiments, and that there is no other method besides animal testing that could yield the same results and advancements. In 1988 the American Medical Association published a paper that defended animal testing using Bernard’s Ideas. This shows how well respected his ideas were and how widely they were accepted. Views have changed however, researchers conduct clinical trials and epidemiological studies to make progress in research, but Bernard’s ideas are still very pervasive in society. (link) 

Drug testing on animals became more prominent in the twentieth century because of a drug that was released in 1938 that was never tested on animals and poisoned many people, with over 100 people dying. In 1938, a pharmaceutical company released an antibiotic and in the exlir it was mixed with diethylene glycol, or otherwise known as brake fluid. This Mass poisoning is one of the reasons why the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was passed, which requires that drugs be tested on animals before they are could be sold to people. (link) 

However, even with the mandatory animal testing tragedies still happen with drugs. For example, in the 1950s and the 1960s the drug thalidomide was marketed as a sleeping drug and that it was safe for everyone to use, including pregnant women. This drug was tested on animals, but it stilled caused 10.000 babies to be born with sever birth defects.  While the drug was tested on animals, people claim they did not do sufficient tests on animals, but also that they failed to do any human clinical trials as well. This led the FDA to put a stricter vetting process in place which requires both animal testing and human clinical trials(link)