Freedom vs. Security

Our discussion about freedom versus security is not only a controversial issue in Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, but also in real life and in general. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who give up freedom for security deserve neither.” He makes a valid point, but unfortunately if we keep every single one of our freedoms intact, our security may be lacking, or vice versa. However, our freedoms should never be put in jeopardy in order to catch terrorists. More Americans kill each other daily than any terrorists. The terrorists do it in greater numbers, maybe, but if we really want to keep our citizens safe, more domestic laws are mandatory, not necessarily tighter security on airplanes and in federal buildings. However, if we intend to keep our citizens safe in the air or on the ground, the laws already in place seem to be doing their jobs rather well. (We caught that Fruit of the Boom guy!) But there are times when our policies do not work so well. If we allow our government to do what they did in Little Brother (that is, treat innocent civilians who happen to be protesting against the government spying on its people like terrorists) would be just plain wrong. By tightening security and scaring people, we’re just allowing the terrorists to win. Even if we do find, capture, kill, or whatever we want to do to the terrorists that performed these appalling deeds, the fact is that we’re never going to get back the people who died. Catching the terrorists and killing them isn’t going to bring them back. It may pacify our desires for revenge, but if that means allowing the government to treat thousands of people daily like “enemy combatants”, I say no way. If, today, a terrorist attack occurred on American soil, of course it would be tragic. Of course it would be horrific and shocking. But it doesn’t necessarily indicate a weakness in our country’s defenses. People are always going to find a way around the law. People who want to kill people passionately enough will always invent a new substance or find a way around airport security. All we can do is try to prevent them from coming here, and only to a certain degree. We all know how annoying airport security is. But, personally, I don’t feel all that much safer just because my Arab name makes the staff at security eye me more carefully. There are more American terrorists who have killed Americans than Afghan terrorists or Libyan terrorists or any other terrorists you can think of. Maybe not all at once, but definitely more frequently. Little Brother illustrates this argument when Charles, a student in the main character Marcus’ class, stands up for the government surveillance in every room, every hallway, every street, every Internet connection. He believes it is keeping us safe, and that those trying to stop it are terrorists themselves. Marcus simply recites a section of the Declaration of Independence that states that when a power has become corrupt, the people have a right to overthrow it. Maybe it’s because I live in America, but I believe everyone deserves the right to live in a country without being watched. People should have that freedom, regardless of terrorists. If we take that away, the terrorists are just going to do their jobs, and they’ll be winning.

The Dumbest Generation Blog

In The Dumbest Generation? Don’t Be Dumb!, there are many points with which I agree and with which I do not. Although I am categorized as one of the Gen-Y’s, I do pay attention to the world around me, and I do know many things that I believe everyone should. I am astonished when my fellow classmates have never heard the name Leo Tolstoy or Nelson Mandela, or can’t tell me the dates of World War I, one of the most significant wars in history. I do agree with the fact that videogames improve hand-eye coordination and at times require problem-solving skills in order to pass a level or whatnot, although many do neither. However, I have a problem with the sense of dismissal I get from my classmates when basic knowledge or global issues are introduced into the conversation. I certainly hope that sooner or later they will begin to desire and understand the necessity for that knowledge, preferably the former. This article also ties in to our conversations about Ortega y Gasset’s On Studying. The underlying messages in his essay basically convey his ideas that studying is useless unless the person doing it has a need to know or understand whatever sort of information that they feel is important to their being. I’m not exactly sure about anyone else, but I absolutely love coming to school and learning new things everyday. The things my teachers explain and elaborate upon in daily lectures fascinates me, and the feeling of finally understanding something difficult or connecting something to another piece of knowledge is one of the best I can think of. I’ve always loved to learn, but more so in the past few years because I’m starting to get into topics that are really challenging and really make you think. Literature is one of the best places to explore new ideas and have your ideas challenged, and one of the places in which I found this to be true was in William James’ The Social Me. To think that you are nobody but who people perceive you as and that everyone only does what they do in order to fit into society was a very difficult idea for me to grasp. It challenged what I had been taught to think my entire life; the cliché phrases heard so often, like “you’re an individual” and “you’re special” were torn asunder in the excerpt of James’ writing. So far this year, I have noticed a huge difference in the way I see things, and I think most of it is due to having my ideas challenged. I hope there are more idea-filled pieces of literature to come next semester.

Why Americans Are Restless Interpretive Questions

2. A society devoted to equal opportunity will weaken all because without some difference in social class, race, etc., every individual would notice even the slightest difference in people. de Tocqueville states on page 167 that, "Even if, by misfortune, such an absolute dead level [of equality] were attained, there would still be inequalities of intelligence which, coming directly from God, will never escape the laws of man." There will always be inequality, no matter the time period. If it is not political or social, there is still that of intelligence or the serendipitous ways of luck. All in all, there can never be complete equality.

5. de Tocqueville thinks that Americans are restless because what they want is not obtainable. People are always striving to find the best, the newest, the most advanced, and so miss the most enjoyable parts of life. They want happiness, yet subconsciously they do everything in their power to ensure they cannot achieve it, speeding by all that could allow them to experience it. As de Tocqueville writes on pages 165 to 166, "A man who has set his heart on nothing but the good things of this world is always in a hurry, for he has only a limited time in which to find them, get them, and enjoy them." In other words, if a man were trying to experience every good thing he could before he died, he would rush to get them all done without truly enjoying them; that being said, he would also never appreciate what he had seen on his journey.

Come Back to Afghanistan Blog #10

I had a really insightful and enjoyable freshman year. It had been hammered into my brain that high school would be so much harder than I could possibly imagine and the teachers would be way stricter, that they were babying us in middle school. But, in reality, that is definitely not the case. The workload was big, sure, but it wasn’t nearly as difficult as everyone in middle school made it out to be. Plus, I always do my work, so the idea of not being granted “freebies” wasn’t so menacing. I have had the most fun I think I’ve ever had this year more than any year of my life, at least as far as I can remember. My favorite classes were NonWestern History, Geometry and Literature, even though they posed a challenge. I really enjoyed having the freedoms I am granted in high school instead of the oppressive rules that dominated everything in middle school. I think I learned quickly but at first painfully that I needed to really concentrate on studying and that I couldn’t just not study and still ace the test like I used to do in middle school. I hit the ground running but quickly fell flat on my face when I used the same tactics I did last year. I ended up getting a C on one of my first history tests because I didn’t know really how to study, but now that I’ve developed study habits I think the rest of my high school career won’t be nearly as difficult as it would have been if I hadn’t figured out how to study well.

Come Back to Afghanistan Blog #9

President Obama recently changed focus from Iraq to Afghanistan. He did this for a few reasons, one being to protect the Afghani people from an oppressive Taliban reign. The Taliban has been controlling villages in eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, and its strength is growing. Rather than “blindly staying the course,” as President Bush so eloquently put it, President Obama has decided to shift our attention to the extending Taliban and extremist groups near the Afghani-Pakistani border. He has mostly decided to do so because of the denial of necessary equipment for troops in Afghanistan, which was caused by the excess funding of the war in Iraq. “For three years, our commanders have been clear about the resources they need for training. And those resources have been denied because of the war in Iraq. Now, that will change,” he said in his speech in late March. There is controversy over whether or not pulling troops out of Iraq to send them to Afghanistan is a good idea. Some leftists, a group called Peace Action West, have sent emails in order to get news of what the new surge in military force may do to the situation in Afghanistan. They believe that if we send a large sum of troops there, it will only unite the many insurgent groups and ultimately cause more American casualties and will further strengthen insurgent powers. However, many believe that the new flow of soldiers will be a very good thing in order to help Afghanistan regain its strength and rebuild its government, which is at the moment suffering great losses of power over its eastern provinces. US forces will be able to repress the insurgent forces with more funds and 17,000-21,000 new troops from Iraq. This could ultimately mean a new and better turn of events for Afghanistan.

Come Back to Afghanistan Blog #8

In the recent weeks, there has been much controversy over whether or not pictures of American soldiers torturing Afghans and Iraqis should be released to the public. President Obama recently stated that he thought they should be shown, which angered the pro-army and mostly conservative bodies for fear that the release of said pictures would enrage Afghan and Iraqi nationalists. This could put our troops in greater threat of harm from the Middle Eastern and Western Asian nationalists who would, as most would, be angry about seeing pictures of their fellow clansmen being shamed and humiliated. However, in the past few days, President Obama has decided that rather than put our troops in harm’s way and publicize the pictures, they would not be shown. This, of course, angered the liberals who believe that the public has a right to know what has happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and that the pictures should not be kept hidden. It is obvious that such pictures would infuriate al-Qaeda members and Wahabi Muslims, along with non-extremist groups, but despite this, I am airing on the side of the liberals. I think that even though these pictures may profoundly anger those who would be able to see their neighbors, brothers, sisters, and fellow tribesmen being demeaned and degraded, the public does have a right to know. I doubt that the release of these pictures would cause things like the current strikes and attacks that happen daily to increase in number or frequency. I do think that our troops are in danger, but releasing the pictures to the public should not increase the danger so much that they would be in total peril. The soldiers are out fighting every day, but just because some gory and belittling photos leaked through to the Internet doesn’t necessarily mean that chauvinists will begin to attack more frequently and with greater passion.

Come Back to Afghanistan Blog #7

Dr. Vesper’s visit to our class today definitely cleared some things up. His crude map drawing on the board, though seemingly unhelpful, actually aided me in understanding the geography of the region, as well as the places Hyder visited throughout the novel. I never did completely understand the relative distance from each of the places Hyder went from another, and the way he drew the diagram helped me put these locations into perspective. His visit also helped me understand what exactly happened at the end of the book. Though Hyder wrote in his novel that his father resigned, Dr. Vesper stated to us that he in fact was relieved of his duties for not carrying out his obligations. I thought this was amusing because of the way Hyder, as most do, made his father out to be a great man. All of us like to perceive our parents as exceptional people, no matter how far from the truth it is. Hyder was no different, and rather than telling the real story, told a skewed version in which his father could do no wrong. Dr. Vesper basically said that Fazel Akbar was a weak leader and that he had no control over anything going on in his own province. I like the matter-of-factness he had in his presentation and I hope to hear more about Afghanistan from him in the future.