Response to Blog: Purpose of joining Frats/and Sorors

This is a response to Becky's question what is the purpose of joining a Fraternty / Sorority. Too be honest I really do not know.  I see these girls walking around like zombies, no makeup, no jewlery and bags that go from their eyes to the ground. They walk slow and can only eat alone or with other pledges. They ge tyelled at, degraded and other things that I have heard. They trick into joining with being nice to you, but as the weeks go on, they turn into monsters. You get no sleep, you get yelled at and this is all because they choose to join.
The only reason I can think of that would make someone want to join is either the fact that they have low self esteem or they feel like they don't belong. They want to be wanted and will do ANYTHING it takes to be loved and apart of a group which I feel is not OK. Belonging to a group shouldn't mean that I have to be physically a mentally tested, but we can't blame the sororities because it is just another social structure/category in life. It you really think about it like is categorized beyond measures. To be an RA or Orientation leader you have to have a certain GPA for them to either consider you and then you are put through process to prove that you can be apart of a team and that you can excel. Same in the job world, you have to prove yourself to people who critique and criticize you and prove that you can "make it." So my question is, is there anything that someone can be apart of without having to prove themselves?

The Philosophy of Trust

I have talked about love, I have talked about loyalty, I think it is fit that I talk about trust. I am going to state my question now, and then again at the end. Why is trust so easily lost and so hard to gain? I, like many people, have been hurt before. Boyfriends have dumped me, parents disappointed me, friends have back-stabbed me etc. As the years  have gone on I have found it harder and harder to trust people because of the amount of hurt that I have been exposed to. I know it is wrong to make others pay for the actions of someone else, however it seems like whenever I do finally open up to someone, Boom! I am shot down again. Is it my fault? Do I have crappy choices in friends and guys? I don't know maybe, but all I know is that recently the topic of trust has been on my mind. As stated before I have been hurt before and it has affected my friendships that I currently have. I have slowly gotten over the pain of being hurt and have opened up more to my friends and have slowly beginning trusting them. Through my relationship with others, I have realized that thee are different levels to trust. For instance, I trust my friends not to talk behind my back, but it will be a few more years before I totally and absolutely trust them with my life. I trust my parents with my life and that is about it, but I still have one more person I trust beyond my parents and that is God, because my parents have let me down  before. I trust my friends with secrets more than I trust an acquaintance. So you get the point of these levels of trust, the thing is I just find it interesting.  The next thing that I find interesting is the amount of time that pasts that enables you to trust someone. I am going to trust someone I have known for years more than a person I have known for days (although this mentality sometimes backfires).  Trust really isn't black and white. It really is a complex topic. So my question again is, Why is it so hard to trust someone and so easy to lose trust?

Response to Blog- Food

This is a response to Dr. Johnson's blog. The food we eat is seriously disgusting. Our meat, when they are alive sit in their own waste, they are given hormones and grain when naturally cows are herbivores and she only be grazing on grass. The one thing that I do want to say though is that not all of our food is like this. Sure a majority is and when you go to McDonalds (especially! when you go to McDonalds) you are eating "mystery meat" in-between your buns. There is no denying that industry has damaged the future of food as we know it.  Remember mad cow disease? It happened because the meat industry (weeks before they killed the cow) forced  the cows to eat the brains and other parts of their sick brother and sister cow.  Yes these ways as well as other ways are slowly poisoning and killing us (like the genetically modified food we eat Go plastic corn!) But what are we doing to escape these ways and find a normal healthy way to eat? There are organic farmers who only grass feed their cows and let them roam the pasture, however they are dying out. They are going further and further into debt because people LOVE instant gratification and was never taught to wait.  It is due to the fact that just eating industrialize food is so convenient that people just decide to die for the food they eat. O YES! and then there is also the factor of cheapness, I mean people can put much deliberation and thought AND money into a new car or new flat screen TV (with surround sound) but when it comes to paying a little extra or spending more time shopping for good food that won't kill you its too much. So with that said, Why is it that people have yet to learn delayed gratification? Why do most of us depend on instant gratification to get through life?

The Philosophy of Being Loyal

Lately, due to recent observations. I have been wondering a lot about loyalty. Exactly what is it and why do people go through desperate lengths to prove their loyalty to something or someone. I understand that recently in class that we have been talking about patriotism, but that is a bit different from what I am talking about. If you have ever read Alexandra Robbin's book Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities, you would understand my concern. If you have even walked around campus and heard the stories of hazing from sororities, you would understand where I am coming from.  Girls and guys degrading themselves to be apart of a sisterhood/brotherhood. Doing things and wearing things that they wouldn't normally do or wear over a certain period of time just to prove their loyalty so they can be accepted by a particular group of people and be labeled "cool and touch." I am sorry but I am not going to ever degrade myself, and sleep with a guy as an initiation into a "club." Neither would I let my "Big sisters" or "Big brothers" dress me up and leave me in the middle of nowhere only to let me find my way back by myself at night. (These are all instances in the book by the way which is a real account of real sororities). Do you know the number of girls (and guys) that have died or been hurt executing these orders put out by their "older pledge masters." I mean of course they are to blame, but the people who put themselves through it are to blame also. Why do the things you are told to do, just to show how "loyal" you are. Then at the end of this period, you wouldn't knwo that these people went through the things they went to because htey are all buddy buddy with the person who at one point in time was calling them ugly fat good for nothings. So with that said What exactly is loyalty and why do people go through such lengths?

Response to Blog - Science vs. Faith

In her blog, Emily asks the question, why does society tend to favor science over faith? 
    I am glad to answer this question because I have asked myself this question many many many many times. I have also had many arguments about this. I have come to the conclusion that people like proof. They love physical sensory evidence and are really skeptical about things that they don't know about or see. To people taking a leap of faith or having faith is equivalent to trusting a stranger with their wallet over trusting a friend. It has also been brought to my attention that people have a safe zone that they don't want to cross. You can find the mozt extroverted person who is willing to try anything once, but when it comes to having faith in the unseen and the unsure that is really out there they quickly retreat back to the known  or they take a step towards the unknown but onjly to a certain extent. Let us take religion for example since this is the most recent argument I have had with someone. I was talking to an acquaintance and they told me that they believe in God, thought Jesus was "cool" but doesn't believe that he existed. When I asked them why they had a lack of faith in the Son of God, they said because the things he did was too nice, "no one could be so perfect" "no one could be that loving and caring." On this response I gave up although now I wish I didn't. You see this particular person is so use to the emotions that they see every day that they can't believe something or in someone that portrays the opposite of what is sensed. Science, though ever changing, presents facts and numbers and figures. Science in short presents hard solid evidence, it is black and white. Having faith requires getting over what people will think of you, and holding on steadfastly. My faith is dear to me and being alive and getting through the day safely without harm is evidence enough I need to know that God is real, (although to the scientific observer it is luck, fate,coincidence...etc.).  With that said, why do people have such trust in science since it is always changing?

Animal rights

        In my future of food course this topic of course came up. The author, Michael Pollan of The Omnivores Dilemma began discussing the topic if animal rights. In the seventeenth chapter of the book, Pollan is reading Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation, while dining on a large piece of steak. Though these two things should not be enjoyed in the same setting, he does this in order to , I feel, spite Singer's argument that animals should not be eaten. This has been a long standing argument and believe it or not many philosophers have debated if animals should be eaten, and if they poses a true soul or do they lack a soul. It is also debated how much alike the animals we eat are to us humans who are also considered animals. The argument Pollan presents is an interesting one because it is a two sided argument. It is like good vs bad, omnivore vs vegetarian etc. On thing that I do want to question though is looking at this philosophically do animals have a soul or are they void of emotion. Many philosophers and scientists have come to the conclusion that the only thing that separates humans from other animals is our concept and understanding of death. We are no different from animals than in this one way. We know that death is coming and that as the days, even hours, pass we are getting closer and closer to death. I am a few minutes older and a few minutes closer to death than when I first started this blog. That is the reason why many people say that it is wrong for us to eat meat, they say that animals are like us in so many ways that eating the animal is like eating another human. Also, it is looked at as morally wrong what the animal has to go through in order to suffice a human's need. Though this is true, I do believe that many people are entitled to their own choice. So, with that said the question I want to ask is, Do you think animals possess a soul or are they void of it and is just a mere "subject of life"?

Response to blog-Beauty vs Confidence

I am responding to Becky-Jo's blog in which she asks" But can we have confidence in ourselves without being beautiful or attractive? Does being thin have anything to do with confidence?"

  It is funny because if you asked me  this question a few yeaers ago I would have said yes that being thin had EVERYTHING to do about confidence. As I grew up,however, and became less naive, I realized that confidence is just being comfortable in your own skin, not lettign what people say affect you and living life according to your own rules. When I was going through my weight-confidence issue, I would look at people who were bigger than me and wonder, how could they live like that, aren't they ashamed. I apologize if this post offends anyone, but I don't think like that anymore. You see, the thing is, I was conditioned to think that being beautiful meant thin, I was told that to be loved I had to be thin and being loved was one of the most important things in my life. Now that I am over the verbal abuse and negative conditioning I received as a child I realize what I believe those full-figured people lived their life by, which is confidence and beauty come from within.  If you have a great personality and are happy with yourself that is all that matters. Beautiful or attractiveness isn't as superficial as people make it out to be or at least it shouldn't be. Confidence, like beauty comes from within, confidence comes from knowing that you are able to make a difference some way or the other/ help people. Many people do make thinness and "attractiveness" rule how they think about themselves and how much confidence they have which shouldn't be the case. Confidence and beauty starts within and then shines through to the surface. This is why they say beauty is skin deep.  With that said, What do you think about the saying Beauty is skin deep and do you believe it?

A Thought from the Heart.

I went to a Valentines Day dance tonight and I had a lot of fun. Not because of the theme, but because I just needed time to just dance all my stress away and socialize. As time passed, however, I found my mood getting lower and lower and I knew why.  It was the theme and the sight of all the couples together, dancing, holding hands, laughing and smiling. It is interesting, I know, to get my inspiration for my post from  a dance but the question I want to ask is, what is love? How do we know when we are in love?  When I am talking about love, I am talking about the kind of love that is indescribable, the kind of love that needs no words and that can really move mountains. I am not talking about the kiddie kind of love or sexual infatuation because we all know that people say I love you only to get in people's pants now a days. I am not searching for love, but sometimes, especially around now I find myself thinking about it, because eventually I want to be in it. How do we know when we are in love with someone ? How do we know this thing we call love is real? Is love dead? Is there no such thing anymore? I know I am asking so many questions and I know I can't get them all answered, but I guess the main thing I really want to know is, what is love and how do we know we are in it?