This I Believe Appendix

My “This I believe essay” on the topic of judging others was inspired by different components and factors in my life. Some of the thoughts that came along with the inception of my “this I believe” essay had to do with religion, experiences, literature, and pop culture. With regards to religion I am a Christian and I believe in the Bible which is the holy book of my religion and I even refer to it as the word of God. When I was doing research on this topic I found that judgment is actually a reoccurring topic in the Bible and there are many verses pertaining to the subject. One of the series of verses that I found was Matthew 7: 1-5 which states: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

   ³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye (NIV).” What this means to me is that we shouldn’t judge others until we completely judged ourselves and we are content with ourselves and I tried to reflect this belief of mine in my essay. Another segment of the Bible that inspired me and my beliefs is John 7: 24 which states: “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly (NIV).” I also tried to put this idea in my essay when I stated that we shouldn’t be quick to judge and at least get to know the person or their situation before judging them.

            An experience that inspired my belief and essay was my experience back in summer camp when I was younger. I went to summer camp back then in an area outside my town so I only knew 2 other people from my neighborhood who were also enrolled in the same one. For the first few days we only associated with each other because we were the only people that we knew and we didn’t really try to make new friends. There was another kid who always seemed angry and who was always by himself and me and my 2 friends just assumed he was a person who we wouldn’t like or wouldn’t want to associate with. This was the case until one day when we finally introduced ourselves to him and invited him to play basketball with us. This was a good thing because he ended up becoming the 4^th musketeer of our group and became a very close friend of ours for the next two years at the camp. This experience too, played a part in my choosing of this topic and the writing of my essay. One phrase that played a role in my choosing of my essay and this topic was the English idiom “don’t judge a book by its cover”. When I looked up this Idiom on Dictionary.com the phrase was defined as: “Don't judge the value of a thing simply by its appearance.” Once again this is one of the aspects that are rooted in my beliefs and the creation of my essay. An example of an example in pop culture that inspired my writing of this Essay was a music video by one of my favorite rappers entitled “The Age of Information”. In this video he speaks about his ideas about the progression of the human race and especially judgment through social media. There were many things in that video that made me think about this topic and made me write my essay on it. 

My Revised "This I Believe Essay"

This I Believe Essay

One scene that I could vaguely recall from my youth was getting into a fight with a little kid and his bigger brother at a playground. This past year I brought up this fuzzy memory to my father who remembered the situation more vividly than I did. He laughed and told me that as a kid I was illiberal at times and he distinctly recalled me saying that I picked a fight with those kids out of nowhere and was angry at them because they had freckles. I in return laughed while at the same time denied my dad’s recollection of the situation. In the back of my head I knew that he was right though. I knew that he wouldn't make up something like that. Being a more mature and serene person than I was in the past, I thought to myself, “why would I get mad at a person for having freckles?”, and “was that really why I was angry that day?” Today I undoubtedly know that it’s not right to judge others at all especially before getting to know them.

            I believe that a person should never judge, classify, or make generalizations about another person or group of people, especially if they have never spent time with them or got to really know them. I feel like you can’t judge others because you will never really know what another person went through and has experienced from their perspective. When I say this I am not trying to defend anyone who has ever done something unjust or punishable, but I’m just saying that as individuals we should never be too quick to make rash decisions about people on their entire identity and integrity. One place where people are quick to judge and insult other people they don’t really know is the internet. I feel like in today’s world where there are so many forms of information transference many people really don’t get to meet each other before they pass judgment on each other. For example people these days people can technically have “friends” around the entire world that they have never seen except for in pictures and spoken to only in text. I think that this is all well and good but it could be totally different than really going outside and meeting them in person for better or for worse. In general, I feel like this ease of information transmission is hurting humanity because it encourages the pre-judgment and classification of others. I feel like the internet and this information era is also causing the human race to regress in aspects such as communication, and dexterity.

             I would be a complete hypocrite if I were to say that the internet is the enemy and that you completely avoid Facebook and Yahoo, and I am not stating this. I am just saying that we should acknowledge that the internet isn't the most solid mode of communication and that we shouldn't be quick to pass judgment on others. I believe that genuinely meeting and getting to know new friends in person is a better choice than meeting behind a computer screen, and I think that others would agree if they just tried it more often. This I believe.

What Do You See?

(Personally I saw a duck first)

Me and Yaodong's Real Talk Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jbfAjk-iE

Real Talk Final Transcript W.T. & Y.J.

Phase Four - Revised Transcript

According to Jean Baudrillard, symbols and signs have replaced all reality and meaning, creating a human experience similar to reality. 

Is it ever possible to avoid these simulacra and actually see reality?

W: William Taylor Y: Yaodong Jia

W: Sorry I am late for our meeting.
Y: What happened? Did you get caught up in a traffic jam?
W: Not really. It's just that I got lost following the misleading traffic signs on the side of the road.
Y: Oh how can they be misleading? They should be correct. I never got lost by them. Tell me about it.
W: Well today, I learned the hard way that not all signs with a large picture of book on them will lead you to library; instead, the signs led me to the bookstore.
Y: Oh really? I've never noticed that.

W: This isn’t even the first time that signs have misled me. These symbols, like the sign with the book on it, try to represent real people, places, and things, but in reality they are usually different.

Y: Like a simulation of real things?
W: Exactly. For example there are signs everywhere without instructions. I don’t think that all of these sign designers can really translate what they want to say into pictures and signs. The signs themselves are not necessarily the real.
Y: Yes, signs are just symbols. But the same as the translation, even words may lie.
W: That's true. So sometimes I'd just like to rely on my own perception to identify the reality.
Y: Your own perception? So how do you think that you could find this library without any map?
W: Maybe I can search the route on internet?
Y: That's the same thing isn't it? You didn’t invent the internet and it is not your perception. The only way you could truly rely on your own is to just walk around, using your own senses to remember everything, rather than any other tools. But how could you do that if you even do not know where the library is?
W: Well.... I have no clue.
Y: Though sometimes they can be misleading, I don't think anyone can escape from internet, signs and symbols, escape from such culture of simulation and replacement of all reality. For example, there are lane lines on the road, and they just represent rigid barriers that no one should drive across these lines. They are really just paints, giving us a human experience of simulation of real limit, but nobody can drive without them.
W: But I’m pretty sure that not everyone in the whole world is bound by symbols like we /are.
Y: /Oh?
W: Have you ever heard of the Amish people?
Y: What people?
W: The Amish people. They are a very conservative group of Americans. I know that they live in various locations on the east coast, like upstate New York…=
Y: =Oh I have heard a bit of that.
W: And they base their whole lives on strict religious policies. They live pretty simple lives and they are reluctant to adopt the many conveniences of Modern technology.
Y: They live without any modern technology like internet right?
W: Yeah. Compared to us, I feel like they actually live more natural and more real lives. They never get misled by signs and symbols on their own land.
Y: So maybe a way to be free from signs is to be free from technology and advanced culture? Well... what do you think about this?
W: I think that’s right. Technology really plays a large role in simulating reality and creating simulacra.
Y: =Yeah. It is the technology that binds us to such inescapable simulation and to be ... Oh wait a minute. I find a problem here.
W: What’s the Problem?

Y: Well think about this: Aren't the Amish people themselves living in a simulacrum of the past?

W: What do you mean?
Y: I mean that the lifestyle of Amish people itself is a kind of simulation. Amish people they do successfully escape from signs and internet, devils of modern world, but they fall into another trap of simulating the past.
W: I kind of agree with you there. They might be living in a simulation of the past because technology comes hand in hand with progress and the Amish are trying to avoid it entirely.
Y: Yeah but they failed. So even if we are free from science and technology, like Amish people, we are still not free. But, if so, what bind us to such simulation? Or maybe symbolization and simulation is just human nature?
W: I have no idea….So I guess that the argument can be made both ways. It’s safe to say that it's impossible to completely avoid these simulacra and truly see reality.=
Y: Yeah, to some degree. Nobody can avoid misleading. Anyway, this discussion is not our objective right?
W: Oh yeah I’ve almost forgot, have you received the e-mail from Harkey about the Realtalk assignment?
Y: Oh not yet. What's that?

But suppose that a person, whether by telling a lie or in another way, misrepresents something else. Then he necessarily misrepresents at least two things. He misrepresents whatever he is talking about — i.e., the state of affairs that is the topic or referent of his discourse — and in doing this he cannot avoid misrepresenting his own mind as well. Thus, someone who lies about how much money he has in his pocket both gives an account of the amount of money in his pocket and conveys that he believes this account. If the lie works, then its victim is twice deceived, having one false belief about what is in the liar’s pocket and another false belief about what is in the liar’s mind.


- On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt

(This is Deep)

memes related to the topic of "Bullshit"

Since we talked about the topic of Bullshit today, I thought that it would be appropriate to post these memes related to the subject matter.

This is Larry David from the show "Curb Your Enthusiasm".

This is James a recurring character on the show "Pokemon".

This is some random teacher dude in some type of classroom setting.

This is the Queen of England and she looks angry.

Finally, this is Arnold Schwarzenegger.... yeah.

Random Video Post

This snippet is from Dragon Ball Z. Goku's power level is over 9000. 

Why is Vegeta so passionate?

A 9000 power level must be pretty high...

Should I feel threatened?