Final Exam: Reflection on Order & Chaos

Over the last nine weeks, I have been blogging about the theme of Order and Chaos. Since the first day of class, many different, and new, understandings have changed the way I have come to see Order & Chaos. Below you will find my five choice words with practical examples which will help support how these definitions have evolved and expanded for me.

Order

(Structure + Parents + Government Control)

At the beginning of this term I understood Structure as help from my parents, and a sense of security because I know the Government is protecting me, and through my autonomy they have some control over my life. However, one of the most important things I have learned this year, is too much Order, creates Chaos. It's a very interesting paradox of life. However this term I now understand how the practical examples of Parents and Government Control, under the banner of structure, can create chaos.

Towards the end of the term we were asked to read an article on genetic engineering. From that article I came to understand that too much structure from your parents can lead to some very scary outcomes, even before you are born! "Some say cloning is wrong because it violates the right to autonomy: by choosing a child's genetic makeup in advance parents deny the child's right to an open future" (Sandel, CR 232). This changed the way I looked at parental structure because it shows how too much parenting can result in genetically perfect babies. I don't agree with cloning for the simple purpose of procreation, however I do agree with the use of it for medical purposes.

Thanks to increased legislation in the US, parents cannot genetically alter their babies, with the one exception of choosing the sex during artificial insemination. Governmental Control helps maintain structure within society. This too can become very troublesome when taken to the extreme. For example, while reading 1984 the government abuses their power and denies many rights. The government denies these simple rights to its citizens to maintain power, even expand it through war. "What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war fever and leadership" (Orwell Part 2, Chapter 3, pg. 134). This leads the main character to start reflecting on everything he has been taught and to question the authority of "Big Brother."

Self reflection is very necessary to understand who we are in relation to others. We are born into a family and already have many social limitations placed on us, right at birth. For instance if you are a first born and male, than you may become a big brother, or expected to take over the family business. If you are a second born girl you may be deemed "Daddy's Lil Girl" and be given everything you heart desires. This leads me into my next example.

(Position + Society)

Understanding the individual is something we constantly learn more about over time. Different experiences help define us as individuals, our goals, dreams, even talents and gifts help us grow into unique people, one different from another but sharing some similarities. It is through this knowledge that we understand our position in society. America was founded on certain ideas, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Government control leads us to question where ourselves end and where others begin. However understanding what it is the individual is responsible for needs some clarification. "The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is , of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign" (Mill, Cr 65). I believe that this is an important lesson that we learned this year, namely that in order to maintain order there has to be some balance.

(Clarity + Balance)

I believe Ben Franklin states it best in his autobiography, when he says: "I propos'd to myself, for the sake of clearness..." and goes on to define Order as: "Let all your things have their places; Let each part of your business have its time" (Franklin, CR 1). What Ben Franklin is stating here is that you have to balance everything from you personal effects to your personal business. Without balance their is either too much order which leads to chaos, or too much chaos, and no order. My understanding of how intertwined Order & Chaos really are has been greatly expanded because of the practical example of balance. This understanding helps brings clarity to not only order but chaos as well.

Chaos

(Suffering + Revolution/Change)

Without some sense of balance order become chaos. Chaos can lead to either suffering or change. This term I have learned that chaos is not necessarily a negative thing. If society is controlling the individual too much then it is up to the individual to change it. We have seen many instances this year where people who did not like the way things were within society did something about it. Mill puts it best when thinking about the individual in society when he says: "Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each other to live as seems good to the rest" (Mill, CR 67). It is up to the individual to decide for themselves, to live how they want, and not let society dictate how we live our lives. Although chaos can lead to change, its biggest weapon is its ability to create confusion.

(Confusion + Loss of the Individual)

This term I have learned how even simple things can become chaotic. During Professor Jacobson's lecture on chaos theory, I learned that "simple changes in the initial value causes large changes in the value of later numbers of the sequence..." and when applied to life, "simple systems can produce complicated behavior" (Jacobson Lecture, April 5th 2010). It is this complicated behavior that leads to confusion. With confusion there is so much chaos it is almost impossible to find any order to get your bearing. To much confusion leads to stricter controls on the individual. This in turn leads to loss of civil liberties and rights. "There is no question here about restricting individuality, or impending the trial of new and original experiments in living. The only things it is sought to prevent are things which have been tried and condemned from the beginning of the world until now; things which experience has shown not to be useful or suitable to any person's individuality" (Mill, Cr 72). It is with this understanding of when society should interfere in the lives of the individual to we truly understand the world around us.

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Image accessed on: April 15, 2010

Professor Jacobson's Lecture

I thought Professor Jacobson's lecture on Dynamic systems and Chaos Theory was quite interesting. The most surprising thing to learn about chaos theory is the fact that it may be the bridge between quantum mechanics, and the Theory of Relativity. Understanding that the world is made up of the tiniest molecules and understanding how matter is created has always been facinating to me and getting a different perspective about how the worlds many different facets of chaos can really be a mixed up perfect order. I beleive that I learned alot about how a small change can make a big difference when Professor Jacobson was explaining the difference between simple systems and dynamic systems. As a Calvalry Scout in the US Army, I know quite well how this truth works out. I must rely on my ability to use a compass and being off by just one degree can change my destination by miles. I beleive that this lecture ties into our theme of Order and Chaos, by demonstrating how unique is our ability to make order out of chaos, and that perspective's can be very broad in their logic, i.e chaos is order, but I beleive the person who can get there head completely around this idea has a very good outlook on reality.

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Image Accesed: April 8, 2010

Dr. Kjar's Lecture: "Evolution: Order and Chaos"

Dr. Kjar's lecture: "Evolution: Order and Chaos" gave a very interesting scientific point of view in regards to creation myths. At first the creation mythologies that we have all grown up believing

seem to be a very accurate and we believe this to be a fact. After attending Dr. Kjar's lecture I find myself very skeptical as to what, if any, creation myths that are fact. Dr. Kjar gave lots of support for sciences perspective on how humans and life on Earth has evolved over time and how this change is not random. I was surprised to learn the differences of truth and fact, meaning that a truth is something you know (i.e. I ate breakfast this morning) and a fact is something that can be measured, (that ruler is one foot long). This surprised me because I thought that truths and facts went hand in hand as facts were the truth and truth were the facts. After listening to Dr. Kjar I now understand the difference. What I found to be most interesting was the notion that Natural Selection is the "fun" section of science as Natural Selection has led to the development of many new sciences. I thought the lecture gave a good bridge of understanding in protraying a very logical scientific perspective on the notions of creation that we have been studying in class. I also noted that like Galileo, Darwin went against years of academia teaching when formulating his ideas on science, just like Galileo did with astronomy. I thought Dr. Kjar's lecture made clear a very disticnt point that evolution isn't a theory, but is a provable scientific fact.

Picture accessed: March 26, 2010

Picture accessed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Darwin_ape.jpg

Blade Runner

The movie Blade Runner describes a 2020 culture where there seems to be two dominating manufacturing powers. The opening scence to the metropolis world of Earth, shows advertisements for Coke-Cola, and other American, and Asain, brands. The economy is capitalistic, but it seems there are two classes of econimic standing, those who have and those who don't. Earth is now a vast City-world, and all of nature is non-existant. The cybernetic world now sell perfectly manufactured replicas of animals, and humans. The culture seems to be pleasure centered, meaning that the ideal life the status quo, is a life of leisure. Most of Earth's population has moved off-world, those left behind, are street urchins, criminals, scientists working for the manufacturers, and the cops. Now on Earth the manufacturers have become very adept at making replicas of humans, and this leads to a new race of replicants, those who think like humans, and look like humans. A moral message raised was that it was wrong to enslave the replicants and us them for forced labor, and I agree with this message. But to make it moral to enslave the replicants, I think, all you have to do is change the thought process part of them. If you changed their minds, thought process, from being self-aware, and able to problem solve, and back to single processes like cut this metal sheet, cut this metal sheet, or build the whole car, build the whole car. Once you change the thought process the robotic, man-made, replicants regardles of how human they look could still be used for forced labor, because they would be machines. I believe this ties in with the themes of Order and Chaos, and the Ideas of ourselves among others, because without being self aware, we cannot see how our actions affect others. The replicants see how they are percieved within this culture and try thier best to be human, and live their lives... This leads to chaos; the machines now experience no order, they feel something that doesn't correspond with the logic of their machine minds. The replicants to try to extend their lives by going rogue. The replicants are very strong and powerful, but its the human's ability to think and problem solve that over comes even the brightest and most dangerous replicant and end the movie.

Image accessed: March 20, 2010

Image accessed from: http://www.wallpaperbase.com/wallpapers/movie/bladerunner/blade_runner_11.jpg

Put A Ring On It!?!

Dr. Jesse Kabwila Kapasula's lecture "Feminist Agency in the Age of Beyonce's 'Single Ladies': Faces of International Feminism in Transanational Popular Songs," was a very interesting lecture. It was compromised of a well thought out, if not a little extreme, idea that the underlying problems of marriage is not something that feminist or those who views are that of a diverse ideal of the word Woman, should be promoting and that songs that glorify the opposite of this ideal 'Woman,' set the womans movement back decades as these images and ideas are glorifyed and mass produced due to the popularity of transnational popular songs. Such is the case of Beyonce's Single Ladies, as put forth by Dr. Kapasula. The most interesting point that the lecturer brings up is the idea the feminist agency is really just trying to act in a way that transforms you, but from a women's perpesctive. The notions and sexuality of the music video and the lyrics of the song are completely and utterly infuriating, according to Kapasula. She speaks about the persona, and what the persona is saying, what is the spirit within us all and what are we trying to attain for ourselves. For Kapasula, a Malawian from the continent of Africa, her persona is trying to get people to re-think Feminism, Internationalism and Heteromatic thinking (thinking in terms of man and woman exclusively). Her ideas are not so extreme that they seem radical, on the contrary, her lecture opened many eyes as to how other cultures view the popular music, both video and lyrical, of America and it is inspiring to see not just a normal 'run of the mill' sorta cop-out that everything American is good. This ties into our theme of Order and Chaos, because is sorta throws a wrench into the ignorance that we as Americans embrace, which is that sometimes what is meant to be sex symbolism and increased sales can undo years of freedom fighting and set the womans movement towards equality back a few steps. I see some similarities of Kapasula to those of Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto. Namely, Kapasula's Gift Narrative, and the analogy of the magician who loses control of his unearthly powers and how those powers turn back on their owner. I say this because, to those who are giving many good sentiments are being fulfilled by the giver but the best intentions might have the most horrific consequences. From Kapasula's point of view, giving is only suficing the needs of the giver not the givee, and by such, is demoralizing and only worsening the situation. As Kapasula said, it is the responisbility of the wealthy nations to help the poor nations out of poverty not place them under bondage; as many gifts come with politcal agendas and media propaganda. I feel the Kapasula's lecture was not only mind opening but raw and to the point, it was a little hard to understand since I don't have a complete understanding of what exactly Agencies definition could be but I adhere to the definitions set forth by the lecture and agree: What is this ring? What is meant by put a ring on it? Beyonce's video may be "hot" but because of this lecture I am sure, some girls, don't want that ring anymore!!

Image accesed from : http://femmething.com/wp-content/uploads.2009/11/beyonce-put-a-ring-on-it1.jpg

Accesed on :March 10, 2010

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind...

While watching the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind, I was captivated by the movie's well edited, direction and the underlying fantasy of memory erasing. This movie makes the audience question themselves from a point of view that is so bizarre, and yet believeable, that if we erased our bad memories, we can controll our present happiness. This is strange, because as I wastched the film it seemed that those who erased their minds were not really in control of thier natural self, their subconcious self, making them prone to repeat past mistakes now erased. This repetition, of past mistakes, really highlights a central theme that is presented throughout the movie, which is that memories, both good, and bad, are necessary in shaping our personalities, and self-image, as well as building up our experience. In the chaos of the movie, the audience learns how the bad events whether in love or life, are necessary in keeping one grounded and hopeful, that our lives are ordered by the choices we make through the chaos. I also correlated the notion of inducing an acute case of alzheimers (memory erasing) and the readings on those who said that when loved ones were diagnosed with alzheimers that they were not the same person. The question I asked myself was why would people want to change themselves just because the memory wasn't the best. I believe that the bad memories in life help man understand why the good feels good, and strive for the great. The movie was perfectly planned in its editing and everything seems to correlate to something else both forwards and backwards throughout the movie. Take for instance Clemintines hair color, the names of the colors range from blue ruin to agent orange, and these colors help navigate the audience through the messy flashback scenes of Joels minds. The significant thing about Clemintines hair is that her mood reflects the name of the color of her hair. When she has her hair agent orange she seems to be on the warpath, not really caring who or what gets in her way, i.e. fire hydrants, Joel, and then decides to erase her memory of Joel. The blue ruin is very reflective of Clemintines mixed emotions, because both Joel and Clemintine are the creators of their own chaos, one is so ordered and the other so chaotic. The movie has many levels of meaning and would be very interesting to watch in a few years just to see how my perspective of the movie changed.

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Accessed on March 7, 2010

"Self"

Over the course of a few days, a simple experiment turned out to be a terrible tragedy. We were asked to watch our negative virtues and write them down when we notice something out of the ordinary, as well as to follow our bodies and pay attention to what pains or feelings we incur on a daily basis. These are my findings: I would have to say that I feel pain and anxiety on a daily basis much like the pain and anxiety and certainty that Job must have felt. For instance, I noticed that every morning I am very grumpy when i first wake up and find that I don't take constructive criticism from my boyfriend very well. I also realize that I feel nauseated throughout the day and that my anxiety springs from a sense of insecurity. The simple experiment got some interesting results, because last week my boyfriend's children's mother has a minor heart-attack which left us watching and caring for his 2 children unexpectedly. I know we were supposed to post a picture of the pains associated with 3 of the 7 days last week but I felt it rather imposing to post on something as tragic as a heart-attack so I figure I will put something that sorta sums up how I feel inside as of right now.

Picture found on Wikipedia Creative Commons at http://search.creativecommons.org/chakras