Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Another Funny Thing About School Internet
Websites spreading hate-filled propaganda and pro-republican sentiment like foxnews.com and glennbeck.com go unblocked on the internet for Spotsylvania County. But when it comes to respectable news organizations like the Huffington Post, it's blocked. Why is that? Is it because the Huffington Post tries to spread sensibility to a public that is caught up in a world of hysteria and paranoia agrivated by the propagandists at Fox News?
A Funny Thing
I can access blogger.com to update my blog with new articles from my school internet, but if I want to view my blog itself, the website is blocked. Does anyone else find that amusing?
Russia Invades Georgia?
Earlier this week, a Georgian newschannel staged the biggest disgrace to journalism since Glenn Beck. Georgian reporters played off of the fears of their people to say that the Russian Federation had invaded the country. To add to the panic and fear, the news channel used archival footage of the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia and panicked civilians fleeing Tbilisi and Gori. Not only did they use that, but they also used archival footage of US President Barack Obama, and dubbed it in Georgian to make it appear as if he was condemning Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and PM Vladimir Putin while pledging support for Georgian President Mikhail Saakhaashvili. This however, was an erroneous claim. The speech itself had nothing to do with Georgia or foreign policy towards Russia! Now, the Georgian government is acting like immature children on the playground. If Georgia wants to stay safe from a war with Russia, they need to make damn sure that they stop poking the angry bear (literally)!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Opiate of The Masses
We all at one time or another have heard the false statement that communists believe religion is the "opiate of the masses". This idea came from a piece written by
Karl Marx, but it has been taken widely out of context. To put it back into the true context and meaning, we must first evaluate the time period in which Marx lived. Comrade Marx spent his life living in the 19th century, during the time of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. During this time, medical technology was quite behind (yes, I can hear you saying "Thank you, Captain Obvious" from here). It was during this time that opium was prescribed by doctors as a pain killer and a way to treat cholera and malaria (even today opium is used as an ingredient in morphine). Second, we must think about some of the things that opium does to people. Being an hallucinogenic drug, opium causes you to see things and have vivid fantasies while being intoxicated. Comrade Marx felt that religion had the same effect on people. He observed that in times of need or hardship, people would reach for their rosary and say a prayer. From this, one is able to conclude that people use religion as a way to pacify themselves and to keep themselves from feeling the pain of everyday life; whether it's the death of a loved one, or struggling from the economic oppression they face under capitalism. Then, during this process of being religious, people believe in stories like the world once flooded and one man was able to build a boat large enough to house two of EVERY animal species (with the exclusion of fish, I assume). Next, we must analyze why religion was started in the first place. In the very beginning of human history, man observed several natural phenonomenon that made him think. Where does that bright yellow thing in the sky go at the end of the day? What's with that weird white thing that you can only see parts of sometime? Why does water just fall out of the sky? It then became clear that he needed to explain this. So, he created myths about powerful beings who controlled the lives of everyday people. These myths would later be known as religion. Today, as scientists begin to find out more and more about the universe, people will begin to turn away from the stories they learned from practicing religion. Though there are still a few stubborn people who wish to live in the past, and disregard scientific fact, religion will one day fade away as an idea of another time. As you no longer see people today sacrificing people to the Gods in order to insure that the sun will come up the next day, there will once be a day where people don't say that the earth was created only a few thousand years ago by a supreme being. Instead, the population will become more agnostic, or deist, or perhaps even atheist. Will this future that lacks spirituality be a brighter tomorrow? That question can only be answered after the passing of a few more centuries.
Karl Marx, but it has been taken widely out of context. To put it back into the true context and meaning, we must first evaluate the time period in which Marx lived. Comrade Marx spent his life living in the 19th century, during the time of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. During this time, medical technology was quite behind (yes, I can hear you saying "Thank you, Captain Obvious" from here). It was during this time that opium was prescribed by doctors as a pain killer and a way to treat cholera and malaria (even today opium is used as an ingredient in morphine). Second, we must think about some of the things that opium does to people. Being an hallucinogenic drug, opium causes you to see things and have vivid fantasies while being intoxicated. Comrade Marx felt that religion had the same effect on people. He observed that in times of need or hardship, people would reach for their rosary and say a prayer. From this, one is able to conclude that people use religion as a way to pacify themselves and to keep themselves from feeling the pain of everyday life; whether it's the death of a loved one, or struggling from the economic oppression they face under capitalism. Then, during this process of being religious, people believe in stories like the world once flooded and one man was able to build a boat large enough to house two of EVERY animal species (with the exclusion of fish, I assume). Next, we must analyze why religion was started in the first place. In the very beginning of human history, man observed several natural phenonomenon that made him think. Where does that bright yellow thing in the sky go at the end of the day? What's with that weird white thing that you can only see parts of sometime? Why does water just fall out of the sky? It then became clear that he needed to explain this. So, he created myths about powerful beings who controlled the lives of everyday people. These myths would later be known as religion. Today, as scientists begin to find out more and more about the universe, people will begin to turn away from the stories they learned from practicing religion. Though there are still a few stubborn people who wish to live in the past, and disregard scientific fact, religion will one day fade away as an idea of another time. As you no longer see people today sacrificing people to the Gods in order to insure that the sun will come up the next day, there will once be a day where people don't say that the earth was created only a few thousand years ago by a supreme being. Instead, the population will become more agnostic, or deist, or perhaps even atheist. Will this future that lacks spirituality be a brighter tomorrow? That question can only be answered after the passing of a few more centuries.
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