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THE PERFECT WORLD

 Seahaven can be related to New York itself. Of course, we live in a big city with crowded and littered streets not in a suburban area, but we all are followed and watched by hundreds of cameras every day. We don’t think about or realize it, but based on our credit cards, phones and Internet anyone can be capable of interfering with our social and personal life. I once watched a television show where one volunteer agreed to give access to her credit cards and Facebook account. I was surprised on how much information someone can pull out. For example where you were born, how many children do you have, what’s your favorite music, food and many other personal information. The easiest way to track someone down is through a phone. Many don’t notice that communication devices have a location application built in which helps them be located by many individuals. So how is our world different than Cristof’s? The only difference is that my neighbors aren’t so friendly, and we all don’t live in beautiful houses.

If I had the chance to choose between Cristof’s world and the world that I live in now I would choose Cristof’s. I would rather live in a world where people are nice to each other, have jobs and where there is no place for sickness and homelessness, where you don’t have to worry that you are going to loose your job or someone from your family will die of cancer. The Seahaven life can be compared to the American Dream. Everyone is happy and there is no wrong. The actors and actresses appear to lead a perfect life. This is the life I would like to live even though nothing or no one is perfect. Besides what’s wrong with an ideal sunset every day?

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QUESTION 2: Reality or Illusion?

I think that Truman's life is a one big illusion. He is the only one person who doesn't know that the real life is outside Seahaven. Everyone besides Truman, are actors and they all get paid to play their role in his life. For example his mother which, is not related with Truman because he was born an orphan. As Amzarzi explains in his response, “I’m one part of the movie he felts in love with a girl name Sylvia and when she try to free him from the his fake world they remove her and introduce Truman to Meryl leaving him with no other option than marrying her. We see this type of situation every day; take for example a father that tells his teenage son he can choose any career he wants. His son wants to be a musician but his father doesn’t approved, so he’ll find a way to manipulate his son into the career he wants.”

GRAMMAR

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I know the truth, so don’t bother me with facts.

In the article “I know the truth, so don’t bother me with facts” Jeffery Kluger explains why people insist to believe in rumors rather than facts. The author quotes the recent studies made by R. Kelly and Erik Nisbet based on 750 people who had the wrong conception of the Islamic cultural center. The researchers came up with a conclusion that even though, with all the facts that have been given to those people, they tend to keep their prior beliefs, instead of changing their opinion. Our mind is predisposed to bias, it resists rational explanation. If rumors reinforce our beliefs we are happy to ignore the facts and protect our faith by subscribing to rumors.

 I agree with studies made by R. Kelly Garrett and Erik Nisbet that even though, with all the facts and time that has been given to people, they tend to keep their prior beliefs. We make instant judgments; most of the time not favorable for the person being judged and we don’t like to be told that we are wrong.

This article can be related to my personal life. One day my friend and I decided to go shopping. We took the train to the World Trade Center. We were talking when all of a sudden two Arabian men came in the train. They both had on two large backpacks that were pretty full. When the train was leaving the station they decided to put their bags on the floor next to us. We thought that they were going to hold onto the railing, but instead they walked to the other side of the train. We didn’t know how to react because we had no clue what they had in those bags. I thought in my mind that they were terrorists and that they were planning on killing everyone in that train cart. When I searched for them, they were on the other side looking at the MTA map. After a short period of time, they came back. My friend and I felt a little bit ashamed because we were judging these two men based on what other people from their race did. We didn’t know how they could react because after listening to all the news across the world, we may judge/ react to a certain race in an unpleasant.

            I came across a situation where I believed I was right and no one can tell me otherwise. This occurred in chemistry class when I was given a group assignment. My friend and I sat down to do it not knowing the whole criteria and what the professor expected us to do. We decided that we were going to write an essay just like the rest of the people in my class. When we handed in our assignment the professor said he couldn’t accept it because it wasn’t written the way he wanted it to be and some things were missing. My friend stood by my side and we both argued that he didn’t explain his expectations to us and we could of wrote about anything as long as we understood the topic. Just because he gave us a format didn’t mean that we had to go along with it. We could have done it a different way and so we did. By doing this the professor decided not to accept our paper and gave us a failing grade. Us arguing with him didn’t help us in this situation because the teacher is always right no matter what. By the professor telling me that I was wrong I was really mad. I believe that I am always right; by him telling me I am wrong I stay strong to my word and will argue to get my point across.

             Rumors can be very powerful and dangerous tools.  We should not judge a person based on rumors that are spread in society and expressed in media. By going along with these rumors we could hurt someone in many different ways. Instead of relying on rumors we should be familiar with the facts and based on that make up our own opinion. As a result, we should not stick to our own beliefs only be open minded in situations.

BLOG THREE

1. SIGNIFICANT IDEA: “Even when people do take time to learn the facts, the effort often does no good.”

2. CLAIM: I agree with studies made by R. Kelly Garrett and Erik Nisbet that even though, with all the facts and time that have been given to people, they tend to keep their prior beliefs.

3. REASONS:

a) We make instant judgments, most of the times not favorable for the person being judged.

b) No one likes to be told that he is wrong.

c) Our mind is predisposed to bias, it resist rational explanation.

d) If rumors reinforce our beliefs we ignore the facts.

4. THEISIS: I agree with studies made by R. Kelly Garrett and Erik Nisbet that even though, with all the facts and time that have been given to people, they tend to keep their prior beliefs. We make instead judgments, most of the time not favorable for the person being judged and we don’t like to be told that we are wrong. Our mind is predisposed to bias, it resist rational explanation. If rumors reinforce our beliefs we ignore the facts.

The allegory of a cave

In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” Socrates tells a story to his student Glaucon to explain the way people think, and how humans are afraid of change.

This allegory was written 2,400 years ago, showing a double meaning in which we all can learn from until this present day. Plato describes men that are living in an underground den since their childhood. The men are chained therefore, only thing that they can see are the walls and objects pass it created by a shadow as a result, it is the only thing they know that exists. Somehow one of the prisoners is released and escapes from the cave into the unknown world. He is distressed and scared. However, with time he gets accustomed with the new situation. One day he comes back to the cave to share with his peers what he experienced, but they believe he is insane and they want to kill him.     

According to Plato’s allegory the cave represents things around us, and the way we lead our lives. We can be compared to these prisoners because we live by a set of rules that are based on our gender role. We don’t question these rules since this is the way we were taught by our role models and society. Most people tend to depend on their senses so much that they don’t read in between the lines to get a better understanding of the world they are currently living in. Outside the cave there is a real world with lots of challenges and problems. The freed prisoner represents a person who decides to take up the challenge and share the truth about the real world with others. Of course, there will be a lot of people like those prisoners who are afraid of change and they prefer present conditions rather than tackling new obstacles.

From reading this allegory, one can conclude that there will always be a person that will be more “enlightened” then the rest, one that will question his/her discovery and one that will live life the way he/she was taught as a result, this may open the eyes of others, teach them something new, or even change our perspective on the world.

I know the truth, so don’t bother me with facts.

I know the truth, so don’t bother me with facts.

In the article “I know the truth, so don’t bother me with facts” Jeffery Kluger explains why people insist to believe in rumors rather than facts. The author quote the recent studies made by R. Kelly and Erik Nisbet based on 750 people who had the wrong conception of Islamic cultural center. They researchers came up with conclusion that even though, with all the facts that have been given to those people, they tend to keep their prior beliefs, instead of changing their opinion. Our mind is predisposed to bias, it resist rational explanation. If rumors reinforce our beliefs we are happy to ignore the facts and protect our faith by subscribing to rumors.