Trivial Pursuit

Starting with first immigrants to the Americas, people have treated each other with contempt in order to achieve what we now call the American Dream. Native American populations were slaughtered for land as well as things as trivial as their skin color. Many would argue that the Native Americans never got the opportunity to pursue what they deemed to be their dream and were forced to pursue a Europeanized dream that would have never been their own. The government issued horrors…

William Shakespeare did not become arguably the most famous playwright in the history of the world for coloring inside the lines. In each one of his complex plays, he pushes against the boundaries of social norms. Shakespeare incorporates bold discussions of fleeting love, gender uncertainty, mistaken identity, and ironic comedy into his creative plots during the 1600’s when public discussion on such progressive ideas were rare. In his comedy Twelfth Night, Shakespeare uses dialogue between his…

One of the core ideologies in International Relations has been Realism. Realism focuses on self interest, which is defined by the state seeking power and gaining complete sovereignty. According to Hans J. Morgenthau’s “Politics Among Nations, The Struggle for Power and Peace,” there are six important actors that cultivate this concept. These actors are the state, anarchy, self interest, human nature, rationale and force, which are what make a functioning society. Despite the origins and use of…

Franz Kafka professes the cold and superficial nature of his then modern society through his work The Metamorphosis. Gregor’s sudden transformation had not surprised his family, but rather burdened them. His death even appeared to be an inconvenience to his family. The inconvenience of those in need seemed to have plagued Kafka’s modern society to spur such a response from Kafka himself. Kafka's philosophy is clear, when modern society falls on hard times, no one is willing to admit their fault,…

Landscapes can embody values that have the power to prompt philosophical insight and a spiritual awakening in an individual experiencing a landscape. This notion is encapsulated in Alain de Botton’s non-fiction memoir, The Art of Travel (2002) and Sean Penn’s film ‘Into the Wild’ (2007). These texts collectively explore the philosophy of the relationship between people and landscapes and it’s potential power to nurture an intellectual and spiritual understanding of one’s self and the human…

Darwin,” famed theoretical physicist and philosopher Mano Singham spews details about the defense lawyer, Clarence Darrow. As a child, Darrow was raised by liberal parents. His parents reflected their liberal beliefs by supporting their son in his pursuit of becoming a civil rights advocate (28). As an adult, Darrow expressed his agnostic ideas bluntly and without cease; he flourished as a prominent advocate against a creationist dominated America (31). Larson supports Singham’s claims…

such as ‘the Bible Diet…the book Money-Making Secrets of the Bible…The Tender Branson Dashboard Statuette.’ Tender himself is acutely aware of this ridiculousness, wryly remarking of his own board game ‘Bible Trivia’, ‘”As if anything God says is trivial”’. Palahniuk’s point is abundantly clear: modern religion has become a sacrament of consumption where ignorance is mass-produced.…

Only one thing is certain; humans are not perfect, no matter how much we try to enhance ourselves. Nevertheless, centuries have been spent on the pursuit of constructed divinity, a heavenly definition that is too ambiguous to consider plausible. As Nick Bostrom and Rebecca Roache explore in their article, Ethical Issues in Human Advancement, this topic is very complicated and nuanced. Therefore, during this relatively early implementation of human enhancement, it is important to make decisions…

Hamlet’s problem is twofold: he has no concept of his own agency, or of his own responsibility, for the situations in which he finds himself. Hamlet is not used to thinking of himself as a force for change: first relying on other people, and then on a divine justice, to steer his life. So many of his lines rail ineffectively at the people and fates which have stuck him in his situations. 'Heaven hath pleased it so/to punish me with this ' (3, 4, 174-175), he says. 'The time is out of joint: o…

For the most part, cultural values have been transmitted from the “top down”. In India, they are seeing a change in how people relay desired changes. The use of social media has aided in the, “pursuit of egalitarian and democratic goals by civil society groups in situations where the mainstream media has succumbed to censorship, state propaganda and violent repression.” (Banaji 259) Social media is here to stay but it is also a very new way to…