Blog #8 - I'm Nobody, Who Are You?

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

 How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

     Emily Dickinson's poem I'm Nobody, questioning who she, along with everyone else, is a very intriguing poem to me. I think this poem is a satire and criticizes society. (Maybe, society is the reason that Dickinson didn't get out of her home a lot...because she was known as recluse. But that's just my opinion, because I don't particularly like society either.) To me, she is saying that a nobody is really a somebody and someone who thinks they are somebody is really nobody (wow, that's confusing.)

     To me, Dickinson is saying that someone who honestly identifies themselves and has an "identity" is a nobody in society's eyes unless they have some kind of social status. To be "somebody" in society, one must have status in society and must be well known amongst others. A "somebody" is one who has admirers that can just admire a person for whom they THINK they are, but they may not really know that person. Take celebrities, for instance. We all have some sort of celebrity that we love (or think we love). We care about their every move, and we think they're the greatest person that ever lived. We just perceive them to be "somebody" because their name is spread around a lot and they have a status within our society. But, we don't really personally know them and we are considered a "nobody" to them because they have no clue who we are because we're just one in a million of their fanbase.

    In stanza 2, Dickinson calls the admiring person a "bog." A bog is a piece of wet, spongy ground. She could be implying that the admiring person soaks in everything the "somebody" says or does like a sponge. She might be suggesting that they could take on the personality of their admired person, and would not have their own true identity because they're so influenced by the "somebody." She says it is dreary to be a somebody, because you don't really know your true self because you're so concerned with who you think you are based on the opinions of others.

     Cummings says:

I'm Nobody! Who Are You?” presents the theme that it is better to be a humble nobody than a proud somebody. After all, somebodies have to spend their time maintaining their status by telling the world how great they are. How boring!

     I wonder what Dickinson would think about today's society because we put so much emphasis on celebrities and public figures. We even have tv shows and magazines dedicated to finding out about the lives of such people, such as Entertainment Tonight and People magazine. We care so much about knowing about the lives of others, that sometimes we may not take the time to examine our own lives and who we are as a person. A lot of us strive to be like the celebrities we see instead of just trying to be proud of who we really are. 

Blog #7 - Consciousness

     After reading Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, we had a class discussion about about consciousness. It prompted me to think, "Where does consciousness happen? Where does it come from? Are my thoughts real? Am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing?" 

     In my opinion, everyone views consciousness differently. Everyone looks at it from their very own perspective, they see what they see, and describe it. But in some cases, they may only be describing what they THINK they see, as opposed to what's really going on. Is consciousness abstract, or is it really a thing? For instance, objects are concrete things that can have a location. So what does this mean to be human and to have thoughts? Are our thoughts and what we perceive concrete things?  

     Steven Pinker, of Time magazine, says that consciousness does not depend on language or self-awareness. He says, "At times we have all lost ourselves in music, exercise or sensual pleasure, but that is different from being knocked out cold." So when we're knocked out cold, are we still conscious? To me, the answer is yes.

"Some kinds of information in the brain--such as the surfaces in front of you, your daydreams, your plans for the day, your pleasures and peeves--are conscious. You can ponder them, discuss them and let them guide your behavior. Other kinds, like the control of your heart rate, the rules that order the words as you speak and the sequence of muscle contractions that allow you to hold a pencil, are unconscious. They must be in the brain somewhere because you couldn't walk and talk and see without them, but they are sealed off from your planning and reasoning circuits, and you can't say a thing about them." -Steven Pinker

     Even while we're knocked out cold (knocked out meaning literally being knocked out, sleeping, or in a coma), we can still process thoughts and what other people are telling us. According to Pinker, Belgian and Russian scientists performed an experiment on a woman who had been involved in a car crash that was in a vegetative state. They asked her to perform various activities, such as imagining the rooms in her house or playing tennis. As they did so, the appropriate parts of her brain "lit up." Even though she was considered a vegetable, she still had glimmerings of consciousness and her brain scan was barely different from a healthy, active person's brain.  Our consciousness also happens in our sleep and we perceive it as dreams. Sometimes, our dreams can be so real to us that we wake up and have to wonder if it actually happened or not. I know that's happened to myself a couple of times, and it's a really strange sensation. Funny how the brain works, right?  

     Are we really in control of our own consciousness? Yes, and no. Although we might go through life thinking we can control our own awareness and consciousness, that's not really all true. While we can control some of our thoughts, certain things like brain surgeries and drugs can cause changes in the chemicals in our brain and cause us to perceive things that aren't really there. Pinker says, "...the intuitive feeling we have that there's an executive "I" that sits in a control room of our brain, scanning the screens of the senses and pushing the buttons of the muscles, is an illusion. Consciousness turns out to consist of a maelstrom of events distributed across the brain. These events compete for attention, and as one process outshouts the others, the brain rationalizes the outcome after the fact and concocts the impression that a single self was in charge all along."


     I also find it interesting that we could consider optical illusions to be a part of consciousness, in a sense. Our eyes have ways of tricking us to make us believe that we are seeing something when we really aren't. Pinker says, "Ordinarily, our eyes flit from place to place, alighting on whichever object needs our attention on a need-to-know basis. This fools us into thinking that wall-to-wall detail was there all along--an example of how we overestimate the scope and power of our own consciousness." This could explain why people say they have seen UFOs and claim to have been kidnapped by "aliens." It could all be just in their mind, but their consciousness makes them think it's legitimately happening. 

     The brain works in strange ways... And in reality, we will probably never really know how or why the brain works the way it does. It's scary, really, to think about, how powerful the organ inside our head is. 



     

Blog #6 - Is America a "City On a Hill?"

     During our class discussion on some of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself poems, we had a discussion about what Whitman was trying to say about America and its morals. One question posed during our discussion was, "What is America?"

     But that question lead to me another question... Is America considered a "city on a hill?" Are the eyes of other countries upon us? Why or why not? President John F. Kennedy returned to that phrase during one of his speeches, but is it still true today? 

     Our country has had its fair share of problems, some of which led to wars. For the most part, we have overcome those predicaments. In World War I, we shed American blood on foreign soil. We did not go into World War II for personal gain, but to defend our beloved country. During the Cold War, we stepped in to help other countries become free and prosperous nations, like ourself. We, as Americans, are known for our pride and confidence in our country. We are known to help others not of our own nation, and we are known to be peaceful and God-fearing. But what can be said of those qualities today?

     I personally believe that our claim to be a "city on a hill" is no longer an accurate one. Here's a few reasons why: 

1. Prayer is being taken out of public schools. We've always been a country of free religion, but if we can't practice our religion in schools, then are we really free to worship when and wherever we please? 
2. A good portion of our country is against equality for all. We claim to be a country where you can be who you want to be and that everyone has equal rights, but that's not so either. So many people in the LGBT still don't have rights to marriage and are tortured and looked down upon.
3. Our country is divided. That was evident in the most recent presidential election. Our country is split right down the middle when it comes to party platforms. If our country is so divided, then how can we be united? When almost half the country is red and half is blue, how do we meet in the middle from here? 
4. After the results of the election this year, many people posted on Twitter or Facebook that they were going to leave the country. What kind of pride is that? People are becoming disappointed in their own country. If so many people are willing to get up and leave because of the man in office, then how can they claim to be Americans? 

     Those are only a few examples. As author Bill Kneer puts it, our country should really be called "America - The Decaying City Upon a Hill." Eyes are still upon our nation, but not in a good way. Hopefully in time, we as a UNITED nation can overcome these differences and come out stronger, just like we always have in the past.