Who, what, where, when, why?

There are many different themes and ideas in philosophy, but I find one to particularly interesting. The thought of being alive in general is questionable.

There are two main theories as to why we exist. One being the more reasonable explanation of evolution. The other being the Christian view of creation. There are also many other explanations but I think those are the two most talked about and recognized in society today. Personally I prefer the evolution point of view, since I am not religious. But the other one could be just as likely I suppose to those who believe in it. But where I'm going with this is how do we know we are actually real? We could be just someones or somethings thought or dream or who knows what. Just because we can propose theories and come up with explanations of things doesn't make them actually real. However, even if that is the case I guess we would still be real?

It's like what we talked about in class with the different frames. If we all think something to be true then it is, or if we see it then it must be true. But what happens when someone says that they see ghosts or they can talk to God or something? We think they are crazy, but maybe they are right and everyone else is wrong because we cant see or hear what they do. We question so many things on a daily basis so how do we know what is actually real or not?

As for the belief in creation, its totally possible that we were created by someone or something of a higher power. Its almost more convincing than evolution. We could have been created purely for the use of some God or deity, what ever that use or reason is for creating us we shall never know. We can make-up beliefs as to why we are created and why we exist. Maybe we were created on this planet to protect it instead of destroying it? Maybe we were created to answer their own questions about reality and life? I know this is extremely far fetched but that's philosophy for you!

However, I think this quote sums it all up: "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am" Rene Descartes. The pure idea that we think and doubt our existence in and of itself proves that we exist.

I'm going to Hell

“Their prison is only in their minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out”
-Aslan about the dwarves

I find the dwarves’ situation in The Last Battle to be disheartening because that will probably happen to me in the future. I am the type of person that needs evidence in order to believe anything, and the type of person that does not go on faith alone. I choose science over any belief system any day. I find that I would like to believe in things such as religion, but there are so many things to disprove the paranormal and spiritual ideas that I have to side with science. If something happens where I am faced with the idea to believe in something that I cannot prove, I may not be able to.

Um…I can’t think of anything else to write about this so I’m going to also talk about mental illness and counseling being a taboo. Mental illness affects so many people this day in age but no one knows about it because it is a taboo and a stigma. People don’t want to admit that they have a mental illness or see a counselor because they don’t want to be labeled as “crazy”. Once people discover that someone has a mental illness then they also question their sanity and question if that person has any credibility for anything at all.

By the way, I found an article that says mental illness is the strongest taboo.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/20/mental-health-taboo

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version

This is just something i feel everyone needs to experience....its changed my life

Eragon the sociopath

A friend of mine linked me to this blog post that theorizes about themes in Eragon and relates it to Lord of The Rings. It's not a favorable opinion of Eragon to say the least.

http://www.oak-tree.us/blog/index.php/2009/01/21/brisingr-sociopath

I've never read Eragon so I can't pass judgment, but maybe some of you will find the points interesting.

A final solution?

I am writing to on behalf of our failing and weakening race. You see, with every new “advancement,” whether it is technological or medical that we make, we are causing great harm upon ourselves. Our quest for simplicity, longevity, and “healthier” life spans will be the bane to our existence. We have rejected and defied the very thing that has got us to where we are today, and that is natural selection. It is this extraordinary phenomenon that allows for species to expand instinctively, grow stronger, and be more complex than previous generations. The very thing that allows for necessary adaptations to occur. We should free ourselves from our artificial lives and once again embrace our place within nature. If we can allow ourselves this freedom then “we may look with some confidence to a secure future of great length. And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection” (Charles Darwin).

I understand the consequences of reverting back to our primitive customs. I understand that there would be deaths in the millions perhaps billions. I myself would not exist if it weren’t for modern medical techniques, nor my father, or my grandfather. Medical technology has allowed us to persevere but at what cost. My paternal grandfather had cancer; my paternal grandmother has a debilitating bone condition. My maternal grandfather was afflicted with heart disease at early age and now suffers from dementia. Assuming that my parents have inherited these ghastly genes. I now have both traits of cancer and heart disease in mine, and so the pattern continues, in my family and yours, until it reaches the point where we have become so weak and defenseless that the whole human race becomes extinguished in the blink of an eye.

It is the way of the homosapien to look out for one another, to want good health for our brothers and sisters and to ensure the immediate well being of our species. But this is disastrous. It has halted our ability to adapt and grow stronger. True, not all adaptive abilities have been lost due to this, our mental strength is growing at astounding speeds, but what good is a brain without a healthy heart to pump blood to it or a tumor that alters its thought process? We cannot allow ourselves to be obscured by the clouds of human emotion and morals, but instead need to look forward into the future and do what’s right to ensure that there will always be a worthy and enduring next generation.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I don't know what to write about.
I tried writing about Susan and it just didn't work out for me.
I tried writing about how I am apparently an asshole, but that didn't work out for me either.
So now I will ramble about randomness.

Hmmm wait, maybe I'll talk about taboos and tropes.
This could work I guess.

So what about taboos? Is being gay a taboo? Was being gay considered a taboo? Is being gay in the army a taboo? Why do I always talk about gayness?

The taboos and tropes article we looked at a while ago describes taboos as "dark underbellies". Personally, I don't think being gay today is considered a total "dark underbelly". Back in the day, however, I think it definitely was. Being gay wasn't something that popped up in everyday conversation (I'm not saying that is does a lot today, either), and when it did, it was frowned upon. Why? There are a billion different reasons why, but I'm just gonna stick with the fact that people back then were a lot more narrow minded.

I think a lot of people today are okay and willing to talk about it, but I believe many still hold it as a "taboo". Especially when it comes to the army. I feel like in the army, it's not so much the on-looker, but the gay soldier who holds it as a taboo. They can't talk about it or even mention it without fear of getting kicked out, therefore it's a taboo to them.

Okay, the more I talk about this the more I'm starting to think that maybe being gay still is a taboo in today's society. I mean I do believe that there are a lot more supporters and activists that help break this taboo but on the other hand, there are still those narrow minded people. For example, think of the kid who sits at the dinner table with his conservative parents each day, wanting to tell them that he's gay but he avoids the conversation. He does so because it's a taboo. It's there but nobody wants to talk about it or think about it because it's "wrong".

Was this even about philosophy?! I promise next time I'll talk about something that doesn't involve the word "gay".

pic credit: me

How Narnia Became Susan's Problem

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/20071020-lion-eating.jpg

After reading the short story "The Problem With Susan" it got me thinking about what may really be her problem. To me, it seems as if her adventures in Narnia may have not been as dazzling as what the books sort of bring them out to be. Throughout the story, it is evident that she is suppressing her memories of being in Narnia, but certain events causes those memories to slowly float back to her. For instance, the dead mouse that she found on her doorstep brings back the memories of having to go and identify the bodies of her beloved siblings.

Furthermore, it seems like she has completely suppressed her sexuality. She ponders about her past relationship with Peter-Burrell-Gunn and how he had taken her virginity as well as the reason why she said no, which she of course could not remember.

To me, it seems like Gaiman is implying that Narnia became Susan's problem. Each experience she had in Narnia brought misfortune to her in the end. Perhaps it wasn't because of her sudden interest in materialistic things and sexuality, but Narnia itself. Her travels in Narnia resulted in the loss of her siblings and living a sad lonely life as an English professor. With these thoughts in mind, it's as if Susan is suppressing all such memories, but constantly being plagued with these peculiar dreams, therefore they have never really left her. Her mind begins filling in these strange happenings out of anguish and anger for being abandoned by her loved ones and her friends. Perhaps it would have been better for Susan if she never ventured forth into Narnia in the first place.

If you Club a Seal, and then Club the Clubber...

Picture from -www.dicapriobengals.com/funny-pictures-brushed-seal-leg-panic.jpg

This idea kinda stuck with me even after talking about the nature of perceived good and evil and how they may not exist without us.

The very notion or perceived Good and Evil make me curious because it would seem that all notions we have on the subject of good or evil are based upon our culture. I.e we as Americans (and a good portion of the world) consider cannibalism to be bad or wrong or in some cases "evil", whereas in the culture that is it accepted its an everyday Maybe! acceptable thing.

Another example of perceived evil. Being Left hand dominant! (That's "right" , you left handed oppressors I am going there!), Up to I would say as recently as the early to mid seventies people were against other people being left handed. Based upon the Church or the Culture or the Society Left handedness was considered immoral, evil, and a sign of witch craft or devil worship. Today It would seem that we find that to be silly, even though Most lefties have just accepted that some things have to be done right handedbecause products for left handed people just either don't exist or are more expensive and inconvenient to get. Point being, Evil seems to change and evolve as our perceptions of the world around us and our experience/ understanding of it change.

People have demonized things for thousands of years....from wolves, to serpents we have a knack for pointing at different things and if they make us uncomfortable well.....maybe it is easier to explain it as just being evil.

Onto the subject of God and his "goodness" I would say that Good and Evil are not Black and White. There are times where sometimes the circumstances require a bit of evil to ultimately bring out the good of a situation. Hurricanes are a wonderful example....there are places all around the world who could benefit from charity, concern and aid in various forms, typically we flip out when a human habitat is demolished against our will and by necessity it brings us together, for better or worse. So the question or rather the complaint is "well if god is so good and great and powerful and this that and the other then why does he let bad things happen to "good " people?" I would say to them the reason if god is so great could be beyond our reasoning or experience based restrictions. God is supposedly unlimited, which to me means that when the time calls for it as in the old testament, God will fucking step on you. Accept it. If God exists and really is all powerful etc... then we are basically a hobby or an experiment. Being almighty etc.. means that you can do whatever you want!

Limits do not apply and people are so bent on putting this all powerful being into a box a zillion sizes to small! If and only if God is limitless.

Which again would say to me that based upon that nature there is at its basest level shit that happens and you either like it or you don't, that doesn't fit into my frame of "evil". If pure Evil existed there would be soooooo much more crap just happening that we might actually notice acts of PURE GOOD. People have a tendency to focus on the crap and only pay attention to the BIG good things.

My current motto "Never disappointed, Always Grateful" because there isn't really anything to bad, and I am grateful for the good things when and if they come ^_^

THE END. hahahahahahaha

Photo From -http://www.psdmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/good_and_evil.jpg

Just for fun!

what really is Susan's problem?

Here is my take on The Problem of Susan. It appears to me that susan is now a professor in children's literature. It also appears that the train accident that has killed her siblings had a great impact on her. She seems to be the only one left of the Pevensie family and looks like she has tried to forget about Narnia entirely. Unfortunately it still presses on her mind subconsiously.

Maybe she has these weird dreams where Aslan and the witch are working together to ruin her family and has reasons for trying to suppress her childhood memories. Maybe its that she blames Aslan and Narnia for the deaths of Peter, Edmund and Lucy. It would make sense because they would not be on a train if they weren't on their way to help Narnia in the Last Battle. Maybe thats why Susan has tried to grow up and move on.

But something else that seemed weird for me was that it appears that the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis have been published as if this is our world today that a reporter is interviewing any old professor about children's literature but instead that professor is the very Susan from those books. Its an interesting and provacative idea. Imagine if any realistic fictional characters from our world really were here and lived and that all those fantasy fiction books are actually fantasy nonfiction books.......

Is that a rock or a bird?

So we all have come accustomed to some simple truths in life. Such as the world is round and is in the 4th planet in the solar system. We have come to hold the truth that dinosaurs lived on the earth 65 million years ago. We have also been taught for years that magic isn't real.

This is all knowledge and truths that were discovered by others, this is all a frame discovered by another. So instead of discovering your own frame and finding your own truth and knowledge we have decided to just accept them and move on with our lives.

But what if we were wrong?

They had discovered that the earth was in fact round instead of flat. But what if we really were flat? They discovered that we weren't the center of the galaxy, but what if we really were? It wouldn't be the first time in history that we would have discovered that we had been wrong for years. Truth and knowledge changes constantly so why do we fallow such profound truths so blindly?

Is it that we are afraid to alter our lives by finding a different frame to look through? Are we just that afraid of the unknown to dare to question? Or are we just that gullible and don't see any reason to question the knowledge we have gain because we see no wrong with it.

I'm not trying to make any point with this, and I'm not even going to claim that i don't believe the truths that I listed at the beginning of this. I'm just raising the question of what if

Lies I Tell You!

There were a lot of thoughts running through my head in class today about the Theories of Truth. One of the things discussed was inter-subjectivity; if we all believe something to be true together, then it is.

I say NO.

I like to think that everyone has their own reality; yes we interact with each other and often come to the same consensus, but I ask you, is it really the same? What if what I see as the color blue, you see as my version of red? We would both identify the color as blue, but it would really be different. If I were to describe my reality to you it would sound exactly the same, but the meanings of the words used could be completely different; you would think we see the same things in the same way, but they could be completely DISCOMBOBULATED!

What if you don't even exist? All of you are just people I created that I interact with; that's right, it's all about me. You would of course disagree and might even possibly think No Jordan, it's all about me, YOU and the rest of the world are simply characters I have placed in MY world; MY reality. Well my friends, classmates, beings of the Universe...we are all wrong.

The truth is, Harry Potter rules the Universe.

I have this picture as proof!



You see? As the Correspondence Theory CLEARLY states, seeing is believing; therefore I know you think it true!

HA!

original picture: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Harry+potter+decaf&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=608

Snow, glass, apples

Short story by Neil Gaiman; his take on Snow White. It's pretty creepy, so for those of you that like vampires, blood and questionable morals, check it out.

Ps. sex warning.

http://www.holycow.com/dreaming/stories/snow-glass-apples

edit: Uhhh okay, I read this a few years ago and recalled sex, but I didn't really remember how much. I was going to delete this because I'm sorta horrified that I posted it up after re-reading the story, but I guess just a stronger warning will suffice. This is on par with the Lion on Jaydis thing.

This is a totally random quote but i felt like it fit the class and also thought it was pretty amusing; enjoy. “Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.”

Tom Robbins quote

I'm Late! I'm Late! I'm Late!

What would a world be like without time? There would be no such thing as being late to class or to an important meeting. You would no longer have to feel that embarrassment or anxiety as you quietly sneak into a classroom, facing the quiet stares of your fellow classmates. Have you ever had those mornings where your blasted alarm clock startles you awake and you tell yourself "just a few minutes" but those few minutes end up being an hour or more? I hate being late myself, so the thought of that idea not existing seems pretty enticing to me.

Furthermore, the past and future would not exist. You would always be living in the present. Your past mistakes would be left forgotten, not pulling you down like they sometimes do. Yes, you may repeat them, but that feeling of disappointment will only last a matter of seconds before your mind focuses on what is going at that next moment. The side effect of not having these memories, however, is that you will lose out on those many fond memories you could have had. Such as your high school years, or your college years, your wedding, or the birth of your first child. However, in this world, you would have never had those things, so you would have never known the difference.

I've always pondered onto why humans evolved (or were given) the ability to perceive time. After all, most of the other animals do not have such abilities. What makes time so important for intelligence? To me, it would seem to make life a little easier, but you will lose out on the excitement of memories of profound events in your life. But at the same time, you will forget those awful things that might have happened to you in the past. You would just be living life in that moment.

Physics not required~

If I could replicate this world exactly and change just one thing , I think it would be interesting to have a giant remote like computer that controlled the effects of physics on a global scale.

Think about it, all the earths functions at the touch of a button. This object would potentially do one of several possible things, one destroy us all from an act or acts of misuse, two teach us a valuble lesson on peace and ethics, or of course lead to multiple wars and struggles to gain control of this Amazing Remote. Kicking aside the obvious ill effects of such a thing the world would be a pretty neat place. I mean seriously I would love to have an international no gravity day , or in the winter just turn friction down or off. It would be ridiculous! Sledding for one would never be the same and imagine one day out of the year where being a clutz may not end in a face plant on the side walk, it might be a tree branch! or a bird! These are just a few options that would be dealt with via remote. You could prevent the world from having natural events like climate change! you could cause climate change! Not getting enough sun? Slow down the day! not getting enough sleep? rewind the night! Of course being how we are such personal uses would probably be frowned upon and detrimental to some aspect of the natural world. *shrug* things could be worse! Warfare would either change dramatically or it would cease to exist in the "real world" and be taken to a digital prototype where things were like things here in our world. The Remote of course would have to have some ridiculous name like, The Alphatron Omegaton Reality Inversion Differential Device (AORIDD), or Miracle Onsetting Nonsense Kicking Elemental Yeller (MONKEY) , or steve.

I wonder if a world or universe could survive the effects of such a device...with buttons and settings like "Dark Matter Inhibitor", "Wormhole", "Inversion" and "Spanish" it would be a pretty fun place to be......maybe...? What do you all think?

Oil!

Imagine a world where there is no such thing as oil. I know its hard to think about because oil has become a part of our daily lives. So if there was no oil in the world then it would be reasonable to say that there are also no oil companies. This is where it begins. If there was no oil there may never have been automobiles, and if there were they would probably run on something cleaner than oil. Maybe cars would run on water or air. Maybe we would already have flying vehicles, like in The Jetsons. I'm going to get a little science-y here, the amount of carbon we really want in the atmosphere (according to the NASA science-y people) is 350, and we are way past that. If there was no oil, we would probably be emitting less carbon into the atmosphere which mean the amount of carbon we have in the atmosphere would be a lot closer to 350 than it is now. Without oil would the industrial revolution have happened? Would we all be living like the Amish?

So onto the second part, no oil=no oil companies. Can you imagine a world with no oil companies? I can, but only in my wildest dreams. So without oil companies, there would be not oil companies executives (yay!). If there were no oil companies we wouldn't have to deal with outrageous oil prices while mainly large old white men sit on their butts making millions a week. I think in my mind I link greed directly to oil companies, so for that reason in my mind the no oil companies makes me believe there would be no greed in the world (of course that would probably only happen in my utopia though).

So your probably thinking at this point that having no oil and no oil companies sounds like a really good idea, and I totally agree with you. No oil and no oil companies means that we're probably a lot nicer to the environment which is what we all want, but would we be stuck in the middle ages without oil? Would be still be dressing as knights, lords, dukes, princesses, princes, kings and queens did? Would we still be living that way? Without oil the industrial revolution probably wouldn't have happened and our technology wouldn't be where it is today. We wouldn't be at Unity College and I wouldn't be writing this blog because as much as I hate to admit it oil made this computer and has given us the life we have today.

Even though I love living in the new technology age, I still wish there was no such thing as Oil!

A World Without Humans

What if the world had no humans? I can’t think of anything else that would make the world a perfect place than if we were to take away all the humans. Think about it for the world and the animals’ points of view. The environment would be ideal and there would be less pollution and no deforestation because of petty reasons. All the animals would live as they should without the threat of humans killing them and their homes. If there were endangered animals it would not be because of humans’ fault.

There is a quote from The Matrix that really made me think and it’s one of my favorite quotes. Agent Smith tells Morpheus, “I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.” This quote really speaks to me.

Some people might think that if there was a world without humans, other animals would evolve to take the place of humans and act like humans, but what if it’s the humans that don’t know any better and all the animals do? This reminds me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. There is a quote that says, “For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons.”

Seeing a New World, Bedazzled!

If I were to visit another world in hopes of bringing something helpful back to Earth as we know it, I would chose to go to a place where empathy is of main importance. Maybe they would have a tool that could help people relate to one another, to help in seeing where others are coming from, or see through another’s eyes-- Something like a pair of glasses-- or better yet, sunglasses!

These glasses would be a must have by all, a gadget that everybody would want, or better yet, NEED to have. Firstly, they’d have to be pretty stylin,’ maybe bedazzled or something, or maybe they could all be custom made to personally fit each individual to how they like, so people would actually want to wear them. However, most important is the function of these glasses. These glasses, if you wore them, would allow you to literally see through somebody else’s eyes, for a brief amount of time. Whomever you lock eyes with, as long as you both have your glasses on, would both see snapshots flash before you! Each snapshot would be a key moment that has had an effect on the other’s recent life. Each snapshot would also be overlaid with a different color hue to represent the emotion being felt, which you would feel as if it were your own. You would continue to see shot after shot until one of the two people chooses to look away and break the connection!

The point of both people wearing the sunglasses allows the whole process to be completely of free will. Both people deciding to wear the sunglasses in the first place would be the first commitment. The second would be the action of locking eyes with one another. Either can look away at any time and stop the whole thing from continuing on at any point. Once this commitment is made, it would naturally generate trust, as they would be communicating a much deeper part of their selves. However once people became familiar with the process and see that it’s not so scary to show how your true emotions, they wouldn’t be as shy to wear them again. Hopefully people would be encouraged to continually wear them! Not only would these glasses hopefully help save things like arguments or fights, but it would also generate a deeper level of communication that allows people to get closer to one another and possibly engage in healthier ways of living as a whole.

What if people eventually were comfortable wearing glasses like these all the time? I feel like it’s common practice nowadays to ask, “does anyone really care?” As in, does any ONE person really care? We’re more than lucky to even have a handful of people to confide in.

But what if everybody cared?

picture from http://www.boutiquemoulinrose.com/Sunglasses.php

Pick your friends wisely

I was an imaginative kid, and I think most of you were too. We treat imagination as a whimsical strength in our society; dreamers push technological advancements and cultural changes. It’s an abstract flow of thought that people don’t take literally, more as an inspiration.

Well, here’s a literal thought for you. In this world, imaginary friends are real. They form physical manifestations from thoughts—your thoughts—and, just like that, you’ve created something from nothing. Everyone can see it, interact with it, experience it, because it's really right there in front of you.

They are creatures not bound by our laws of science, physics and biology. Maybe your imaginary friend is a giant, flying, purple tiger. You could ride it to school! Maybe it's a cat with a fish tail. You could take it to the beach! How cute. And maybe it's a black shape that hides in your closet and gnashes its teeth.

Children from ages 3-10 can create imaginary friends, and all manner of person can see them. The friend sustains its life from the child; they do not eat unless the child specifically gives them the ability and desire to do so. The constant abundance of imagination and creativity of the 'host' child keeps the friend moving and existing. Friends only die when the child looses interest in them, and really, it's not so much as 'dying' as it is 'fading'. Up until the so called 'fade', the child is the friend's entire world. They support their child and care for them, like an animated teddy bear. They sleep and play and entertain, and when it's time for the child to grow up, they walk into oblivion with only a 'good-bye, thank you for it all'. Maybe they wave a little. Tears roll, hiccups come, and that's the end.

Usually.

What if the 'friend' didn't want to die? What if the 'friend' got jealous of the child's other people? Friends, family, teachers? It would assert itself, throw tantrums, scream and rip hair. A giant purple tiger loses its charm when it's all fangs and claws.

What if the child created the 'friend' accidentally?

We experience nightmares just as frequently as dreams. What if, in those few seconds when we wake up in the dark with limbs tangled in the blankets, wondering why the light is so far away and what's hiding in that space between our bodies and the floor, we create something alive. Alive, angry and hungry- the made-flesh version of our nightmares. What do you call imaginary 'friends' that want to gobble you up, spirit and all, because that's how you 'dreamed' it to life?

How could society function if parents were sitting on edge every night, waiting for their kids to create monsters? Maybe pharmacists would create a new drug to stop dreams, ending the nightmares but killing the inspiration for everything else in the process.

What about sadistic children? What if Ted Bundy, the serial killer who, at the age of 3, placed knives around his sleeping aunt just to see what would happen, lived in this universe? Suddenly things look a whole lot less like Clifford the Big Red Dog and a lot more like Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

But, children are resourceful. If they could create something by imagining it, they can use that imagination to stop it. Children can construct jails, holding containers, leashes, whatever they think of. They could even create another imaginary friend, a fresh one that doesn't have the ideals to rebel, to fight the sour one. A hero to combat the villain.

Gray Days No More

You wake up role over, look out the window and groan. You hug your blankets closer for comfort and look at you’re alarm clock wishing that you could still be asleep. Imagine the worst type of day, gray, cloudy and gross. A day where it isn’t sunny but isn’t rainy, a day right in the middle, almost as if the weather can not make up it’s mind. Well this is the most dreaded gray day.
Gray days have a negative effect on us in many ways. Lets study some examples of average people and how gray days affect them.
Getting out of bed is hard enough for a college student, and waking up to a gray day doesn’t help with a college student’s motivation to get out of bed and go to class. So obviously gray days have a strong negative effect on a college student’s grades Now think about the morning wannabe exerciser, a gray day doesn’t help with one’s incentive to put on their running shoes and jog down the road. So of course all of these wannabe exercisers wont be able to exercise leading them to become fairly fat and increase obesity in American. And finally imagine just the basic mood swings that most people occasionally experience. Well gray days do not help out with moodiness, in fact gray days often makes one’s mood even worse, leading serious cases of moodiness to escalade. This then causes people to be grumpier, which as you can imagine creates un-needed tension.
Now imagine a world with no gray days. The college student’s grade point average would increase. The morning exercisers would in shape and not fat. And everyone would be happy. You need the sun and the rain to help things grow along with many other things, but I cannot honestly find a good reason for the dreaded gray days to exist. So think and imagine a world free of gray days.

Ghosts?

What if ghosts really exist and have a presence?

Some people believe in ghosts and spirits and say that they can see them and communicate with them but not everyone believes them. Maybe they really can see them and maybe there really is an afterlife? If ghosts walked this earth as plainly as people do and could communicate with us as plainly as we can talk, a great deal of our life's questions would be answered, beliefs changed, and maybe even chaos would arise if there are evil spirits.

We would be able to see everyone that has died, but would they still be themselves? People would be able to see their loved ones that have died but would it be worse if they could never truely be with them, even though they can see and talk to them? History would be far easier to understand since there would be people who have lived through it to tell the tales. Would their still be religion and beliefs that peoples' souls go to heaven or hell? What if people started thinking that hell was being kept on earth after we died as a ghost to roam forever? However, we would be able to know what happens to our souls after we die, but is that really what we want to know? Would there be good ghosts and bad ghosts or deamons? Would that depend on how that person was when they were alive? How would the horror movie industry change? There are so many more questions and theories that would arise if ghosts were as much a part of this world as people.

I think the most important questions to try and answer here are the ones of religion, loved ones, and good vs. evil ghosts. First there would absolutely still be religion or something that people have to believe in. Everything that has happened in the past has been mostly caused by religious arguments of some sort so I don't think that it would just disappear. Even if there are ghosts I think that there will still be some sort of basis so that people would be able to reason as to why they are here. After all most religions have an aspect of an afterlife of some sort that explains what happens to peoples' souls once they die. If there is still religion then there has to be good and evil spirits. All of our religions determine our values of what is good and bad. Those who have done bad in their life or were angry would become deamons or angrier spirits than those who were good and led descent love filled lives. However, if there are deamons then would there be angels? Of course! Angels have to offset the deamons and bad ghosts. Then there might be wars between them but that's a discussion for another time. As for whether we would get closure from the loved ones that we lost, I think that it would be infinitely harder to overcome. We would still be able to talk to them and see them, but not touch them or feel their warmth. It would be a comfort of some-sort but ultimately, it wouldn't be the same.

If there were ghosts it definitely change our opinions of horror movies! Especially if there are real-life deamons walking about.

Overall, if ghosts were able to wander about the earth in plain sight, then it would greatly change life's many philosophical questions about religion and the afterlife.

Gaia's revenge

What if the world finally got fed up with us? What if the world was sick and tired of us trashing the place? What if the planet really had a soul and that soul had the power to seek it's revenge?

I think people would be terrified of Gaia (Earth's soul), people would respect the earth and stop using up all our resources, letting toxic waste be dumped into our water sources, over fishing, over using and over indulging ourselves with giant SUV's that smog the atmosphere; would all cease to exist. And if not... well then nature would have its revenge.

Gaia would call upon its fiercest weapons; natural disasters. Using tornadoes, hurricanes, earth quakes, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, blizzards, floods, wild fires you name it Gaia would call upon them all to destroy the earth shattering disease known as the human condition. We would be entirely defenseless against such a great force as Gaia. Because we as humans are too ignorant or lazy not to pollute and overuse the resources that the mighty Gaia has supplied for us we most certainly perish under the mighty terror of Gaia.

However we the human race are resilient and crafty at times; which is why a minute percent of our population seems to survive the Gaia disaster of 2012. The nearly extinct Human race, slowly repopulates and thrives living off the land as their ancestors from long long ago once did. Heeding the "warning" that Gaia sent in that faithful yet horrifying new years in 2012 the surviving people of earth raised their children to appreciate and give thanks to Gaia every day. Thus the human race had returned to the land careful not to overuse the resources that Gaia had supplied them; finally the humans were able to live in harmony with Gaia.

No Sex Drive?! Now I can finish my puzzle!

One day you decide to go cave diving alone (stupid idea, but you do), after leaping off the edge and doing a few mid air somersaults you quickly realize that you have forgotten your parachute. You soon dive into a state of fright to which you have never before experienced. After a short period of time your mind becomes overwhelmed and shuts down. You soon snap back into consciousness, but you are no longer falling, in fact, you're lying in your significant others bed, spooning and blissfully enjoying one another's company. After a short while you can't help feeling that something is missing and in an instant you realize that you have lost your sex drive.

In a world without a sex drive everybody walks around in sweat pants and flannels with mustard and ketchup stains. The IQ of the human race has increased substantially. Cancers and diseases have been cured. The hunger crisis is over. People have stopped wasting money on senseless beauty products. Puzzles have been finished. Social situations have improved and the human race has become united. All due to the lack of sex drive and self-consciousness. Teenagers have now occupied their time learning life long skills instead of one another's body and are now considered useful assets to our society. I could go on forever but my point is, a great deal of our thoughts are encompassed by sex. The fervor to look good, smell good, and be desirable controls our lives and a great deal of our actions determine the type of people we aspire to attract.

This does not mean that sex would not still be enjoyable and sought after but instead of being a drive it would be like wanting an ice cream.

It Don't Cost A Thing

What if money was not neccesary and didn't exist and everything was free? That would mean no bills to pay, anything you want to get or have being free, no competition, no limitations.

This kind of world I think it would be overall beneficial. Everyone would be happy because they can get whatever food, drink, toy, electronic, medical procedure, health coverage, job, education, house, home goods, furniture, clothes, absolutely anything they need and desire for free. Everyone can do whatever job they have always wanted to do. There would be absolutely no debt anywhere. There would be no poverty. No class structure. The life you always wanted with no monetary restrictions or requirements.

Now I guess having no restrictions could be a dangerous idea since if conflicts did come up then there would be no limitations as to what everyone could get their hands on. Wars could be extremely brutal. The world could come to an end very quickly but only if hatred and prejudice and competition arose. But if everyone is happy since they can have whatever they want, then what really is the chance that conflicts will even come to life?

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

What if everyone was gay? ...and no, I don't mean happy.
Although the world would be a much happier place!
Men would be attracted to men, women would be attracted to women, and it would be perfectly acceptable because they wouldn't know any other way.

In the beginning of time, God created Adam and Steve. On the 1st Monday of September (also known as "Labor" Day today), God said "let there be National Reproduction Day", and it was so. Since everyone is gay, this is a way to further populate the Earth. National Reproduction Day is somewhat like voting. If you want to have children, you must register for the conceivement draft, and you must be at least 21 years of age. This way, there will be no teen pregnancies in the world. Once registered you must participate at least once every 10 years. You will have the choice to undergo artificial insemination if you are uncomfortable "doing the do". Since everyone is conceived on the same day, everyone's birthday will be around the same date.

I believe that my world would be a good place to live because there would be no discrimination or hate against homosexual lifestyles. Everyone would be able to love and marry who they wanted, and nobody would try to stop them.

pic credit: http://www.rawrcast.com/2010/06/proudmoore-pride-2010-june-19th/

What if we were the animals?

What if we had the fur? Instead of having tiny little hairs across our bodies, what if we were covered head to toe in some type of coat? Such as tiger coat, or the coat of a wolf, or even a llama.

Not only would this make us more aclimated to the weather, and possibly able to survive better in some natural disasters or climates. This could give us a broader range or areas to live in.

This also could be the downfall of many things that we are accustomed to. Such as clothing, if we have fur then what point would their being in wearing clothing if the point of wearing clothes in the first place is to keep us warm. If we have fur, would could stay in less lexurious conditions. This means that luxuries such as centural air might not be needed in this new life style. Whole industries (such as clothing and HVC) would go out of buisness.

The whole economy and lifestyle in our world could be completely flipped upside-down just because we could grow a coat.

If Fish Could Fly

What if our perspective of sky and water was flipped? The ocean would be surrounding our heads, and giant gaping holes with clouds would separate the earth. We would look down upon birds and stars, and up towards the fish and deep sea waters.

Open faced boats would not exist, though submarines might continue to work. However, living in an aquatic environment may suggest man evolving from those of lung breathers to gill users. In current times our cars and trains would be useless, and airplanes a waste of time. They wouldn't be able to shove off a pier like the boats of our existence; helicopters and hot air balloons may be the more popular ways of traveling through the sky, but in order to use air transportation you would essentially be traveling underground; moving from opening to opening.

The weather would be chaotic; bursts of high pressured water shooting out from the ground; tornadoes pulling everything into a timeless abyss. Whirl pools and currents dragging you this way and that! The atmosphere would be in shambles, gravity a confusing mess, and a trip to the moon nearly impossible. Fishing would be a difficult task with our current tools, but then again you may go "fishing" for birds and hunting for fish, though a gun would prove quite useless.

Our muscle structure would be affected. Being constantly engulfed in water, things would be of lighter weight, and our skin tougher in texture to prevent the ultimate prune-age. Fellow terrestrial animals would also have to develop a new form of breathing, or if to continue as lung breathers, always be stationed around a breathing hole.

There would be no such thing as an amphibian.

Butter Battle Book

For anyone interested here is an audio version of The Butter Battle Book.



I own the animated version of this book on VHS by the film maker Ralph Bakski. He also happened to direct the first ever animated X rated film called Fritz the Cat which I also have along with another film of his called Wizards which is very unique and worth checking out. He also made a very cool looking film of The Lord of the Rings in 1978 that I would like to check out at some point. If anyone would like to borrow The Butter Battle book let me know. Wizards and Fritz the Cat I only have on my external HDD but if you really wanted to watch them I could probably get it to you in some way.