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The Process of Writing a Blog Post

It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I was sitting in front of my computer thinking about ideas to write a blog post on. I started thinking about the movie inception. After a while I realized I was hungry. I grabbed my phone from my desk and headed to the kitchen. While walking towards the kitchen, a friend texted me about the study questions for humanities class. I started heading to the living room and sat on the couch. I responded my friend's text message and started looking at my emails, then Instagram and Twitter...

The Playstation controller was in front of me and I thought it would be OK to play Minecraft for 20 minutes. I started playing then I realized I was even more hungry. I stood up and headed for the kitchen once more. I checked the fridge and realized there was no bread. I had to first go outside and get some bread before starting to cook something. However, I had not yet taken a shower and my hair was a mess. I headed for the bathroom to take a shower.

After the shower, I put on my clothes and dried my hair. I headed towards the door to get out. Once outside, I realized it was a little bit cold and went back home to get my jacket. I headed outside once more and started walking towards the market.

I made it to the market and got some bread, oh and it was the season for green plums. I got some of those too. Then, I paid for them and started walking home. While on the way home, I saw my friend and we sit on the grass to talk for a brief moment. After taking with him, I started walking again.

I made it to home, now I had to cook some food. There was some raw meat in the refrigerator. I took it out and put in the microwave because it was frozen. Then I took out a pan to cook it. After cooking the meat, I headed upstairs to grab my laptop because I watch Youtube videos while I eat. I started watching a Minecraft video. I finished eating and the video was still going on. I had to finish it first. After finishing the video, I cleaned up the dishes and went upstairs.

I was looking at my computer and the blinking cursor with an empty blog post once more. I knew I had some idea about a blog post before and tried to remember it but no, it was gone. I had to find something new.

I looked at the clock and it was 7 o'clock, and there was no blog post. The cursor was still blinking.

You Know Nothing John Snow

      The day was a sunny monday. Mother lily gave birth to his first son John. John was raised with great conditions.He have already had all of the things he wished to have. He went to a great school. He graduated from his school from best score and then he found a great job. He was earning thousands of dollars per a day. He worked harder and harder then he doubled his money and again he worked harder and harder. He became a millioner. However; after all of the appetites he had and not just appetites but his great education, he realized that he was not satisfied. He said that why? why? why I still feel this strange thing? What is this incompleteness inside of me. I am rich. I had great education and I had everything but still I am searching for more. I cannot stop myself. I have to find a way to prevent this dissatisfaction. I got great education. I have been working for years so hard that I could be a wise man and answer must be something I know. Then, he said to himself; how can a man know this answer while he was very poor against his self's dissatisfaction. One day, he was walking in the street and across the street, there was an old man whose clothes are very dirty and his hair is scattered is  just staring at him and laughing . John went through this man and then asked, what are you laughing at you old man? He again laughed with high volume ahahahhahaha. I pity you  John. You are pathetic. John said who the hell are you? You know who I am? I am the boss of snow company and I am the one who was always comes first in every scholl I went. I am the one everything you lack of. Old man said after everything you have and you learned, you still know nothing John Snow but you may learn some when the day comes that you laugh at the ones who spit out to your face, you may learn some when the comes that you that you do not live for yourself but for others and you may learn some when the day comes that you know that you know nothing John Snow. When John heard these words which are very humiliating for him, he went crazy and he kicked the bin on his back.  Then, he turned back. He was shocked that the man disappeared in a second. He was shocked but after some minutes he went on his way. After few moths, John's dissatisfaction of his life is getting worse so at last, he decided to leave all of what he has,his wealth, his friends and even his familiy. He became a wanderer. He stayed away from crowded cities but sometimes he visited some villages and listen people.  He always listened people and do not talk much that even people assumed that he was dumb. He also continued reading .He never left reading books. In the most silence places, when the shadows extinguished the light of sun. He thought and listened himself. After many years of this life, his nature seems to be softened a lot. In many villages, people were calling him dumb and children were throwing rocks to him but he does not care. In one day, he again visited a village to get some food as he is so hungry and he thought that he may help  people. After he helped some people and get his food, there was a little child crying on the corner. He went there and without talking, he asked what is wrong with this child. Child said he is very hungry. Altough John is much hungry than child, he gave all of his food to him. John was in a very miserable situation with his hunger. While he was sitting inn a corner, a farmer came and saw John. He said that who is this ominous man? Look at him. He will bring bad luck to this village. he spited out to Johns face. From John's cheeks' tears were dripping but he did not say anything and left the village. He sit on a rock and he bend his head to front with sadness. However; he felt no dissatisfaction in spite of this terrible life seemingly, on the contrary, his physical body was burning but his soul is like in peace. When he was thinking these, somebody came to the in front of John. John did not even lift his head and look at the man. The man asked to John tell me who are you? John who speaks so so rarely wanted to answer. He said a man who knows nothing. Then, the man said that you started to learn John Snow ,you started to learn! When John lifted his head, there was nobody.

Last Essay Assignment - La Jetée

     La Jetée is a French sci-fi short movie that was made by Chris Marker in 1962. In the film, the way of narration is actually unusual because it was made in a different way; the technique of “photo-roman” was used. The story focuses of the period of Third World War. A man is tasked with an experiment by scientists and his aim is travelling to the past and the future in order to find the solution to save the present, which is completely destroyed after the war and riddled with radioactivity. When themes of the movie is explored, it seems that time and memory are crucial themes for the film because it involves some significant messages and hidden meanings for both.
      Actually, the narration of "photo-roman" was used in the film for emphasizing the preservation of memories. With photography, any instants, memory and events can be stored. Relatively, images also evoke memories. Some images in the film can easily evoke people’s memory about the war and therefore, it also reminds the past with its technique. With this way, audience can also get a sense of time travelling. Time travelling is a necessity for treating the concept of time. The man’s time travel needs the help of his memory, so that he appeals to those images. In that case, the technique of "photo-roman" has a considerable role on the plot of the film. As the film moves through the projector, these film images become“present” as they are happening now and it also shows that each person can live in their past only with their photographs. In that case, the film might be considered as realist because it presents images of memories, instead of screening those memories directly.
     While he is travelling back to the past, he meets with a woman that he is fond of and dates her. Meanwhile, he is just a prisoner who is also a subject of experiment in the real present. However, while his aim is preventing the expected future, he is completely fascinated by that woman and it creates a serious problem. Because of the woman, he cannot make any change in the past. It actually demonstrates that the past cannot be changed and one way or another, the fate is going to happen. This film is a reminder of the cyclical nature of time. The narrator intones that one cannot escape time, and also the protagonist cannot, though it is only in his final moments that he realizes this. In a nutshell, it underlines the inescapable side of time, although some memories of past create some tragic traumas. Turning back to past, not literally, can be only made in minds with images and photographs, therefore memories are a kind of key of the door that is opened to the past.

Kafka An Imperial Message

Kafka believed that what people do during their life span is completely meaningless. Still he was also amazed by the meaningful things they created. In other words, he believed that the journey of life has no meaningful end but what people do during the journey is interesting. Naturally his short stories and parables acts as a mirror to these ideas. I read "An Imperial Message" and realized that these ideas are reflected to this parable too. I think we can look at this parable from two main perspectives. Before that, the parable is about an emperor who is about to die. He tells a message to someone strong near him and orders to deliver this message to us ( the reader ). This strong man tries to bring us the message but he founds himself overwhelmed with the crowd. He cannot pass them. It seems impossible for him to deliver this message but he keeps going. I think we can separate these two perspectives as optimistic one and pessimistic one. If we were pessimistic, we would think that the strong man's struggle is pointless. It is clear that he cannot pass those people and deliver the message. So he should't bother trying. If we were optimistic, we would think about the importance of journey and having a goal. Strong man is not sure if he can deliver the message. Still his emperor's last words are important and he will try to do his best. Only thing important in life are not the results. What you learn during can be equally important. These optimistic and pessimistic perspectives can be linked with Kafka's point of view I mentioned at the beginning. I fell like Kafka would be closer to pessimistic view.

LAST SHORT ESSAY-KAFKA TOPIC

     Kafka’s “Before the Law,” discusses the story of a man who wants to seek the knowledge and access to the law. The man is not let access to the law, he states that the law is something that should be accessible to everyone and anyone can reach it. The man is given a challenge to try and get past the doorkeeper in order to get to the law. Then the man becomes old and dies without accessing to the law. Before the man dies, the doorkeeper tells him that the entrance is made just for the man and since the man is now dying the entrance to the law will also be closed. The doorkeeper can be seen as a professional and if you are not able to demonstrate to the him why you should win the case, you will not have enter in your favor. As such, if the man is not able to get past the gatekeeper he never accesses to the law. The same can be seen for those fighting to change how laws are in society. People can try several times to make changes; however, many are not able to get the changes they seek.

     The man gives up possessions and items and he brings to try and win over the doorkeeper. This is similar to people trying over and over again to make changes or to try and achieve a specific goal yet, only to wear themselves out. However, the doorkeeper takes the items but tells the man he is only taking them so that the man would not feel like a failure, as he puts everything he had into getting to the law. It is similar when people try to achieve specific goals in life however fail. Even though the outcome of accomplishing the set goal was not met, but as long as they put in all their effort, they will not feel like failures because they put in all the effort that was possible. For example someone may have dreams of becoming a judge. They may exhaust all their resources to become one, such as spending time and money to become a lawyer first. Afterwards, they may go onto practice for many years as a lawyer hoping that one day they will become a judge. That individual may do everything in their power that is needed, but not get onto the bench. However, all the effort did not go to waste. They were still able to accomplish the first step, which was becoming a lawyer.

     Finally giving items to the doorkeeper can also be seen as bribery. In life sometimes we as humans want to try and make problems go away quickly, in this case the problem was getting past the doorkeeper. The best way was seen as giving stuff to the doorkeeper, which can also be seen as bribery. The man thought that if he gave items to the doorkeeper, it may cause the doorkeeper to slip up and let the man go past the door. Although it can be seen as though Kafka tells the readers to try anything and everything to get to their goals so they do not have to feel like failures. It can also be seen as saying to try bribery. This type of corruption can be found in the government system, which creates laws in today’s society. Officials and authority figures may be corrupt, and they may take bribes from individuals who are trying to get ahead in life without having to wait or go around obstacles.

Never Gets Old

Never Gets Old

Experiences leads our lives. Before living that specific moment, we can’t acknowledge that moment is a catastrophe or a masterpiece. If we can invent the time traveling, probably nothing will be changed because lessons are always learned with experiences. For example Einstein invented nuclear power but he didn’t encourage the U.S to construct bombs with this power. Before hitting Japan no one really understand the power of the nuclear. If I was able to travel in time, maybe I could postpone this catastrophe. But I couldn’t talk for the next one because each passing day the technology is evolving and when this catastrophe won’t happen, probably another government would hit somewhere and we could acknowledge the power of this new thing for example the hydrogen bomb. As we know that hydrogen bombs are more powerful than the atom bombs so it would be more dangerous.

According to Macbeth after learning the prophecy, Macbeth couldn’t know his own future until he dies. If he had a chance to go back and not to hear the prophecy about being the king, he could live with peace but we can’t talk like that for another character because this is a cycle. In Turkish there is an idiom that is “history repeats itself”. Maybe canceling the hearing of the prophecy by Macbeth, there are numerous people who are so ambitious about being king and instead of Macbeth he would share the fate of the Macbeth as we can see in the movie by Polanski. After Macbeth’s death the other child goes to the witches to learn his destiny, although he witnessed the terrible end of Macbeth. Until experienced it, you can’t really understand the situation. Even if you regret about something specific like this situation, the others can’t acknowledge until they regret. Time travelling can’t change the future of humanity because until you regret, you can’t make a differences. To get experience to change the future; you must regret and regrets never get old.

Marx was right!

I also found an interesting article that focuses on whether Karl Marx's ideas are right. I strongly recommend to check it out because it includes quite beneficial points for proving his ideas' accuracy in present. It includes the revolution of capitalism, so that Marx is expecially explored in terms of his ideas about capitalism in this article.

Adam Smith vs. Karl Marx

In this video, Adam Smith and Karl Marx are compared with each other, so that I thought it would be very beneficial for us during examining their ideas. Although it is quite interesting and fun to watch, I am disagree with the conclusion of the video. She claims that there is no gap between rich and poor because the government makes reforms to prevent this. Although I can admit that there have been revolutions overthrowing the old class system, it is also clear that the gap between the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor has been growing for years. I mean, for example, we do not live in Victorian era when there was a huge gap between the rich and poor. However, even the gap between the middle class and working class is quite obvious in present. 

What do you think? Is she right or wrong?

What it takes to build an iPhone

Did you ever wonder how an iPhone is made? Look at the back of your phone. It says "Designed by Apple in California Assembled in China".

There is a giga-factory called Foxconn which produces most of the electronics we see around us, including iPhones. This factory is a perfect image of what Marx mentions in his text. Electronics companies oppress the people in order to meet with the demands of the market. People working there get $1 per day and work for more than 12 hours a day to keep up with the high demand of electronics. Also, they get alienated from their work because they don't know how these electronics work. They only follow instructions.

Moreover, this factory is a sad but perfect example of Smith's idea of a society working as a factory. Everyone has only one job, they do it all the time. This way they can produce thousands of iPhones every day.

There is a video about Foxconn, it should tell you more about what the working conditions are like:

Hegel and Karl Marx

    While reading the ideas of Marx, I saw that there is a close relationship between Karl Marx and Hegel. Hegel has a great influence on Marx and so it is important to understand the hegelian dialectic. Even if Marx, later on, had a opposite dialectic than Hegel's. We could see Marx's ideas by examining the Hegel's dialectic. You can look at video this link and this blog post.

Biography and concepts of Karl Marx

I know it can be reached easily Marx's biography on the internet, but I found a website which both includes a short video about his whole life and his biography that is written in a detailed way. His texts might be quite difficult to understand, so that I think his biography may be beneficial for exploring his ideas because his works bear trace from his life, naturally. I hope it helps you to learn his life and with this way, you can examine his concepts more easily. I also found another video that is based on The Communist Manifesto. It explains his ideas in his work simply and clearly, therefore I strongly recommend to check it out.

The Smurfs

I would like to point out to an interesting resemblance. As we are studying Karl Marx, it is hard not to see the similarities between his ideas and loved cartoon "The Smurfs". There are lots of theories indicating Smurfs was a propaganda to brainwash children and teach them the communist life style. These theories are backed up with numerous evidence from similar looks between Karl Marx and Papa Smurf to capitalist goals of Gargamel. As these similarities does not look like coincidences, I don't know if they are enough to point out a secret agenda like brainwashing children. Here is a link for you to look and decide for yourselves.

13 Similarities

Marxism–Leninism

Marxism–Leninism

karl marx - engels - lenin

Marxism–Leninism is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of Marxism and Leninism, and seeks to establish socialist states and develop them further. Marxist–Leninists espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of Marxism and Leninism, but generally they support the idea of a vanguard party, one-party state, state-dominance over the economy, internationalism, opposition to bourgeois democracy, and opposition to capitalism. It remains the official ideology of the ruling parties of China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam, and was the official ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the other ruling parties making up the Eastern Bloc.

The goal of Marxism–Leninism is the development of a state into a socialist republic through the leadership of a revolutionary vanguard, the part of the working class who come to class consciousness as a result of thedialectic of class struggle. The socialist state, representing a "dictatorship of the proletariat" (as opposed to that of the bourgeoisie) is governed by the party of the revolutionary vanguard through the process of democratic centralism, which Vladimir Lenin described as "diversity in discussion, unity in action." It seeks the development of socialism into the full realisation of communism, a classless social system with common ownership of themeans of production and with full social equality of all members of society.

Marxism–Leninism as a philosophy and a political movement has been criticised over the years from widely different ideological currents, due to its relations with Stalinism, the Soviet Union, state repression in Marxist–Leninist run states and classical Marxism. Trotskyists claim that Marxism–Leninism led to the establishment of state capitalism. Others, such as philosopher Eric Voegelin, claims that Marxism–Leninism is in its core (as in the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels) inherently oppressive; claiming that the "Marxian vision dictated the Stalinist outcome not because the communist utopia was inevitable but because it was impossible".Criticism like this has itself been criticised for "philosophical determinism"—i.e., that the negative events in the movement's history were predetermined by their convictions. Historian Robert Vincent Daniels argues that Marxism was used to "justify Stalinism, but it was no longer allowed to serve either as a policy directive or an explanation of reality" during Stalin's rule.In complete contrast, E. Van Ree argues that Stalin continued to be in "general agreement" with the classical works of Marxism until his death.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism%E2%80%93Leninism

Effects of Marxism

Hello everyone,

What I want to point out is the effects of Marx and Marxism. As we all know, Karl Marx is one of the most important philosopher and he has many effects even today's world. Even though it has been 125 years after his death, he still affects our lives in many ways like; political, historical etc. As he is also an important political economist, he has an influence on politics and economy. There are lots of people that give very big importance on his thoughts and ideas. I want to share a link about Marxism.
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/marxism-influence-marxism.html

Some Ideas for Study Questions and the Quiz

This week I'll be sharing 2 videos and an article to help us understand Marx's text better. It was quite a hard reading for me but these resources helped me a lot. I hope these resources help you understand the basic concepts more easily too.

1. Video about Marx:

2. Video about the history of capitalism (includes Smith too)

3.Article about Marx vs Smith's ideas. (May help for study question #2)

Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand and Charles Darwin’s Natural Selection

 When we examine Adam Smith's work, we see quite familiarity at some points to Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection and at some points, it is even getting more and more similar. You can check this website to read more.

Team Cap VS Team Social

There is always a desire to earn more money and Adam Smith wrote his book that throws out the ideology of capitalism which is dream of every rich by being influenced from the industrial revolution’s idea. With mass production rich people become richer, poor people forced to live even worst situations. This caused an idea of living in equality. During the 1789 whole world realized faced with their rulers and fight for their freedom of living. Both social life and economy influenced with this idea and a man from Germany declares his thought about living together and sharing all the wealth which you have. He points especially the rich part like government. During this war ideas turned into real wars. Because capitalism two world war happened and then the two opposite polar declare a war of strategy that includes only paper and pen as the weapon. But after this conflicts as you can guess, Adam Smith’s idea won the war because he supports the dark side of humanity and the dark side always wins in the long run.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Capitalism_vs_Socialism

Why Are Some Countries are Rich and Others Poor

Hello everyone,

I want to talk about an issue that which attracts my attention very much; the wealth and poverty. I think that it is a very important issue to talk about that while some countries are very rich and wealthy why the others are not so wealthy and poor. In the video on the blog it says that the institutions have a big importance in the wealth of a country which I am totally agree. What makes a country is the institutions and how they work. The other reason in the video is to degenerate; which makes a country invaluable. If a country degenerates, it loses his own identity and cannot be united anymore and if a country loses the identity and not be united, it is very difficult to be rich. Another reason which I found the most important is beliefs. In our country, Turkey, we have also some beliefs and live according to that. However, as it is said in the video that without believing anything but own beliefs as religion, a country cannot improve because when believing just one thing and not accepting anything makes a country not open-minded. So if a country is not open minded and does not accept anything new, it is inevitable to be poor. I want to share a link about this issue.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoodman/2015/05/21/why-are-some-countries-rich-and-others-poor/#1909449a272b

Hegel VS Descartes

Hegel VS Descartes

After reading the opinion of Hegel about Descartes’s philosophy, I both agreed and disagreed with him. For Hegel, Descartes represents a decisive step in the self-consciousness of philosophy. I agree with Hegel because Descartes really tried to prove his thoughts by propounding a new type of thinking system. But there is a contradiction while explaining his thoughts because he wrote two books to express his ideas and he directly acknowledged that god is certain. I know he was a religious man but whether there wasn’t any possibility to think the absence of the god. I think there was but he knew what could happen if he rejects the religious people’s idea in that time, for instance Galileo tried it and he faced with its consequences.

As Hegel said, Descartes created a new type of philosophy because the ancestors of philosophy never thought about the existence. Until Descartes no one understood the importance of thinking. By being skeptic he separated the sources of the knowledge. He clarified them as innately, imaginatively and sensitively. As I mentioned before he directly determined the religious knowledge as innately because if he went counter to god, his ideas would be rejected at first. To create a healthy environment he accepted the subject of the 16^th century. Then he published his unique ideas about the universe like mathematics, geometry and even the existence. He also created a bond between god and his ideas, according to Descartes, “God, who is tis perfect being, is or exists, as any demonstration in geometry could be.”(pg.21). hence Descartes represents a decisive step in the self-consciousness of philosophy, because he introduces to philosophical discourse critical reflections on its own conditions of possibility.