Selfish

When I read David Foster Wallace's commencement speech, he talked of something I had been thinking about recently. He talks of people being "arrogant" and self-absorbed and has "little critical awareness". He also talks about how to think about others and their situations and what they may be dealing with. I often assume that everyone is like me. Bored. Tired. Stressed. But I don't have a clue what is actually going on in their lives, or what they are dealing with. I don't know if they are hurt, or angry, or sad. I often forget about what other people are going through because I am so self-centered. I needs were my number one concern. David Foster Wallace's writes "The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real." Is it by nature that we, as human beings, are and should be selfish? I think everyone has needs. Everyone wants to be happy and to survive in this cold world, so they become selfish, and greedy. But when I read "This is Water," it made me think differently about people. It changed my perspective in society in how I view others. I know I won't be perfect, but I want to try to see the good in others and understand their daily struggles instead of assuming the worst in everyone.

Freedom

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Are we all created equal? Is everyone born with the same strengths, intelligence, opportunities? NOT AT ALL! No one is equal. If anyone tells you that people are equal, then they are lying. As a swimmer, I see people that don't try at all during practices and still do better than me. I train twice as hard as them, yet they always seem to be stronger. Only the weak wish that everyone was equal because they cannot keep up with people that are greater than themselves. Men are not created equally, and  that will never change. All people are different, they all start differently, they will all live differently, and they will all die differently. A person born into a poor family is not equal to a child born into a rich family. A person who is blind will not sense all that a person can sense. It is unfortunate, that some people will live and given a better chance at life than others, but do not go to me and say everyone is created equal. No one person is exactly like another. We must accept what we have and persevere through life and all its pains and suffering. Life is not easy. There will be hardships. There will be struggles. Equality among human beings is impossible. We can work for it all we want, but there will always be the poor and rich. There will always be the strong and the weak. And there will always be the fortunate and unfortunate.

They are always right!

Proctor exclaims to Cheever, "Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God's fingers? I'll tell you what's walking Salem-vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!"

This reminds of how my little brother seems to always be right. If I don't let him play with me, he plays the "Zach-hurt-me" card and I'm in trouble. If I yell at him for taking my stuff, he plays the "Zach-hurt-me" card and I'm in trouble. If I am eating the last of the Nutella and I don't give him any, he plays the "Zach-hurt-me" card and I'm in trouble. He is probably the least trustworthy, yet to my mothers eyes, he is the sweetest, most truthful kid that would never ever lie in his life. If my little brother thinks something is not fair to him, he gets his big Bambi eyes and my mother crumples to his cuteness. It seems nowadays, parents just seem to give in to what their children say. The world has not changed all these years. Accusers always are assumed as truthful. No one questions if they maybe are not telling the truth. This world is so perfect right? Obviously no one ever lies, that's a sin. And sinning is bad, so lying never happens. Abigail wouldn't lie about witchcraft. She looked like she was actually being attacked by Elizabeth's evil spirit. There are no other reasons why Abigail would accuse Elizabeth other than that she is a witch. Vengeance plays no role in this accusations. My brother obviously can't lie. Children never lie to their parents. Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. In the eyes of the Court, Abigail is an innocent victim. In the eyes of my mom, my little brother is an innocent victim

Panic

Most individuals are not crazy by themselves; it is when people group up that causes mass chaos. During the Salem witch trials, people went crazy and started killing innocent women because of mob mentality. Usually under normal circumstances, the characters would never say the things that they said during the witch trials. They revealed all the issues and problems and blamed and accused others for their own gain. This mob mentality reminds me of the movie World War Z. The movie is about how people react and survive a worldwide epidemic. The virus turns people into zombies. World War Z begins with the main character and his family. No one knows about the zombies yet, but they see many police officers and there is a huge traffic jam. When a explosion goes off, people begin to panic. One scene is where a truck driver decides to ram into all the traffic. Still nobody knows the cause, but they began to run and scream and chaos consumes everyone's action. Flight or Fight kicks in and people go insane. They do things that they would normally never ever do. The environment and people around them causes them to go crazy. In both the Crucible and World War Z, mob mentality plays a huge role in how people act.