Political and Philosophical Questions

Some interesting questions that have really been changing the way I think about politics lately:

Are poor people to blame for their monetary situation?
Are rich people to blame for their monetary situation?
If different reactions, why?

Is it the government's job to bail out large companies?
Is it the government's job to bail out individuals?
If different reactions, why?

What counts as a bailout? (Social Security? Medicaid? Pro-business regulations and subsidies?)

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? "A healthy society involves the use of no coercive force."

(For following examples, "freedoms" or "rights" are assumed to stop where another person's begins.)
Coercive force applied to freedom of speech is acceptable/unacceptable. When one vs the other? (For instance, is it one person's job to PAY for another person to have the ability to speak freely).
Coercive force applied to freedom of movement is acceptable/unacceptable. When one vs the other? (For instance, is it one person's job to PAY for another person to have the ability to move freely).
Coercive force applied to freedom of property (the right to claim ownership of something) is acceptable/unacceptable. When one vs the other? (For instance, is it ok to take money? What about land or a house? A car? Who has the right to take money/land/a car?).

Who has the right to use coercive force? (In most places, the reality is that it is more or less the monopoly of the government.)

What is a government? (should be vs actually is)
Who is part of a government? (should be vs actually is)
Who controls a government? (should control vs actually controls)

Ok, so I have some replies to these things, but I don't want to just post them here. I want some people to actually think about these questions. It'd be AWESOME if someone typed up their thoughts, but so long as some people read this and kind of think about their ideas, that's good.

Something I know I care about is having a consistent approach to the world. I try not to overdo it - I think trying too hard to be conscientiously consistent can lead to indecisiveness of a ridiculous extent. But I think these questions made me think about things from a slightly different perspective, and reevaluate how consistent my beliefs actually were.

Looking forward to some interesting discussions with whoever reads this!

More landscape paintings for my painting class, more recent

So my professor said that some of my pictures weren't recent enough, and that I need about 5 more paintings that were finished after 1920. So I'm putting them here? Yes.

Ursula Vernon: Tribal Wombat, 2003

Paul Hotvedt: Gardening, 2010

Georgia O'Keeffe: Untitled (Red and Yellow Cliffs), 1940

Nikki Smith: Untitled, 2008

Don Dixon: Star Colony, 1988

Thoughts on Duty and Self Interest

There's a set of issues that C and I gripe about consistently, and have similar (but not the same) views on. A set of these gripings relates to morality -- everything from its lack of importance in public elementary and secondary education to its deep ties in many people's minds to religion.

C and I disagree on lots of remarkably important details - things like how to define "duty" and "responsibility" and "rights". These things all relate to morality -- why to be a moral person, how to make "right" decisions, and what to strive for in making "right" decisions.

But we agree on the bigger, more complicated issues such as the education and religion problems -- in the case of education, C and I think morality should be taught and examined and thought through in a school setting. In the case of religion, C and I agree that not only is it incorrect to tie morality and religion together from a practical point of view, but it is detrimental (at least for us) to both spiritual growth and moral analysis to tie the two together.

I think "duty" is best thought of as a choice. Which I suppose isn't the standard definition at all. (Looking it up now...

Duty is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral commitment is the sort that results in action[citation needed] and it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition. When someone recognizes a duty, that person commits himself/herself to the cause involved without considering the self-interested courses of actions that may have been relevant previously. This is not to suggest that living a life of duty precludes one of the best sorts of lives but duty does involve some sacrifice of immediate self-interest.
Cicero is an early philosopher who acknowledged this possibility. He discusses duty in his work “On Duty." He suggests that duties can come from four different sources:
a result of being human

It is a result of one's particular place in life (your family, your country, your job)

It is a result of one's character

One's own moral expectations for oneself can generate duties

From the root idea of obligation to serve or give something in return, involved in the conception of duty, have sprung various derivative uses of the word; thus it is used of the services performed by a minister of a church, by a soldier, or by any employee or servant.

Many schools of thought have debated the idea of duty. While many assert mankind's duty on their own terms, some philosophers have absolutely rejected a sense of duty.

Ok, so that's interesting. I'm going to pull out the "immediate self interest" part and rephrase that to "immediate gratification" so that fullfilling a duty usually implies some sort of delayed gratification, or perhaps it might be better to think of it as fullfilling a different sort of desire than those that typically come to mind when someone thinks of the type of things that "gratify" a person. Instead of the "baser" emotions (and I don't mean this in a perjorative sense) such as hunger and thirst and sex drive and possibly greed and jealousy, maybe a "duty" can gratify the "higher" emotions (and I don't mean this in the sense that they're better, just that maybe they're more complicated somehow) such as honor, personal self worth, and pride in one's actions.

In the wikipedia article (that's what I quoted, btw) there is mention of "recognizing" a duty. I think this is important to underline. I take "recognition" to mean, in this sense, something that has been come to after serious thought and analysis. After taking into consideration as many important factors as an individual can, they can "recognize" a duty. It might depend some on the individual what those factors are; for me they include personal gain, social gain, and sustainablity in action to promote long term and not just short term benefits.

So, to summarize, an optimal sort of "duty" is something that has been thought through carefully, and then consciously committed to. So marriage is a good example of the sort of approach I think people should take to duties in general.

Collection of Relationship-y Links

Mostly for my own future reference, but in case anyone else is interested in some awesome relationship advice, here's article links!

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-you-know-its-time-to-get-married/

http://www.cracked.com/article_19230_the-5-least-romantic-keys-to-happy-relationship.html

http://marriage.about.com/od/engagement/ss/tenquestions.htm

http://www.greenleafcounseling.org/index.php?view=article&catid=20%3Ahelpful-articles&id=76%3Apremarital-questions&option=com_content&Itemid=76

That's good for now.

Education Plans

'11-'12, at JCCC.
Fall 2011: Calc I, Art, English (Intro to Lit Theory), German I
Spring 2012: Calc II, English (old Brit lit?), German II, Physics I?
Summer 2012: Whatever I can take! Physics II, German III, Linear Algebra...?

'12-'13, at... KU? Hopefully. NOT in the school of engineering.
Fall 2012: Physics II or Linear Algebra (whichever I didn't already take), Chem I, English (new Brit lit?), German IV
Spring 2013: English (Shakespeare), Intro Comp Sci, Chem II, Statics and Dynamics
Summer 2013: Econ I, AutoCAD

PROBLEM: I need 9 humanities credits somewhere in here! Or. maybe? I don't know. I already have some credits in something, but I don't know how many/which ones will count.

'13-'14, at KU? In a School of Engineering, definitely.
Fall 2013: this is all planned out for transfer students at KU into Enviro Eng. 17 credits.
Spring 2014: also all planned out for transfer student at KU. 17 credits.
Summer 2014: two or three free classes. English? Maybe 9 credits.

'14-'15, same as previous year.
Fall 2014: all planned out already for transfer students into KU's Enviro Eng dept. One elective, maybe English? Unless they need to be in engineering. 17 credits.
Spring 2015: All planned out. Two electives, maybe both English? Unless they need to be in engineering. 18 credits.
Summer 2015: I'd like to be DONE, but maybe a few more credits to fill out English?

Without summer 2015, I'd have 30 English credits IF the electives aren't req'd to be engineering. If they are, then I'd need summer 2015. Of course, I'm a little squished when it comes to timing... I doubt all of the classes I need are offered over the summer. So. Not sure what to do there.

So that's my attempt to double major in English and Enviro Engineering! Whee!

EDIT: Approx credit per semester of above outline; approx cost per semester


'11-'12. JCCC.
Fall 2011: 16 credits; $3,024
Spring 2012: 18 credits; $3,402
Summer 2012: 6 credits? 9?; $1,134 or $1,701

'12-'13. KU.
Fall 2012: 18 credits; ($279*18)+($45*0)+($858/2) = $5,451
Spring 2013: 16 credits; ($279*16)+($45*3)+($858/2) = $5,028
Summer 2013: 6 credits? 9?; $???

'13-'14, KU, School of Engineering.
Fall 2013: 17 credits; ($279*17)+($45*17)+($858/2) = $5,937
Spring 2014: 17 credits; ($279*17)+($45*17)+($858/2) = $5,937
Summer 2014: Maybe 9 credits; $???

'14-'15, same as previous year.
Fall 2014: 17 credits; ($279*17)+($45*14)+($858/2) = $5,802
Spring 2015: 18 credits; ($279*18)+($45*12)+($858/2) = $5,991
Summer 2015: less than 9 credits; $???

Total cost: 3024+3402+1701+5451+5028+5937+5937+5802+5991= $42,273+(3 summers)
Total output: Environmental Engineering degree, English degree, 4 semesters of German