"Sameness" is an ideology in the community in The Giver. The ideology states that in order to keep perfect harmony and community, hunger, poverty, war, love, and sadness must be taken away. At a first glance Sameness seems ideal and blissful. The best way to make everyone happy is to do away with anything that causes unhappiness. However further into the book, the reader realizes that Sameness isn't perfect, it's empty.
"Ignorance is bliss" is a saying often thrown around. But, why is it so blissful to be ignorant? Because worrying is done away with. One does not have to constantly frustrate themselves on small details. In fact, this quote is from a poem about simply a man reliving his youth and enjoying the sounds of nature. This same ideal is promoted in Sameness. In this community, residents do not constantly think about violence, heartbreak, or sorrow. They don't have to worry about this blissful feeling ever disappearing.
But sameness is flawed. The structure itself relies on the person that holds the position of the Receiver. The Receiver receives the communities pain, memories, and all around sadness. Like a shaman or a librarian. Since the Receiver receives everything, he or she is at a point of almost collapsing. That happened at one point where the Receiver almost collapsed so she told the whole town about all these weird memories and was released or killed. Which brings me to my next point, releasing. The elders believe that all imperfect people, whether it be seniors who have grown out of their working and productive age or babies that aren't up to the right health requirements, should be released, or killed. And finally there's the logical thought that if one does not experience sadness, one cannot properly enjoy life. Instead people in this community just seem to be going through the motions. This idea of sameness, though it promises prosperity, it produces an empty life.
Sameness, like most things, aren't what they seem on the surface. When you dig deep into this ideology, it doesn't promise a happy life, just a prosperous, carefree one. Ignorance is bliss, but ignorance isn't joyfulness.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Thursday, February 5, 2015
1984
Over this past month of January, I have had the pleasure to read George Orwell's 1984. It was amazing. I loved listening to Orwell go into detail about every part of this new Britain, dominated by a seemingly all-knowing Big Brother and the story of a frail rebel with hopes of overthrowing this police state. But while reading this book I was shocked by it's realisticeness and accuracy.
To start, everything Winston, the protagonist, owns is marked "Victory" (Victory Gin, Victory Cigarettes), implying he bought it from a super-corporation, possibly owned by the government. Is this so different from our lifestyles of buying everything from a mega-corporation; getting our chocolate from Mars, our phones from Apple, our soda from The Coca-Cola Company.
Another example is this idea that the government should control all information going in and out of the state. In Soviet controlled Russia in the mid-to-late 20th century, a revolution started when dictators like Khrushchev and Stalin refused their people the basic right to read foreign texts or let anyone know what happens within their regime. In fact, the Ministry of Truth in the book, a government building where all media is censored, sounds exactly like the Goskomizdat in Russia, the place where government agents would censor all information within the state Even today, Kim Jong-Il and his son Kim Jong-Un censor all information in order to keep their population in a state of mindless worship through obliviousness to the outside world. In fact that is exactly what is happening in Oceania.
Big Brother, the dictator of Oceania, has a large array of surveillance complete with omnipresent posters that read "Big Brother is Watching You". His methods include watching peoples' living spaces by requiring them to keep a telescreen that acts as a camera, patriots eager to report wrongdoings, and random checks by the police. Quite recently, a scandal broke out where we learned of the US's extent of using the Patriot Act where the government had been hacking into our emails and tapping our phone lines, confining us to the privacy of an average citizen of Oceania.
This book might have seemed like a work of fiction when it was published in 1948, an entertaining story of a man trying to fight against all odds to destroy something that brought only terror to everyone. Yet now, 80 years later, it's not a work of fiction, it's a prophecy.
To start, everything Winston, the protagonist, owns is marked "Victory" (Victory Gin, Victory Cigarettes), implying he bought it from a super-corporation, possibly owned by the government. Is this so different from our lifestyles of buying everything from a mega-corporation; getting our chocolate from Mars, our phones from Apple, our soda from The Coca-Cola Company.
Another example is this idea that the government should control all information going in and out of the state. In Soviet controlled Russia in the mid-to-late 20th century, a revolution started when dictators like Khrushchev and Stalin refused their people the basic right to read foreign texts or let anyone know what happens within their regime. In fact, the Ministry of Truth in the book, a government building where all media is censored, sounds exactly like the Goskomizdat in Russia, the place where government agents would censor all information within the state Even today, Kim Jong-Il and his son Kim Jong-Un censor all information in order to keep their population in a state of mindless worship through obliviousness to the outside world. In fact that is exactly what is happening in Oceania.
Big Brother, the dictator of Oceania, has a large array of surveillance complete with omnipresent posters that read "Big Brother is Watching You". His methods include watching peoples' living spaces by requiring them to keep a telescreen that acts as a camera, patriots eager to report wrongdoings, and random checks by the police. Quite recently, a scandal broke out where we learned of the US's extent of using the Patriot Act where the government had been hacking into our emails and tapping our phone lines, confining us to the privacy of an average citizen of Oceania.
This book might have seemed like a work of fiction when it was published in 1948, an entertaining story of a man trying to fight against all odds to destroy something that brought only terror to everyone. Yet now, 80 years later, it's not a work of fiction, it's a prophecy.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
My Letter to Mrs. Berner on Why She Should Turn Down Censorship
Mrs. Berner,
I’ve heard parents are lobbying you to censor our library by restricting access to certain, controversial titles. Hopefully, you won’t. Denying kids the basic right to read what they want to read shouldn’t be infringed upon. By censoring books, you may be denying a child the help they need in a hard time. By censoring books, you can’t destroy the issues within them. By censoring books, you’re putting a limit on knowledge.
Some of the books on the shelf that are on the heavier side might, in fact, help some children who are going through the same experiences as the main character. Ellen Hopkins wrote about an ordeal she had with a troubled girl she met at a book signing in Huffington Post’s Anti-Censorship Manifesto in 2010. This girl was going through metamorphic addiction and when she read Hopkins’s book, Crank, she said she saw herself in those pages and realized she didn’t want to become what the main character had become: a depressed addict whose life was slipping away. So Mrs. Berner, what if that student were a student her at MS 51? This proposed censorship would prevent this girl from having an outlet to Crank and turning her life around. If this censorship passes Mrs. Berner, a girl (or boy) like this could die from an overdose, or, even worse, have their life destroyed by drugs.
Another reason we should keep books that are “challenged” in our library is, we have the case of what are we protecting our children against? Abuse, self-mutilation, suicide, rape, and torture are all part of our world. By keeping them off of the bookshelves, it’s almost like saying “Don’t look at the ugly parts! Pretty! Look at pretty! Our entire life can be pretty! Just read things about pretty!” When John Green’s book The Fault In Our Stars, which explores death and serious illness, got taken off the shelves of the Riverside Unified School District of California, he was quoted as saying “I guess I am both happy and sad. I am happy because apparently people in Riverside, California will never experience mortality since they won’t be reading my book, which is great for them. I am sad because I was really hoping to introduce that human beings die to the children of Riverside, California and thereby crush their dreams of immortality.” Green’s point is that by hiding titles from our children, we’re not destroying the issues or the reality of the issues within the books.
The demographic who wants to strip children of the rights provided to them by the First Amendment to the Constitution claim that songs and movies that mention the same or similar subject matter are required to get “Parental Warning” labels or “R” ratings. So why don’t books have them? To that I could give multiple answers, but I chose this one: books spread knowledge. Ever since the beginning of books, before the printing press, books have been how scientists log findings, how journalists and authors tell stories, how explorers made maps of foreign lands accessible. You should not restrict knowledge, which is why books are “open for all audiences”. Knowledge needs to be spread and censorship doesn’t spread it.
I, personally think that conclusions are redundant and conformist, but Mrs. Cunningham says it’s worth five points of my grade, so I’ll try to make it inspiring. Mrs. Berner, I want you picture a kid walking into the library and he says something like “I want to learn more about suicide because my friends were telling me about this girl who hung herself and it hit me. Do you have any books on the matter?” So think of the universe where the boy doesn’t get the book and think of the universe where he does. This boy can’t get the book he wants because the library’s censored to keep out books like that. These parents think he’ll just go home and forget the entire thing within a week, but you’ve worked with kids so I want you to ask yourself, will he?
Sincerely,
Simeon Bremer
Sincerely,
Simeon Bremer
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Social Justice Project Bullet Point #1
Lake Tai is located just west of Shanghai. It's China's third largest fresh water lake. Unfortunately factories serving the big city have been dumping poisonous waste into the lake. Wu Lihong grew up next to the lake and is outraged by the dumping and how the government seems to be turning a blind eye to it. So he led a series of protests in 2007 against the factories and the government. The government responded by trowing him in jail with charges of blackmail.
When Wu got out three years later, the government offered him money and benefits to stop protesting. Wu refused. The government put up cameras around his village and prevented him from leaving, even to accept an American environmentalist award. However the biggest outrage yet is that Chinese president Xi Jinping put aside $14 billion to clean up Lake Thai and the effects of this money is still yet to be seen.
Wu Lihong's story tells of a fascist government who jails anyone that doesn't support in the manner of "the only way to make everyone happy is to get rid of the unhappy ones." The government didn't stop there either. They embezzled money for an environmental clean-up. Then, they bribed a citizen with government benefits for a gag order. The Chinese government is corrupt and killing itself by not fixing its environmental problems. As Wu said "They're biting the hand that feeds them".
New York Times' article on Wu Lihong
When Wu got out three years later, the government offered him money and benefits to stop protesting. Wu refused. The government put up cameras around his village and prevented him from leaving, even to accept an American environmentalist award. However the biggest outrage yet is that Chinese president Xi Jinping put aside $14 billion to clean up Lake Thai and the effects of this money is still yet to be seen.
Wu Lihong's story tells of a fascist government who jails anyone that doesn't support in the manner of "the only way to make everyone happy is to get rid of the unhappy ones." The government didn't stop there either. They embezzled money for an environmental clean-up. Then, they bribed a citizen with government benefits for a gag order. The Chinese government is corrupt and killing itself by not fixing its environmental problems. As Wu said "They're biting the hand that feeds them".
New York Times' article on Wu Lihong
Social Justice Project Bullet Point #2
The Christmas season will start soon and with it comes christmas tree vendors. Every year, two girls from Québec come down here and set up shop on our street corner. They sell ornaments made from tree trimmings and string, wreathes, and most importantly Christmas trees. However wonderful it may sound to sell Christmas trees and letting people embrace this magical time of year, it's not. Every year these girls sleep in a tent for a month in a foreign land. This year and last year temperatures have dropped insanely and there's little insolation when all that protects you from the cold is a piece of plastic. This is unfair and no one seems to appreciate what these women do for us.
Social Justice Project Bullet Point #3
Sophie Watwood has grown up in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn. She attends church every Sunday in Downtown Brooklyn. She loves spending time with kids and helping those around her/
What's unfair in this world?
Social discrimination.
Do you know of any examples?
College rapes, the recent events in Ferguson and St. Louis, the song "Blurred Lines", saying "Poor people are gross", and misogyny.
As a person, what do you think is "right"?
For people presented with privilege to be morally kind. For people with opportunity to take it. To decrease the use of the word "suck".
What injustices do you think people face in your society?
Racism, sexism, lack of economic climb or drop.
What would you do to fix these injustices?
You can't! It's impossible! For psychological discrimination to stop and economic climb and fall to happen, you would have to reconstruct the economy.
Sophie seems very concerned with social injustices among classes. Those who are poor and those who struggle aren't helped by those who are privileged. We see this with people accepting calls from a heart disease charity asking for $1 and then saying "I already donated". Of course this is a very Marxist way of looking at the world.
What's unfair in this world?
Social discrimination.
Do you know of any examples?
College rapes, the recent events in Ferguson and St. Louis, the song "Blurred Lines", saying "Poor people are gross", and misogyny.
As a person, what do you think is "right"?
For people presented with privilege to be morally kind. For people with opportunity to take it. To decrease the use of the word "suck".
What injustices do you think people face in your society?
Racism, sexism, lack of economic climb or drop.
What would you do to fix these injustices?
You can't! It's impossible! For psychological discrimination to stop and economic climb and fall to happen, you would have to reconstruct the economy.
Sophie seems very concerned with social injustices among classes. Those who are poor and those who struggle aren't helped by those who are privileged. We see this with people accepting calls from a heart disease charity asking for $1 and then saying "I already donated". Of course this is a very Marxist way of looking at the world.
Social Justice Project Bullet Point #4
I watched a 60 Minutes report on hunger in the Syrian war zone where Kurds, the Islamic Front, ISIS and Bashar Al-Assad are having a four-way civil war. The effects of Assad's military crimes are brutal. He lays siege on cities for years until people starve to death. The UN is having a hard time helping, too. In one instance, the UN spoke to Assad and they mutually agreed to let aid workers into a city that had been under siege for over 300 days to evacuate people and give them food. When the aid workers entered the city, they were met with sniper shots and mortar shells.
Bashar Al-Assad's injustices are horrible. He gasses entire cities simply for speaking out against him. He restricts aid workers from helping those in need from his tyrannical practices from helping. His outspoken military plans are to crush the enemy with hunger. A phrase popped up in the Eisenhower administration "No one deserves to starve." Yet Assad thinks that cities of people he hasn't even addressed individually do. These war crimes and extremely unfair.
Bashar Al-Assad's injustices are horrible. He gasses entire cities simply for speaking out against him. He restricts aid workers from helping those in need from his tyrannical practices from helping. His outspoken military plans are to crush the enemy with hunger. A phrase popped up in the Eisenhower administration "No one deserves to starve." Yet Assad thinks that cities of people he hasn't even addressed individually do. These war crimes and extremely unfair.
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