Most Outrageous Statement/Idea from Machiavelli

Probably the most outrageous statement by Machiavelli is “trust no one”. In his ideals and way of thinking, Machiavelli thought that the best way to become a successful leader and person is to believe that there is no one around us who deserves complete trust. I think that like many important men who have stated their opinion he is just partially right.

Throughout our lives we make many mistakes, some of them are direct consequence of us trusting the wrong people. As humans we have the tendency to create bonds and become attached to people, once we do it we tend to become blind to their weaknesses. In this sense, Machiavelli was right since he knew that these kind of blindness prevents us from being objective sometimes.

 
On the other hand, Machiavelli forgot to take something really important into account. In order to live happy, to have peace, to not feel alone we need to have people around us to whom we can give our trust and rest our burdens. We need to love and be loved, to trust and try to become trustworthy. Without this, we may become perfect leaders but in the end incomplete human beings. It is through the faith in others that we understand our humanity

“The Kiss” Should Be Displayed

In order to support my opinion it is important to make the distinction between art and porn clear. Some people ignorantly categorize pieces of art like these as porn but there is a huge difference between porn and art. Porn was created and is used with the purpose of arousing feelings in humans that should be aroused only in the sanctity of marriage. It plays with these feelings in order to make business, for monetary gain and greed. 

Art on the other hand deals with the sublime, the mysterious and complicated system of inner feelings and deeper thoughts. It praises the wonders of nature and the marvels of humanity and its various ways of acting. Art encourages us to think, to analyze, to ponder, and to ask ourselves how we relate to the piece being studied. 

I believe it is an absolute insult to compare something as beautiful and worthy of appraisal and applause, with something as dirty and disgusting as porn. Those who do not value the hard work and thoughtful dedication of an artist like this and compare it with the horrible work of a porn maker, whose only purpose is to make easy money by playing with sacred things shows lack of knowledge and sensitivity towards what is beautiful.

Our adults and children need to be educated to understand the difference between something that was meant to be beautiful and delightful as this master piece of “The Kiss”, with something vile as porn.

Rome’s Social Problems

As mentioned in the previous blog, The USA faces many social problems such as education, discrimination, healthcare, unemployment and drugs. Rome also went through similar problems to these ones. 

One of Roma’s biggest social issue was discrimination. Social status was very clear, and it was mostly determine by wealth. As Juvenal cites in his work, that “A man's word is believed in exact proportion to the amount of cash which he keeps in his strong-box”. Basically, if a person was poor with word was worth nothing, and thus they were discriminated.

Education was another important issue. Not everybody has access to receive an education. Great scholars had the means to learn from the best, but education was not relevant for everybody.

Juvenal speaks about drunk people when he says “Your drunken bully who has by chance not slain his man passes a night of torture”. Similar to drugs, the body is being tortured and harmed by consuming this substances.

At the beginning of the satire, Juvenal talks about “no reward for labour”. Which implies that somehow there were issues with unemployment. As mentioned, social classes were well defined, and working hard didn’t help to get out of misery.

Finally, the over population of Rome created a problem in the health of the people. Since doctors were educated people, they were probably expensive too.

I assume there are similarities in the social issues between the Roman Empire and the USA because these problems usually arise when a nation becomes powerful. During the Roman Empire, they were the greatest power in the world, and nowadays, the USA is a really powerful nation too. Social problems arise because it’s hard to take care of everybody in a huge population. Governors will try to do as much as they can, but there will always be people who will stay behind

Five Social Problems

Education

When a country has education, there's progress in the nation, but if a country lacks of education, there will be regression. Even though there's a lot of professionals in the USA, there's still many people who don't want to continue their education after High School, and they become comfortable with what they have accomplished, sometimes becoming a burden for society.

Source: http://countries-of-europe.com/?p=1161

Discrimination

At this present time. The country faces discrimination to others in many aspects. Discrimination can be found towards women looking for jobs, people from certain backgrounds, and even religion. 

 

Source: http://rslonline.com/2011/11/07/teachers-accuse-ministry-of-discrimination

  

Healthcare

The healthcare situation has been a debate going for years. It's clear the people need these benefits, but it is also clear that it's expensive for the government to provide this service to everybody in the country. 

Source: http://carlsagansdanceparty.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/healthcare/

Unemployment

The unstable economy that the USA is facing is affecting our society, this can be seen in the unemployment rates. Even thought this percentage has been decreasing in the recent months, there's still a lot of families affected by the lack of jobs

Source: http://unemploymentwisconsin.org/wisconsin-unemployment

Drugs 

A lot of young people are affected by addiction to drugs. In our present time there's plenty types of drugs that affect people's health. This battle against drugs seems to be a continuous battle that will keep affecting our population.

Source: http://lhueagleeye.wordpress.com/archive/stories-from-11-3-11/drugs-close-to-home/

Love as a Powerful Weapon

Dido’s love for Aeneas was so great that she was bleeding inside. During the her confession to her sister, Anna, she expresses her feelings with so much passion that makes me understand better her angriness after Aeneas left. Virgil states how burning this love was when he says that:

“… The inward fire eats the soft marrow away,
And the internal wound bleeds on in silence” (Book IV)

Most of us think that love is always a beautiful thing, and it is when the other person feels the same for you. But for Dido this wasn’t the case. Dido was dying inside because Aeneas would not love her in the same dimensions as she did. When this happens, love hurts, it hurts so much that the inward fire eats your marrow.

Finally, Dido’s ending becomes tragic when she commits suicide. Her burning love for Aeneas makes her so miserable that she comes to the conclusion that her life is not worth it. Her fate shows what a person in love is capable of doing for love. This is a tragic ending, but it also shows how negatively powerful love can become.

Parallels between ancient Roman society and United States’ society

Ancient Rome and the United States have their peaks in different period of times, but they both share great similarities. Among these, we find social, political, and even art parallels.

Social

The United States has adopted some of the social aspects from Rome, especially in the family. The traditional family is still seen as in ancient Rome where the head of the house is the husband, and he’s in charge of the wife and kids. The social view of the organization in the traditional family is still very clear to everybody. Odysseus is a great example of a father who does all he can to make back home with his wife and son. Nevertheless, in modern times, the concept of family is extending from its original roots.

Another social aspect that gets its roots from the Roman times is the distribution of social classes. The USA still has a hierarchy where people are part of group mostly because of their economic status. In ancient Rome, however, the status was determined mostly by the family heritage of the person. Most of the main characters in The Iliad and The Odyssey seem to have an important heritage, either by gods or kings. Agamemnon and Achilles were powerful because of their inheritance.

Political

The modern United States has based its politics in many aspects taken from the ancient Rome. Today, the country has a president, but any decisions need to be approved by the congress.  In ancient Rome, assemblies used to take place in order to determine matters concerning the nation. Even during Homeric times, people established or called meetings to make decisions of any matter, though the king had usually the ultimate word.

Source: http://www.vhinkle.com/rome/spartacus.html

Source: http://www.hangthebankers.com/?attachment_id=2378   

Another big parallel between the ancient Rome and The USA is The Constitution, which contains the laws and bills that keep maintain the order in the country. Men need to abide by rules and laws to actually enjoy freedom. Thucydides talks about how they had a “constitution… that favours the many instead of the few”. Just like the constitution The USA that favors the many and not just a few citizens. As consequence, people have freedom in their ordinary lives.

Art

Ancient Roman art can be seen all around the architecture in many of the buildings in the United States. One of the aspects most commonly seen is the use of classical columns in national buildings. In the ancient Rome, these columns are mostly use in the temples and important buildings. Also, sculptures of important personages of history of the United States show how much influence the ancient Roman has in our current society. In the ancient Rome, people sculpted gods and kings of great importance. The USA has done the same with sculptures of people such as Abraham Lincoln.

Source: http://www.touropia.com/ancient-roman-temples/

Source: http://architecture.about.com/od/greatbuildings/ss/SupremeCourt_2.htm 

Definitely, ancient Rome and The USA have a lot on common, it's amazing how this aspects have survived through out the centuries.

Is self-interest an appropriate motivation for a free society?

During Homeric times, self-interest was the driving force to motivate individuals to make decisions. Achilles was motivated by his own pride and honor to leave the army, causing the death of many, even his best friend, Patroclus.  Just as Agamemnon’s interests were motivated by his power and authority to do what it was more convenient to him, bringing his own death and the death of others.

Calchas, the prophet, states to Achilles that “[he, Achilles, is] stronger [than Agamemnon] and that is a goddess that bore him, but [Agamemnon] is more powerful, since he rules over more (The Iliad, Book I.265)Since Agamemnon had such a great authority, he was motivated to take advantage of the ones below him, caring less about a free society. Eventually this brought destruction and death.

On the other side, Thucydides teaches us how democracy was part of the Athenian law.  According to Thucydides:

…the administration of [the Athenian constitution] favours the many instead of the few (Thucydides pg. 267).

This statement shows a very opposite approach than the one followed in the Homeric times. Because of the democracy which favoured the many, Athenians in Thucydides had freedom in their ordinary lives (Thucydides pg. 267).

In conclusion, self-interest doesn’t motivate a free society as seen in the example of Achilles and Agamemnon. Their self-interest just brought sorrow and pain.

Beautiful Naesicaa

The way Odysseus speaks to Princess Naesicaa when she first found him is amazing. His description of the Princess makes the reader realize how beautiful the girls is. Her beauty is so great that she could definitely be a goddess, even the daughter of great Zeus.. 

"...If one of the gods who rule the skies up there, you're Artemis to the life, the daughter of mighty Zeus - I see her now - " (Book 6, line 164)

But in case that Odysseus were wrong, and she is not a goddess, then he states how blest Naesicaa's family is because of her beauty. This reassures how beautiful the princess is compared to the rest of the mortals, not even Odysseus' wife.

"... I have never laid eyes on anyone like you, neither man nor woman..." (Book 6, line 175)

The message that I like the most about this part of The Odyssey is that Odysseus wasn't unfaithful to his wife Penelope, even though the Princess is more beautiful than any other mortal he has ever seen.

My 4 Epithets

International Nerdy + Fun

I’m an international student from El Salvador. Many of you may not know where my country is, especially since it’s almost the smallest country in the American Continent (Map below just in case). I’ve been studying at BYU since the summer of 2008, and this is my last semester in school. I’ll be graduating in August in Information Systems. My computer background makes me look like I’m a geek, but I’m actually really fun to hang out with.

Image Source Page: http://www.kids-online.net/world/elsalvador.html

Happy-Adventurous  

I’m always carrying a smile with me. I feel that being happy and having a good attitude about everything makes you healthy. I love meeting people from different backgrounds and making new friends. I love travelling and going to places I've never been to before. Last summer I went to Europe and I had such a great time, it was a new experience and a great adventure.  There's so much to explore in the world, and I want to continue searching for new experiences.

Nice and Friendly

I always try to be a good friend no matter what. I really care about others, especially my friends. People tell me that they can’t picture me getting angry because I’m always too kind. Don’t get me wrong, I do get angry (not as much as Achilles), I just hide it really well

Funny and Funnier

Something about me is that I’m joking all the time. Sometimes people don’t get my jokes, but they still end up laughing. I like to be the person who comes up with the most random comments in any conversation, and my friends love that about me. Since I come from a different culture, my sarcasm is different, so I’m still learning to use the sarcasm in the USA.

Feeling like a freshman in my last semester!

This is my last semester at BYU. I'll be graduating in August 2012. In order to do so, I'm taking my last GE class, which is Classical Tradition, basically a Greek-Roman history class. It's really strange to take a GE class after taking so many Business courses, I feel like I'm just starting school all over again. I honestly love feeling like a freshman again.

The interesting thing about this class is that instead of writing long-boring papers, I will be BLOGGING. I haven't done this in awhile, and I am not the best blogger either, but blogging will be so much better than writing papers. Nice way to end up school!