What Monet says

This is one of the most famous painting by Monet. It actually belongs to a series of three paintings, called Woman with a Parasol. This is the first one and it depicts his wife Camille and their son. Camille was diagnosed with cancer when Monet drew this painting. Instead of expressing his grief in the painting, he used bright colors and captured this joyful moment of their family.  When I first saw this painting, I can only feel the happiness and pleasure until I was told the story behind it. Besides creating a sense of empathy, I’m also impressed by his great skills and his attitudes towards life. Paintings can be a great example of merging the sensual and intellectual. The contrast between the story the painting appears to tell and the actual story behind it can be really effective in telling people how to live a proper life. It reminds people to be positive and to value every moment we are experiencing. I think it is also saying that every single person is an individual entity, family and friends are important but we have our own lives to live and our own goals and missions.

What do you mean by “all men”

The Declaration of independence asserts people’s rights to choose their own government. Under the unfair treatment from the government of Great Britain, the colonies are unified and become independent from Great Britain. People clearly noticed a problem of equality and made this decision of asserting independence. In the Declaration, it says that “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.” When I first learned about it, I was taught that it simply translates to “people are born equal”. One day, I saw this picture in one of my cogs classes where the professor used a picture of Abraham Lincoln as a demo. It reminded me of the civil war which happened after the publish of the declaration of independence. Clearly “all men” in the declaration of independence doesn’t include those who worked as slaves. It then also made me think that what about women, and learning about the rights of women during that time also refreshes the definition of “all men” for me. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson actually drafted the declaration with the issue of slavery but it was removed later. Is it maybe that the people wrote Declaration of independence never take in consideration of people from other races? If it is the case, why were women excluded as well?  

picture i found in one of my cogs classes, please ignore the irrelevant information

Parasite in Paradise

Movie “Parasite” shows not only the gap between the rich and the poor, but also the vanity and envy that all humans share in a civil society. The son in the poor family isn’t satisfied with just finding a job (as a tutor for the daughter in the rich family), he wants his entire family infiltrated in the rich household. It then leads to the tragedy in the end. Human needs make people corrupt because what they need is no longer the basics of living, but pleasure, convenience or leisure that they desire. The inequality in the society is caused by corrupt human wants, for”those conveniences having through habit lost almost all their pleasure, and being at the same time degenerated into true needs, being deprived of them became much more cruel than possessing them was sweet; and they were unhappy about losing them without being happy about possessing them”(Discourse on Inequality, p.72). The wants will eventually becomes the needs, which will control humans. In “Parasite”, the characters, especially the poor family, are in some ways enslaved to their desires which ultimately leads to their own tragedy.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/

Hello!

Hi! My name is Jinghan Cao and I’d like to go by Jing. I was born in China. I’m a second year Cognitive Science major specialized in machine learning. I like music and movies, and I love to travel.

My favorite book in the Hum sequence so far would have to be Montaigne’s essays. Montaigne’s essay brings up the idea of introspection and it really makes people think. I also like the Odyssey a lot, it was the first book I read in the Hum sequence and the story is really engaging. 

One of my favorite song recently is Khai Dreams’ summer friend. Hope you enjoy it!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CFrXHRQ8Sw