Author Archives: Lauren

Reflecting on Romanticism + Enlightenment

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I agree more overall with romantic thinking, but I also believe that too much individualism can be damaging in certain circumstances and there are times where we should think of our community before our personal desires. Learning about Enlightenment and Romantic values has made me notice more of how they still impact my life in western society everyday. I see a lot of enlightenment values in the importance that’s recently been placed on technology and STEM, and I notice a lot of romantic values in the concept of the “american dream” and the cultural encouragement of entrepreneurship. Something that I found interesting in this class was how much many of the writers we covered would reflect so much on their actions and moral codes. I think that the journey of reflection of their values they all went through was as important to them as all the different conclusions they came to and put into writing at the end.

Peace through war

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http://www.davidebonazzi.com/news/category/history/2
This piece of art was made for BBC world histories magazine talking about the cold war. One of the main headlines was whether nuclear weapons have brought world peace through mutually assured destruction. The immediate reaction to the image is probably negative since it includes the classic shape of the atomic bomb and brings up all the negative associations of world war 2 with it. The contrast of the dove as a symbol of peace makes you overcome your initial reaction and wonder what it means. The people are removed from the place where the bomb went off. It made me think about how the losses of war are usually justified by hope for a better future after the war, and how it’s easier for people to think in this way when they aren’t caught up in the crossfire themselves. 

One Nation Under God

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The first amendment of the constitution talks about freedom of expression and religion, and is based on the fact that many of the first American settlers were fleeing religious persecution in certain parts of Europe. Although “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” there are still many parts of the government that contain Christian sayings and ideology. “In god we trust” is written on American dollar bills, and god is also mentioned in the Pledge of Allegiance, which is used in American public schools. What do you think about the constitutionality of these phrases, and where would you personally draw the line on the separation of church and state?





Does Society Cause Disease?

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“With so few sources of illnesses, man in the state of Nature has, then, little need for remedies, and even less for Doctors; in this respect, too, the human species is no worse off than all the others, and one can easily find out from Hunters whether they come across many unhealthy animals in their treks” (Discourse on Inequality)

There’s been a recent viral outbreak in Wuhan that has been all over global news as of late. Society has forced everyone away from the state of nature, where they would naturally spread out. In nature, people are foremost concerned with basic and personal needs and not worried too much about what others are doing. In order for everyone to have adequate resources from the natural world, people wouldn’t tend to be very close together and steal from each other, but would instead move on to different areas that contain more resources. Without society, there would never exist such high population densities that we see in our largest cities, and this allows for rapid expansion of diseases. The fact that the people of Wuhan have been forced to rely on the artificial government for meeting many people’s basic needs as opposed to providing for oneself and living off of nature has led to civil unrest because the government has been unable to deliver supplies to many. People naturally realize the many disadvantages of society and the lack of capability government has in meeting basic needs during states of emergency. People place power in government in return for meeting basic needs of the people, but many times society fails to reciprocate and needs aren’t met. (Also, sorry this is late.)

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-its-like-to-try-to-get-treatment-for-the-coronavirus-in-china

Intro

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Hi guys, I’m Lauren and I’m a second year chemistry major. Some of my interests are cute bird videos, piano and reading fantasy/fiction novels. I included a bird video I thought was cute for my media attachment. A couple of my favorite books are Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Shades of Magic trilogy, and my favorite book from the HUM 3 curriculum is Paradise Lost. I found a lot of the existential questions he brought up in the book really fascinating and relatable. I was raised Catholic and ended up drifting from the religion too, and I think today a lot of people still struggle reconciling an omnipotent and all benevolent deity with so many of the terrible things that happen in the world.