Corporate America

So, once again I am going to be writing about the Legend-Prodigy-Champion series, by Marie Lu. This will be my third and final post on the series. Apologies in advance for burdening you with reading about this again. You can click away now, no one is going to blame you.

So, today I thought I would write a slightly more informal blog post because I almost never do that (wink wink). I spent a lot of time on this series because I really enjoyed the plot, the basic premise of the book, the character arch and moreover, I love to read about the possibilities for dystopic societies. The two dystopian governments that Marie Lu describes are the Colonies, and the Republic which are the remnants of a post cataclysmic flood USA. Each of these nations makes up half of the modern day USA, and the two are at war.

The Republic is a totalitarian society run by an Elector Primo, and is a generic fascist almost Hunger Games like government set up, which didn't excite me all too much. On the other hand, I found the Colonies to be very interesting. After the flood that sent the USA into disarray splitting the country in two, the United States Government declared bankruptcy. This triggered the largest companies in the country to affectively buy the USA from the government’s broken bank. This corporate takeover really interested me, and I found it to be an allegory to what is happening with corporate America right now. 

If the world was the way that most CEOs on Wall Street wanted it to be, the United States really would be the Colonies, a ruthless, solely economically based country with no middle class. 99.9 % of the country would be in poverty and .1 % would be extremely rich. Although there are some CEOs that are socially responsible and aren’t greedy, most are just the opposite. Due to this, Corporate America is always pushing for less government regulation and intervention and the Colonies are an extreme version of this wish. Right now, the top 1 percent owns 39% of the world’s wealth, and granting this wish would only increase this wealth gap. The corporate government run by businessmen in the Colonies was a more efficiently run government than the totalitarian government in the Republic, and was much, much more cutthroat and malevolent. If Wall Street got what it wanted, the United States would be become the Colonies. We would live with now safety rules, no environmental regulations, no personal rights and no education. Lu is exploring a rendition of the US where corporate America gets its wish fulfilled. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company makes 250 to 300 times more than the wage of an average employee. Makes you wonder what is really happening behind closed doors at companies like Apple and Microsoft, and makes you question whether or not you should buy one of their stocks.

I don't know if any of this sounds intelligent, but I sort of had an epiphany that the market is running incorrectly, and that these CEOs shouldn’t be worth so much money.

Versus

Today I want to address one of the most heated debates in the world right now. Some of the greatest minds of our age are contemplating this and there is still no answer. This issue is THE elephant in the room for everyone and has caused friends ships to end, and wars to start. The vote through all 202 countries is a split 50-50, and I can' say I'm surprised. The contenders are equally great, and I would not expect a decisive answer for the next 50 years. So here goes nothing... (drum roll)

Power Rangers vs. My Little Pony 

Honestly, I don't know what to say. These two franchises have memorized billions old and young, and I think that asking this question is almost tempting fate. This debate could start a World War, and these franchises are the basis of our society. Should we really do this?

We  should not compare two things as great as My Little Pony and Power Rangers, but none the less, the people still believe that this question that has been on the minds of our world leaders  needs to be answered. Russia, China, the USA and even ISIS have all voiced their opinions, still leaving the world at a perfectly split vote. 

On one hand we have the best, and on the other the best. 

Please vote in the comment section below.

 

Sorry Mohammed, but

What is love? All throughout our lives, we search for love in hopes of finding the 'one'. We find it, we lose it, and in some cases we never even experience it at all. Love takes many shapes and forms, but all in all it is probably the best experience in the world. Despite all of this, sometimes love can blind us to many things, such as the detrimental affects it can have on ourselves. In the series, "Legend-Prodigy-Champion" by Marie Lu, Day and June, the 2 main protagonists, are in love. They do not realize the negative affects they have on each other. Although they love each other, some of the stuff they do is pretty nasty.  Due to this, their relationship is extremely dysfunctional, even though they love each other deeply.

For example, June has done many horrific things to Day, even though she loved him. In the first book, she affectively murders Day's mother and brother. Not only that, but she put him in prison and almost had him assassinated. Later on throughout the series she sends Days brother Eden to a military base to be experimented on, and even more later on she cheats on Day. Pretty nuts, right?

Now, you may be skeptical of what I'm saying, so I'll give you some context. June and Day met when Day was a national-hero who was a criminal and June was working for the evil fascist dystopic government that wanted to kill him. When June caught Day, she turned him in which led to Day's family being killed. Eventually they get together, and the rest is history.

On the flipside, Day has done some pretty nasty stuff too. He killed June's brother Metias by throwing a knife into his heart. It gets worse. By June and Day falling in love, she lost everything, her money, her house, her friends and even her dog, and became public enemy #1. Pretty selfish on Days end, right? Not only that, but Day cheats on June too!

In conclusion, loving someone blindly is very controversial and nuanced. Loving someone blindly can hurt you, and can be stupid. Although that person may be perfect in your eyes, your love and devotion to that said person could be clouding your judgement as to whether or not it would be a good idea to get involved with that person. On the other hand, if you love someone to the point where the negative affects they have on you don't matter, then perhaps it is true love. Personally, I think true love should be the balance of accepting some of the 'bad' affects your partner has on you while being able to say that this person is causing me too much harm.

Legend-Prodigy-Champion Series

The "Legend-Prodigy-Champion Series" written by Marie Lu is a really interesting exploration of how a fascist government in a dystopian world can be overcome, and teaches young adult readers ways that they can fight an evil government that uses its people. The two protagonists, Day and June are teens who see injustice throughout the Republic, a post-apocalyptic nation that is controlled by a dictatorship, and they combat the wrongs of their government. Through Day and June's journey to end the republic's evil reign over North America, teens learn how to question the morality and ethics of their government’s authority.

Throughout the book, Marie Lu demonstrates that anyone, even with ethnic and economic disadvantages, can change the world for the better. For example, many of the people who took a role in the patriots were variously gay, black, poor, rich, Asian and female. On the flipside, the republic's armies had male, female, gay, black, poor, Latino, and many, many more types of persons. Even June’s brother, Metias, was gay. Not only that, Day and June were of very different backgrounds. June was very wealthy, white, lived in rich sectors and had a perfect trial score (a test taken at age ten to spot genetic anomalies) while Day was dirt poor and lived on the streets, of Asian heritage and scored a 674/1500 on his trials. Despite these radical differences, they fell in love and fought the republic, together.

Another point that really resonated with me as a YA (Young Adult) reader was that Marie Lu, all throughout the books, beckoned the reader to ask questions. Not only did she raise questions about the themes of the book, but about morality and ethics. In some parts of the book, the protagonists would make very controversial decisions. For example, at one point in the book the main characters agree to murder many, many soldiers who were "innocent" per se. These soldiers were low ranking lackeys who had no idea of the evils of the republic. To these men, they were doing a great service to their country and its people. Is it really okay to kill these people who knew if they stepped out of line they would be killed? However, this raises the other side of the story. Is it okay to go along with this evil government even if they threaten your life? Not only are these questions of morality and ethics asked, but one of the most present themes of the book was morality and ethics. These books, unlike “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, actually had protagonists that were imperfect. Katniss, the protagonist of “The Hunger Games”, was selfless and unrealistically ‘good’ while Day and June were selfish and in some ways were driven by reasons other than justice. Marie Lu showed that no one is perfect, and that you don’t have to be perfect to change the world.   

All in all, these books are written to almost warn YA readers, who are the "next generation" of how to prevent these evil governments from rising to power. Lu writes in a way that engages readers but at the same time poses sophisticated, intellectual topics. Books like these, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are what maybe help keep the next Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, ISIS, Boko Haram, Taliban, and Joseph Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army from rising to power, and history from repeating itself.

Another Story

Okay, so today we were supposed to write a blog post about anything so I decided I would tell a story. So, that's what I'm going to do.

So as some of you may know, I had my Bar Mitzvah about a month ago.

Many think having a Bar Mitzvah is filled with joy and celebration and all good things. But it is not. Not at all. 

First things first, Bar Mitzvahs are extremely stressful. The months and months of preparation and the anticipation are dreadful, and the feeling that if you mess up, because you only have one Bar Mitzvah, its like the end of the world. Especially with a mother like mine, it made it much much worse.

The days leading up to my Bar Mitvzah were filled with accommodating family and friends (which was not the most pleasant experience) from near and far who came very far to see us chant from a 5000 year old scroll. Now learning the Torah and prepping for it for countless months is not the worst part. The worst part is the amount of butterflies in your stomach that you feel right before you go up to chant. Honestly, it like the butterfly population of the whole Eastern Seaboard flying around in your tummy. And it doesn't feel good.

Okay now, the day of. When you wake up, it hits you. In 12 its all going to over... I will be a man in 12 hours. That feeling is awful. So you shower, brush your teeth, use the facilities, get changed into your suit.

The suit that I wore on the day of my ceremony was a large piece of anxiety for me.

For a second here I am going to engage in a little ranting: Due to my odd growth patterns, I grew vertically before I grew horizontally. I was 5'6 and had VERY narrow shoulders. When I say narrow, I mean like so narrow that I didn't fit into any suits. You mat say that I am being dramatic, but I can assure you I am not exaggerating. Every, single store we went to, the suits were too large and made me look ridiculous.

Luckily, my beautiful mother (who has a much broader knowledge of suits than me) posed a solution.

We had found a suit that fit me vertically and had a color that I really liked.

So, we got it tailored to fit me and to quote Hadley Elizabeth Robbins, "You looked sexy."

Anyway, back to the actual day of my Bar Mitvzah.

Once I was ready I listened to my favorite motivational song, "Little Wonders" by Rob Thomas, specifically the first verse (go listen to it, you will quickly see how it applies to that situation).

I walk up to my temple (we live three blocks away from our temple) and then it all started.

I'm not going to bore you with the specifics of the ceremony, but I will shed light on some of the flaws of the ceremony.

Before you actually go to chant Torah, you sit for 45 minutes seething in your own sweat and body odor waiting for them to call you up to the Bima. Yet again, the anticipation is terrible.

Not only that but every single time I messed up a note or a syllable of the Torah, the Rabbi would correct me, and make me repeat the word again. It wasn't very noticeable, but Rabbi Marc was being extremely irritating.

Of course I rarely made a mistake, but still I think I am justified in my complaints.

The party I will skip over because to be perfectly honest I don't remember all that much due to my lack of sleep and withdrawal of adrenaline.

So you can most likely infer by now that I am not a fan of Bar MItzvahs.

And you'd say, "but it must be all worth it because you get money and the feeling of relief must be great!" but no. After my ceremony, I didn't feel different at all. I actually felt worse. The sudden drop of a adrenaline made me feel depressed. It was like going on withdrawal from speed (or so says my parents).  Not only that, but I am not allowed to spend my money. 

All in all, they suck. Its a trap!

Although my cynical ways may be very pessimistic, like my father who is a litigator, I speak the truth. 

My (reading) life

Greetings, my name is Jared Dougall, which rhymes with google and this is google owned software. I was born July 20, 2002 and I enjoy reading books, magazines, articles, social media pages, news papers, comic books and all sorts of things with words. I like to read a variety of books, from sci-fi about Dystopian societies to non fiction books about discoveries in chemistry. I like science and math and I somewhat excel in both subjects, but ELA has always been somewhat difficult for me. Not reading. But writing. I procrastinate, with some frequency, and I only do it when I have to write because I hate writing.

Okay, I know hate is a strong word, and I don't hate writing but all these argument essays that require a lot of planning aren't fun for me for me at all (in fact they actually stress me out, but more on that in a second). The only time writing is fun for me is when I can just write freely, put my ides on the page without having to follow an outline. I like to talk, debate and so on but having to participate in the exercise of writing something that I work hard on, showing it to my parents and having it torn apart and examined at the highest level (both or my parents are lawyers) is not the most fun thing for me to do. I am extremely detail oriented, so I am kind of OCD about some things and it makes me hate writing evermore because my piece has to be perfect; flawless grammar, flawless organization, flawless fluidity etc. This makes writing extremely stressful for me, and I avoid it at all costs.

 I do know writing is a extremely sought after skill in the working world, so I except my fate that I will have to write to make any amount of money. I do want to make money, just like every other 13 year-old kid. In an effort to give me a boost for when I actually need to start thinking about what I want to do with my life, I have been looking at potential careers. Astrophysics, Chemistry, Accountancy (you might expect Accountancy from a Jew like me). Anyway this all ties back to my reading because almost everything I have learned in my life, everything I feel passionate about, I pursue with a book. Whatever small amount intelligence and sophistication I have is entirely from books and reading for countless hours, and I continue to keep reading for as long as I live.

I read many many books this summer, and the most memorable ones were: "I am America (And so can you!)" and "America Again" by Stephen Colbert (I honestly think he is a brilliant man with great comedic sense),  "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury and "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding.

First, the books written by Stephen Colbert were hilarious. Although they were obviously not the most intellectual books, his mocking of certain political views were fantastically funny. The books were extremely immersive and asked the reader questions. The books were almost like you were talking to Stephen Colbert himself. I have many fond memories of this summer where I was reading them in my bug net, late into the night at my sleep away camp this summer.

Second, Fahrenheit 451 was a pleasure to read, It probably ranks among some of my favorite books due to its great descriptive writing, and its fantastic plot about the Dystopian american society that Ray Bradbury warns of throughout the novel. Some of the vocabulary and themes in the book were outstanding and made it a pleasure to read.

And finally, Lord of the Flies, which was a terrifying book and is also ranked among my all time favorites. The island and all of the horrible killings these previously innocent boys committed were shocking and very interesting to me, and I really enjoyed the suspense. William Golding used great descriptive writing and also a very large variety of vocabulary, and this great dystopian novel taught me a lot.

So all in all, reading and writing go hand in hand, as you can see here. I hope that this year I can learn to love them both equally.