I wonder if even Banach believes himself to be free.

After describing at length the Existentialist's "island of subjectivity" we are to assume that our very nature is to be free, to exist separately from the rest of the world. Now, just as a man sick with Alzheimers, Banach is quick to go back on his words and tell us we aren't really all that free.

Crap.

Thing is, I can see his point. While we are naturally inclined to be mentally free, we all, as humans, attempt to confine our nature to what we are idnetified as. Bear with me, as I myself am not altogether so certain of my interpretation. It appears that Banach is telling us that while mentally we are inclined to be free, we limit ourselves by basing perceptions of ourself on outside influences, i.e. pictures, descriptions, other people. It seems as though Banach is convinced that we have the idea that whatever we are made out to be by other people is how we seem to lean when describing ourselves. Banach tells us that we have a mental tv screen through which we view ourselves, a control booth of sorts where we can make our connections about who we are, develop our realities. SO! It makes sense when he says "the self feels a tension between identifying itself with the mind's eye...and the images that appear as partof our experience" as we engage them in the world.

Woah.

Layman's terms being that we have a mental image of ourself that we percieve through experience, a mentality that often conflicts with the physical image as it interacts with the world. The physical self vs. the mental self, with the mental self quizzically cocking its eye when presented with a conflicting image of the physical.

Here! Examples from the horse's mouth. Banach relates to us how we try to excuse our actions by pretending we are simply bodies that yield "to the forces thatdetermine them". Examples he provides are when we try to excuse ourselves for acting rashly due to a third-party factor that is beyond control. He seems to say we fold when presented with an uncontrollable variable, we give up what our mentality says is natural, claiming it is the fault of some figurative drug.

Perfect segue - 200 points. Banach continues, telling us that regardless of how unchangable the circumstance, it is entirely under our control to manipulate how it affects us. It's all relative, based on perspective. If you decide that your circumstance is one thing, that it affects you one way, then, well, that's what it is, and it can be anything. This is where, as humans, we expand and grow. Learning to control our perspective view will allow us to take value and knowledge from what might otherwise be horrible, dire issues.

In this, life is like a blank puzzle. We need to assemble all the pieces, sure, and it might be difficult with no instructions to go on, no box art to guide us, but in the end, we still get to choose what gets drawn on the final product. Call me silly, but my puzzle is going to be so weird, so random, that people will wonder how I ever put it together. And here is where I can almost agree with Banach, that people are incapable of seeing us make the puzzle, that they can only admire the pretty picture in the end, and never really gather the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it's construction. It takes a truly trained mind to see the cracks where the pieces fit together, how they form a complete, albeit haphazard, materpiece.

To Arden
I can understand a bit better what you said in Andy's class now, Arden. Ar-dizzle. About being reluctant to share. This post was really honest, really true to who you are. It relays a sense of who you are, and it makes me think you should do more writing like this, let people see it, yknow?

Maybe some constructive criticism would be to more thoroughly define the concept of perspective feeling.

I like it.

To Omar
I dig your post, I think that you and I are on the same page here, that you see how I see, that people can connect, that if we cannot literally feel each other's feelings, we can at least relate to them because we've more or less been down the same roads. I also like how you addressed why people sometimes find it difficult to relate to people "I think many times the case is that people try to fit in and be something or someonne they are not" and I think it's a really powerful idea, makes me think down a separate avenue of thought.

Though I think you might want to look into changing your layout, the white font, black background is a little difficult to read.

Reeses Peacies.

This is my Titely Witle

'ello! How's things gon' fer ya?

Hea's weah I'll be wroitin me blog posts!

Okay, I have to stop talking like that. It's giving me a bit of a migraine. Anyhow, this is my blog, and this is my first HW post.
Before I do that, I just wanna say we should all read A Clockwork Orange so that you can get my references as I go along. All righty then.

David Banach's lecture indicates to me a couple things. I have a couple conflicting opinions on the whole idea, but yet I still remain sided with the human ability to feel the feelings of others, to empathize and exist on a similar emotional plane. I like to believe in the human capacity to relate. Lauren brought up in class the concept that whenever we try to empathize with a person's feelings, to feel what they feel, we are only revisiting our own feelings. I think this is true as well. I think that when most people try to step into other people's shoes, they really only bring up an example of their own life to reflect on somebody's situation.

But not always. I would say to try, genuinely try, to view things from their perspective. Perhaps you won't literally be able to feel their pain, experience their emotion, but at least you will be able to truly empathize, to know how they feel. Real knowing is a burden, so I don't ask that too many people try to do it. A lot of the time I hate knowing things, I hate being able to manipulate emotions and thoughts in people. It's wretched.

So i suppose, that despite our best efforts, we can't actually feel how others feel specifically, but I think that all humanity runs the gamut of emotion, so we all wind up feeling the same things at one point or another, it is just incredibly difficult to sync things. Which sucks, man. I was just reading on Brandon's blog, which was great-you should all read it- and he said something I thought deeply resonated with me. That we are ultimately all alone. Well, that kind of blows.

I just think that there is something to be said for humanity's ability to empathize, that while we may arguably be unable to truly feel subjectively what each other are feeling, the fact that we've been there gives us a frame of reference through which we can relate. Also, the ability for one to share their feelings makes them able to relate it to people in a context that they can better understand.