I am afraid of fish. You have no idea how massively uncomfortable this makes me.On to things pertinent to senior year.
I'm officially on the UIL Ready Writing team, which means that I competitively write essays on behalf of my school. To most people, I suppose this is the exact opposite of fun. But I'm different--in an ideal world, I would do nothing but write essays, watch Star Trek, and make videos. I actually look forward to cold writes in English. I like to tell people my opinions when I'm asked, and I like to flaunt my (humble) knowledge of current events, literature, history, and science. Essays are my thing.
In order to obtain my sacred position on the team, I had to try out. Yes, there are other people that enjoy sitting in a chair for two hours and analyzing ethics. Actually, there are five other people that tried out for the three spots on the team.
So here's how it works: we're given two quotes--one relatively modern, and one from another era. We choose one of the two quotes, and write an essay over it, interpreting it as we wish. Unfortunately, the paper with the prompts is missing in action, but I do, however, have the essay that I wrote in response, which gained me my spot on the team.
The Hope Lies with the Proles
"The hope lies with the proles." It is the phrase echoed by Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984, suggesting that the key to triumphing over an oppressive system resides in education. It is a paradox: freedom derives from education, yet education is limited when freedom is limited--they are mutually dependent. Without education, the knowledge that injustice persists will remain unknown, and injustices will continue.
The anglerfish dwells in a permanent state of ignorance, completely unaware of how truly abysmal a life it leads. The anglerfish is frightening, scaly, and an unattractive specimen of the animal kingdom. It is a habitant of the deep sea, a highly inhospitable environment as a result of tremendous levels of pressure, a severely limited amount of light, and it consequently maintains a highly restricted diet of whatever happens to fall into the depths of the sea. Yes, the deep sea anglerfish has no reason to be happy, but it is ignorant of a better, more hospitable world. It is content with the depressing sea around it only because to the anglerfish, nothing else exists.
Humans too often suffer from the condition of the anglerfish, or at least they do in Orwell's 1984. The proles, non-government workers with mundane, unknowingly restricted lives, are unaware of their manipulation and oppression by the INGSOC regime. They, like the anglerfish, have no motive for their happiness, yet they are content with their lives because nothing else exists to them. But the anglerfish and the proles differ: the proles have the power to rebel and resist their oppression. This idea of the human ability, necessity, and desire for rebellion litters the pages of Helen Maria William's Julia, which contains her poem "The Bastille: A Vision." In the poem, a prisoner of the Bastille, after immense torture, gains an omniscient persona that permits him to envision a future exempt of injustice. The speaker further exhorts the reader to resist subjugation and strive for injustice. But the key is education. Without knowledge of their situation, the proles do not know how to rebel, or, for that matter, how to rebel.
In the world beyond dystopia, satire, and omniscient personas, the paradox of freedom and education persists. China is largely recognized as one of the most controlling and restricting governments, and is increasingly recognized as such by its own citizens, with the growth of the internet. Companies such as Google have been criticized for their permittance of the Chinese censorship of the internet and communication, yet many Chinese citizens remain anglerfish in their world. Recently, however, large steps have been made towards the public education of China's people. The Google homepage has been rerouted to Hong Kong, which cannot be censored by the Chinese government. Now, searches including "Tienanmen Square" contain images of violence, uprising, and oppression, rather than the prior, highly-censored search results containing tourist information. In addition to Google, the Nobel Prize committee has made leaps toward universal freedom and education. This year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an orchestrator of rebellions against the Chinese government, who coincidentally is also imprisoned by the government he resisted on account of his efforts. His receipt of the prize is predicted to lead to greater awareness among the Chinese people.
In the Middle East, such a rebellion that is only hypothesized of china has already occurred. A single fruit vendor, residing in Tunis, disenchanted with the treatment he had received from the government, lit himself on fire in a solitary act of resistance. His spontaneous suicidal mutiny did not go unnoticed by his fellow Tunisians.Within days, rioters plagued the streets in such great numbers that military force was required (although, they too could not dampen the flames of rebellion.) Their passionate opposition inspired many Egyptians, particularly the radical political party The Muslim Brotherhood, and spurred an overthrowal of their long-time president Hosni Mubarak, and a complete reestablishment of the Egyptian government. and it began with a Tunisian fruit vendor, who unknowingly educated the masses in a rash act of bravery.
Overcoming justice isn't easy. It requires martyrs and dedication. However, the first and most important step towards freedom is education--of the masses, not of the elite. But until the public is educated, injustice will continue until people are aware of the world around them. The hope lies in education
You may have picked up on the anglerfish motif. I'd like to chalk that up to my own creativity, but I infact ripped it off from the famous vlogger Hank Green, of vlogbrothers fame. Watch the video that inspired it here:
The anglerfish dwells in a permanent state of ignorance, completely unaware of how truly abysmal a life it leads. The anglerfish is frightening, scaly, and an unattractive specimen of the animal kingdom. It is a habitant of the deep sea, a highly inhospitable environment as a result of tremendous levels of pressure, a severely limited amount of light, and it consequently maintains a highly restricted diet of whatever happens to fall into the depths of the sea. Yes, the deep sea anglerfish has no reason to be happy, but it is ignorant of a better, more hospitable world. It is content with the depressing sea around it only because to the anglerfish, nothing else exists.
Humans too often suffer from the condition of the anglerfish, or at least they do in Orwell's 1984. The proles, non-government workers with mundane, unknowingly restricted lives, are unaware of their manipulation and oppression by the INGSOC regime. They, like the anglerfish, have no motive for their happiness, yet they are content with their lives because nothing else exists to them. But the anglerfish and the proles differ: the proles have the power to rebel and resist their oppression. This idea of the human ability, necessity, and desire for rebellion litters the pages of Helen Maria William's Julia, which contains her poem "The Bastille: A Vision." In the poem, a prisoner of the Bastille, after immense torture, gains an omniscient persona that permits him to envision a future exempt of injustice. The speaker further exhorts the reader to resist subjugation and strive for injustice. But the key is education. Without knowledge of their situation, the proles do not know how to rebel, or, for that matter, how to rebel.
In the world beyond dystopia, satire, and omniscient personas, the paradox of freedom and education persists. China is largely recognized as one of the most controlling and restricting governments, and is increasingly recognized as such by its own citizens, with the growth of the internet. Companies such as Google have been criticized for their permittance of the Chinese censorship of the internet and communication, yet many Chinese citizens remain anglerfish in their world. Recently, however, large steps have been made towards the public education of China's people. The Google homepage has been rerouted to Hong Kong, which cannot be censored by the Chinese government. Now, searches including "Tienanmen Square" contain images of violence, uprising, and oppression, rather than the prior, highly-censored search results containing tourist information. In addition to Google, the Nobel Prize committee has made leaps toward universal freedom and education. This year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to an orchestrator of rebellions against the Chinese government, who coincidentally is also imprisoned by the government he resisted on account of his efforts. His receipt of the prize is predicted to lead to greater awareness among the Chinese people.
In the Middle East, such a rebellion that is only hypothesized of china has already occurred. A single fruit vendor, residing in Tunis, disenchanted with the treatment he had received from the government, lit himself on fire in a solitary act of resistance. His spontaneous suicidal mutiny did not go unnoticed by his fellow Tunisians.Within days, rioters plagued the streets in such great numbers that military force was required (although, they too could not dampen the flames of rebellion.) Their passionate opposition inspired many Egyptians, particularly the radical political party The Muslim Brotherhood, and spurred an overthrowal of their long-time president Hosni Mubarak, and a complete reestablishment of the Egyptian government. and it began with a Tunisian fruit vendor, who unknowingly educated the masses in a rash act of bravery.
Overcoming justice isn't easy. It requires martyrs and dedication. However, the first and most important step towards freedom is education--of the masses, not of the elite. But until the public is educated, injustice will continue until people are aware of the world around them. The hope lies in education
You may have picked up on the anglerfish motif. I'd like to chalk that up to my own creativity, but I infact ripped it off from the famous vlogger Hank Green, of vlogbrothers fame. Watch the video that inspired it here:
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