Wednesday, December 19, 2007

laings reaction

i think this guy has a lot of crazy ideas about the body and the mind and how we live our life. When i first read it i honestly thought he was full of crap, that he was simply trying to justify why he himself is so weird and isolated. And try to prove that its normal for people now a days to act like this, but after rereading a couple of times and hearing other opinions about him he seemed to make a lot of sense. He also backed up all his arguments so i couldn't prove him wrong. He says that being normal isn't a good thing "normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years" and "there are forms of alienation that are relatively strange to statistically "normal" forms of alienation. the "normal" alienated person, by reason of the fact that acts more or less like everyone else, is taken to be sane." he is saying its bad to be "normal" and can be dangerous to others. That we miss most of our lives feeling,dreams, childhood etc because its the norm in socity

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

thinking

"does school turn us into robots or better thinkers?" i think that it is meant to make us better thinkers but along the way with all the all the rules and rituals of the day it makes us turn in a "robots" or "zombies". the schedule of school turns into the same thing same day after day after day. And in that process we start to just act and follow rules insead of think for ourselfs, this causes people to ignore their experince and alienate themselfs proving what Laing said to be true.

the pleasure machine

At first i didnt want to try it at all thinking that i would b a better person and stay in reality instead of a mind numming fake world. Then i realzied the machine was like a drug or a video game so i thought about the question in a different way.I would try the machine for a short period of time, so that i can see what the fuss is all about first hand. the problem wih that is that i might form a addiction and if that happens i would taint reality because all i would be thinking about would be the machine and not be able to enjoy the real world i live in. If u think about it the world is full of "pleasure machines" that distracts u from the real world. Like for example drugs,porn,films,music,tv etc, this is further reason why i would try the "pleasure machine". Because in real life i tried many of those and since it the same concept i wouldnt want to be a hypocrite.

feelings 2

when i first read Laing's argument i was little skeptical but after thinking about it and how i personally handle my feeling i think that he is right. we tend to ignore them until they become so exteme that they start to have a phyical effect and our body is forcing us to notice. Or when the feeling is "bad"(upset, angry etc) we try to distract ourselfs so we can take ur mind off it. he feels that this will further alienate ourselfs from our bodies and our experience.

i noticed after focusing on my feeling and emotions at a certain time everyday that i am tired and annoyed almost 100% of the time, i think this is because a certain place and action triggers a feeling, and since everyday we basicly have the same schedule i feel the same way everyday. I think that it is a shame that people dont focus on their feeling more of the time but in some cases it could be a good thing. If some1 is emotionally unstable it can be dangerous for them to focus on their feelings. Even some are on medacation so they can be distracted and "feel" happy and calm, putting them in the situastion could put them and others around them in pain.

feelings

how we deal- i think most people in the world hide from there feelings,they are scared to express because in society some emotions and feelings are frowned apon.

how we should deal- i think that it differs from feeling to feeling. Certain extreme feelings should b held back in order to stop yourslef from doing something u might regret for example if your upset and angry at a person u wont hurt or kill them when ur in that state.

laings argument

initial ropsonse

pizza chart

care bears

daily feelings notes