Question 1:
Does one believe in the power of fate or that of free will? That’s a very good question because in one you play a passive role in your life, and in the other you play an active role. I think there is no one way or the other but a mix of the two forces. Fate gives you a hand of cards, and free will allows you to play the cards the way you want to.
If life was decided by fate, then we would move around like robots. If life was based on free will, then we would have everything we ever wanted in our lives. The truth is life doesn’t work that way. There are many obstacles and surprises in life, and we are free to decide how we want to approach them.
An example of this might be that life gives you a lemon ( say living with a disability), you can decide to live in a wheelchair and do nothing, or you can roll your wheelchair outside and move around in this world of your own free will.
Question 2:
Has there ever been a time in your life where it was okay to lie? Has there ever been a time where you just didn’t want to know the truth? This question presumes that people are perfect and everyone lives a moral life when that is absolutely not true. Everyone lies, and we even lie to ourselves. We lie all the time because we have been taught to avoid hurting people’s feelings, so we hold back on our feelings and tell the person what they want to hear. We also expect people to do the same for us. Somehow if the truth comes out, it feels ugly so we hide it by lying so that we don’t have to deal with something unpleasant.
As a citizen of conscience I believe that it is never okay to lie. Lying means being untruthful. I believe that many people lie to get out of something and or to avoid getting into trouble. I have lied myself to prevent conflict in my life. I remember lying once to a friend when this person wanted to try out for the basketball team. I told him not to bother, and that it was not fun at all. I also told him that practices were so difficult, and that it was basically three months of hell. But, in reality I find that when I’m playing basketball I’m having one of the best times of my life. I just didn’t want the person to get hurt if he got cut from the team. Or to basically waste his time and not play. This actually happened to me when I was playing for the freshmen team at South Hadley High School. I hated that season. The reason for this was that I hardly got any court time and spent most of the season on the bench. I knew that I was telling a lie, but in some way I felt that I was protecting my friend.
Many people say that they would rather be told the truth, yet when that happens they get angry, upset and sulk away. Whether you lie or tell the truth, there will be consequences and it is your personal choice which way you would rather go. Do you want to live a life based on truth or lies? I’d rather live with the ugly truth because then I’d know what I have to deal with and can change.
Question 3:
The Oedipus complex is that in man’s childhood, he has the desire to sleep with the mother and kill his father is based on the story of Oedipus. Oedipus didn’t know that his mother was his wife and he didn’t know that the man he killed was actually his father. Freud says that this is an unconscious feeling, which makes it difficult to understand because we would be unaware of it.
I think in general we are very protective of our mothers because they take care of us, and we don’t want anything to happened to them. We may see our fathers as threats if they take away some of the attention that our mothers give to us because we want it only for ourselves.
I think there may be some truth to this, but I don’t believe it is so hostile. We may share and not like having to do so, but we wouldn’t get rid of the other person for our own selfish desires. We share our mothers with our fathers as we do with our brothers and sisters.
Question 4:
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Antigone chooses to do what was right instead of what was easy. This is probably one of the best lessons we can learn from literature. We like to go through life making easy choices because it is easier that way. We say we take the path of easy resistance so that life doesn’t become difficult.
Yet, this is the dumbest thing to do because you sell yourself short. You don’t do what you would want to do. Antigone knew what she had to do. She believed in herself and fought for it. She risked death to bury her brother. When you believe that you are doing the right thing you should definitely stand up for what you believe in.
However, you must be sure that you have all the facts. You may believe very strongly about something and you could be wrong. For example I may believe that people should work and not live on food stamps, and I can vote or fight against this every chance I get. But I could be wrong because I wouldn’t know what its like to struggle, or what it is like to get a break in this world and may not even have any good options. I maybe be standing up for what I think is the right thing, and I could be wrong. I think you need a criteria that his higher than what we think or believe in to base our decisions on. We can’t always do what we think is right.
