my minds inner workings

So for the past however many weeks I’ve been pretty... thinky? It just seems like I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my past my present and future.  The more I think of it the more I get sort of stuck. I can never really find the words to explain how I feel. So now I’ve kinda had all these unseen thought in my head and my lack of a proper outlet has led me to this point. My brain is overfilled with all these thoughts that I’m not really aware of, and as an outlet I usually feel the need to write hoping that if I just shut off my mind that some form of an understandable thing will just pop up. So I thought I might as well write up on something that I need to do. Luckily it’s more of me wanting to let out my thought than feeling obligated to write for an assignment, thus I won’t end up writing some shoddy piece of work of which I have no positive feelings towards it. So here goes nothing, and if you are reading this (I don’t expect much people to actually read this) then welcome to my minds inner workings.

So we have been doing a lot of discussion, some more heated than others, about 1984 and how the government influences events in time not only in the book but also in our own present. Different people have brought up many good points and some not so good, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. However, we must realize that this is a world of individuals who have different opinions and as intellectual beings we must learn to accept that and respect others. We must remember that just because someone has an opposing opinion towards our own belief, it doesn’t mean that someone is attacking us. Anyways back to the point at hand, today we had a very nice discussion in class in which everyone was given ample opportunity to speak up and voice their thoughts. We were given the ability to think for ourselves while at the same time build upon others views, which is what I believe learning to be all about. Forgive me if I lose my point it happens often, and since I’m writing as an outlet and not solely for completing an assignment, it will be more prevalent.

The Texas history curriculum has caused many to voice their opinions and to criticize those who voted for a change. It seems like people are quite concerned about how certain events in time are being erased in our history books. It seems like all the small events and struggles that led up to victories are being erased from are memories and to be forgotten by the future generations. History is being left to be decided by a small group of people who have no real understanding of history other than their mere thoughts and opinions. They claim to be removing bias from the books and argue that they are merely balancing history, but in reality they are making things more skewed. We are heading towards a future in which we are no longer given all the information of our past in our immediate hands. They are erasing the views and stories of the minorities (in race and in gender) and all the struggles they faced to reach the point they are in today. How tragic would it be to live in a future in which the youth has no knowledge of the struggle the African American population faced to obtain their equality, or how women fought so that they might be considered just as valuable to society as their male counterparts, or about all the other minorities that have faced oppression in the hands of our so called heroes.  The fact that I can’t even list any more examples shows how much the voice of the minority is unheard. America is a land so diverse and it would be nonexistent if it hadn’t been for all the minorities that played such a great factor in our history. Our nation was built by so many people of all kinds and not just by our founding fathers and all those who we regard as American heroes.

The possibility of creating a purely objective textbook is impossible. Everyone has their own opinions and they will permeate into whatever they are creating. Even listing facts alone wouldn’t even be completely true. We are thought from childhoods that it was Christopher Columbus who had discovered America, but in reality America was already populated before he could even dream about such a place. It is impossible to create any piece of work that is unbiased, so instead we should just do our best to present the opinions of others and acknowledge their importance,

 I am a firm believer that the journey is just as important as the destination. It is through the struggles that we can truly appreciate our victories and learn from them in order to make ourselves better human beings. Is studying history, we should be given not only our nations victories but also the struggles of the people, heroes and victims alike. We should also be given free reign to be able to think about the events. We should be encouraged to think of the past as if it were the present. In other words we should be given sufficient information so that we can relate to the past and thus absorb the information and grow from it. It is when we look at things from our own eyes and attach emotions to them that they become truly meaningful. We should be given the freedom to think about the hows and the whys and not just be told of them. It is when we are given this freedom that we can truly learn and grow into a better future.

If we are not given the chance to think for ourselves, if we are not allowed to interpret information as our own then how can we grow? It is when we use our minds that we are at our best. If our history is made to be just dates and “facts” and if we are not given the chance to analyze things then how are we different from the inhabitants of Oceania in 1984. If we just let these books regulated by the government tell us what we know then are we really human beings? Or do we become merely empty robots to be controlled. If we accept every bit of information given to us without question then how can we move forward, we would just be stuck in a repetitive cycle just like those under Big Brother. When we lose the ability to think then we lose our freedom. “Freedom is freedom to say that two plus two makes four,” but why? Why can’t two plus two make five or six or seven, we can make it so and it will still be freedom. We can make it whatever we want and it will be freedom as long as we come to the conclusion ourselves. Freedom is the ability to think. It is the ability to analyze the information we are given and make it our own. If this is taken from us, if we are simply given “facts” and are forced to accept them, then that is life without freedom.

The surface means nothing if you cannot see beneath it. As long as we are given the chance to do so, then we will be fine.