Thought Exercise #12: Due 11/26/13

“Let them see that you trust them & let them solve their own problems, make their own decisions.Do that & they will commit their lives to you. Bully the, control them out of fear or malice or just for your own convenience, & after a while you'll have to spend all your time thinking for them, controlling them, & stifling their resentment.” 
― Octavia E. Butler, Fledgling

I think of the Golden Rule: Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated. There is the saying that "What goes around comes around," which also applies to the concept of karma, in which all your actions and treatment of others will in one way or another come back to you. When a one is shown kindness, trust, and support, a relationship of mutual understanding, trust, and commitment to bringing out the best in one another can truly blossom and be mutually beneficial. But when one is bullied and mistreated in any way, karma will turn things against the original perpetrator.

The quote from "Fledgling" also made me think of the quote from Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince":  “It is best to be both feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both it is better to be feared than loved....It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” After all, to run a government, or to be a leader, one has to be feared to a certain degree in order to be respected, but it is a tricky balance to be a great leader who treats others well and is loved, while being recognized as a powerful, trustworthy, dependable leader at the same time.

Thought Exercise #11: Due 11/19/13

"In Kanaka Hawai'i cosmology, Kanaka Maoli (real people, human beings) share family relationships with the entire universe. This is best understood first through the Kumulipo, which is a cosmogonic prayer as well as the genealogy of Kalakaua and Lili'uokalani....In this cosmology, humans are part of a vast family that includes celestial bodies, plants, animals, landforms, and deities....The distinction between animal and human is clearly drawn nowhere in this cosmology. Humans descend from landforms, kalo, animals, and humans."
--Jonathan Goldberg and Noenoe Silva, "Sharks and Pigs: Animating Hawaiian Soverignty Against the Anthropological Machine"

This cosmology reminds me of the ecological system of the earth. All around the earth, all creatures are interconnected in one way or another. As I learned from biology class, all life originates from the sun, since the plants gain their energy via photosynthesis, and life on earth ultimately depends on the energy source from the sun. Without the sun, life would not exist. Building upon the energy from the sun, all life on earth depend on one another for survival, even if it means hunting down each other to keep the population number in balance. Yet, as Mufasa from Walt Disney's The Lion King said tells his son:

Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope. 
Young Simba: But, Dad, don't we eat the antelope? Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connnected in the great Circle of Life. 


And so, life goes on and on.

Thought Exercise #10: Due 11/12/13

"How intelligible is the (or an) Asian body? "Asian American" sex and gender positions are deeply polarized; the missing Asian male phallus is countered by a female hypersexuality ranging in representation from the submissive geisha to the "dragon lady."
--Mel Chen, "Queer Animality"

The Asian body is foreign to the Western world, sometimes to the point of being seen as animals to outsiders. Asian women have a stereotype of being very meek, shy, and submissive, yet extremely hyper-sexual once behind closed doors. Meanwhile, the men in the Western media are typically shy geeks, complete omega males who cannot assert themselves in society. Growing up as a non-whitewashed Asian American, I'm proud to say that I'm quite in touch with my asian heritage, and am also proud to say that my dating/sexual preferences goes to asian men, mainly due to similar cultural values. I know that when some asian girls express interest in asian men, some people will gawk at them in awe, and ask, "Wait? What???? How do you like asian guys?" In addition, one hilarious, yet disturbing, Tumblr website titled "Creepy White Men," is a collection of screenshots of demeaning messages that asian females receive on dating websites from, you guessed it, creepy caucasian men.

In one entry, an asian girl got a message from a creepy white guy who asked her who the asian guy in one of her collection of pictures was. When she told him it was Wang LeeHom,  he told her, "What the Hell? Asian guys are so ugly. Don't you know that asian girls prefer white guys?" As if he thought he could force an opinion on her! For the record, the white guy was unattractive, and Wang LeeHom was the hot guy with the chiseled body. Of course a handsome asian man would be preferable over any ugly white guy any day, at least, based on looks.

The Creepy White Guy tumblr page can be found here for disturbing hilariousness. http://creepywhiteguys.tumblr.com/

Thought Exercise #9: Due 11/5/13

When reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," I thought of how the earlier androids were easier to be detected by the bounty hunters due to their limited intelligence. However, as android technology improved, bounty hunters had to administer the Voigt-Kampff empathy test in order to distinguish humans from androids. This test was done by measuring empathetic responses, or lack thereof, from questions designed to evoke an emotional response, often including animal subjects and themes. Since androids lack empathy, their responses are either absent or feigned and are measurably slower than a human's.

This made me think of serial killers, psychopaths, and hardened criminals in real life. Many of these types of people lack empathy, compassion, and sense of remorse that the larger portion of society would be able to express. There are men who would rape and kill, finding it as thrilling as if they were children going out to devour ice cream. They are like monsters living among us, among human beings, hidden in society with the exterior of humans. It makes me think of this quote from the anime "Death Note," in which the detective known simply as "L" confesses to a child that his greatest fear are monsters, and gives this explanation:

There are...many types of monsters in this world: Monsters who will not show themselves and who cause trouble; monsters who abduct children; monsters who devour dreams; monsters who suck blood, and... monsters who always tell lies. Lying monsters are a real nuisance. They are much more cunning than other monsters. They pose as humans even though they have no understanding of the human heart. They eat even though they've never experienced hunger. They study even though they have no interest in academics. They seek friendship even though they do not know how to love. If I were to encounter such a monster, I would likely be eaten by it. Because in truth, I am that monster.”