Thus Spoke Artsuhtaraz? Chapter 1

I started this a while back; It's essentially my own personal take of Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche, but during my Freshman year. I hope one can see that Artsuhtaraz is Zarathustra spelled backwards... I'll be posting more parts later.

Chapter 1

When Artsuhtaraz was 15 years old, he left his junior high school and advanced into the 9th grade. He was a year older than most of his peers, a product of his parent’s insistence on placing him in school a year later, and by intellectual standards, far ahead. The previous two years had been times of despair. Metaphorically and existentially, he had been lost. It was on this warm summer morning in August, his first day of school that Artsuhtaraz gazed upon the sun and spoke thus unto it: “For two years you have failed to shine on me. For two years I have lived an endless night. For two years, I have been cursed. I now understand, oh sphere of light, that it was not your fault. You rise and set as surely as the Earth circumvents your rays, and you hold no prejudices against those of us who depend on your warmth. It was my fault. The dark veil I had caste around myself prevented your light from penetrating my soul. Alas, I have thrown off that veil. Nevermore will it block your healing waves. I am yours, forevermore.” And so Artsuhtaraz was driven to school by his brother, and thus began Artsuhtaraz’s new life.

Artsuhtaraz arrived at school on time and proceeded to the administration office to pick up his schedules. He saw a group of his friends in line, and, being waved to by a particular friend, Robert (robby), he pushed through the crowd to join them. He felt an overwhelming sense of optimism, not even the presence of, Patty, the girl who rejected him, could dampen his spirits. He knew he would have her one day, because the sun shineth on him now more than all the others. “Hello” said Patty. Artsuhtaraz glanced at her, or rather, glanced straight through her as if not even seeing her, then turned and spoke thus unto Robert. “What classes did you sign up for?” Patty, dismayed, left to join another group of students. Robert quickly listed off his classes, then commented “You totally ignored her, she’s pissed.” “I’ve turned a new leaf my friend,” spoke Artsuhtaraz, “If I ignore her, she’ll come to me.” “Good plan,” replied Robert. Artsuhtaraz got his schedule, and after a quick comparison with Robert and some other friends, realized he had not one single class with someone he knew. Dismayed, Artsuhtaraz walked to his geometry class.

His teacher, Mr. M, was also the quarterback coach of Artsuhtaraz’s football team. Mr. M had never played football though, and Artsuhtaraz found it strange he would be hired to coach the most important position, in Artsuhtaraz’s opinion, on the team. Artsuhtaraz was the quarterback. Mr. M gave Artsuhtaraz a look that portrayed him as having far more intelligence than he actually did, and in smartass fashion, told him how glad he was to have him in the class. Artsuhtaraz shrugged and took his seat. Mr. M told a few jokes which elicited some awkward half laughs, then told the class to take out a piece of paper to take notes. Mr. M then picked up a geometry book and proceeded to lecture, telling the students to take down what he said and wrote on the board. Artsuhtaraz enthusiastically copied down every word that pasty man said, and then took out his geometry book to do some supplemental problems. Opening up to the chapter, his eyes caught the first introductory paragraph. He then glanced at his notes. They were identical. Artsuhtaraz raised his hand and spoke “Mr. M, excuse me, but aren’t these notes verbatim from the book?” “What are you talking about?” Mr. M answered with snobbish prose. “Well, that last sentence you wrote down is exactly from our book.” Mr. M turned a shade of bright red, and told Artsuhtaraz to meet him outside. “What did I do wrong Mr. M?” spoke Artsuhtaraz. “I’m the teacher, I know best. If I want to teach my lesson from the book, then I will, and I won’t listen to some 15 year old child tell me how to do it!” Taken aback, Artsuhtaraz spoke again, “but Mr. M, why come to class if we can find the same material in the book?” Mr. M sneered, his bald head perspiring. “You’ll be running laps today after school, now sit outside until class is over.” Sadly, Artsuhtaraz sat down at an empty desk in the hallway, and began reading a textbook on microbiology. The rest of the day continued much the same. Artsuhtaraz learned Richard Wright was black, he learned in Spanish class that the students suspected the teacher of filming a porno, and in psychology he learned that his teacher had once ridden a motorcycle barefoot, and that House was in its third season. Artsuhtaraz arrived at football dumbed down and tired. It wasn’t long before Mr. M made Artsuhtaraz run laps, watching constantly as if he got a sick pleasure from it. But as soon as he realized Artsuhtaraz wouldn’t tire very easily, he gave up and found another player to pick on. Artsuhtaraz excelled in practice, out-throwing and outrunning the backup quarterbacks. At the end of the day, Mr. M came over to him and said “poor day of practice Artsuhtaraz. Keep that up and we’ll replace you.” Artsuhtaraz shrugged and walked away.

-L.C.

A shot a friend took of me while in Oxford.

 

I'm not normally one to pose, and I wasn't aware he was taking the photo, but it turned out pretty awesome in my (conceited) opinion. 

-L.C.

Helping my peers edit their college essays?

I wasn't aware I was the authority on the subject. Believe me, I think myself a mediocre writer at best, yet they're lining up to hear my opinion. If only I could just say no.....

My friend was asked in one of his prompts to describe an activity he does for pleasure alone; he only has 100 words so it needed to be brief. I thought we'd take a creative approach.

"I await the serve, crouched in a stance that would make Federer wet himself. Pink Floyd plays a calming frequency. The bass on my speakers deepens, bumping the garage, and creating the perfect soundtrack for what is to come. My opponent waits for that psychological moment that occurs when the song reaches crescendo. Suddenly, “ping!” The ball hits the table…”pong!” I redirect his serve over the net. My math mind takes over. “Decrease the angle! Hit it harder, Noam! Not that hard!” For 21 points, I’m in heaven. Then it’s over, until I realize it’s best two out of three."

-L.C.

Philosophy: Who Needs It? A book by Ayn Rand

This is a VERY brief overview of it's impact on my life. I'm far too tired to write more tonight.

Saying that Philosophy: Who Needs It, by Ayn Rand, “surprised, unsettled, or challenged” me would be an understatement. The book could best be described as the marijuana to my cocaine, my gateway into a realm of heightened senses, though in this case, of heightened intellect. There are few experiences in life which we can cite as “changing the way we think,” but reading the collection of essays did just that. It taught me to approach life the way I would a maze: by analyzing every possible angle to determine the proper course of action. It showed me a fundamental error with the way we’re taught to think in high school: to analyze consequences, not causes. When we do this, we assert that the universe is some unknowable realm of inexplicable occurrences that our mind is incapable of grasping. Rand’s book taught me that nothing is a given. We can’t accept something as “inexplicable,” because in doing so, we abnegate our means of survival, our rationality. Man’s happiness, man’s peace, man’s success, even man’s survival, these things must be learned and discovered by the individual. Only by consciously developing as Rand says, an “integrated view of existence,” a life philosophy, can we do this. Rand’s book set me on the path to defining my own philosophical system; I’m not entirely there yet, but things certainly make a lot more sense. Go buy the book; It will change your life.

-L.C.

Ego and Judgement--Some brief ramblings

 How does it feel to be called a name that isn't representative of who you are? How do you deal with people that judge you? 

I was recently asked this question and I thought I should copy my response to the answer of another person.
"It hurts a lot. Especially when it comes from people who you thought were your friends. When you hear other people tell you, "oh yeah they hate you," you want to shrivel up inside. You feel betrayed, lied to, and heartbroken. Ill be nice to them, but I keep a distance, and stay close to the friends that I know know me for who I am, and not for who I am by the creation of others." - Anonymous
I think our anonymous friend misunderstood the question. "How does it feel to be called a name that ISN'T representative of who you are?" Obviously the key word is "isn't." The very fact that the judgment isn't representative of you sets its value to a zero. It has no worth. No merit. No meaning. There is no reason to be offended because it is untrue. "It's absolutely meaningless. To care what others falsely think is abnegation of the self. It makes your values completely subjective to the whims of others. To be offended shows that you believe you have no right to live for your own sake, and that your only standards are the ones created and placed by others---That you have no sense of self worth." -DM You can't set your Ego based on the approval of others. Ego stems from I. It stems from the value you place on yourself. Your Ego is independent from the thoughts and Egos of others.  Author Carlos Ruiz Zafon once wrote that "there are worse prisons than words."The words of others, if false, should be disregarded completely. They are meaningless. The worst prison is the one you trap yourself in by allowing others to alter your values. False words do not devalue your ethics. They don't devalue your "self." A healthy Ego is one that cannot be touched by others.

This is not to say however, that true judgments should be ignored. If you're offended, analyze whether the judgment is true or false. If false, disregard it. It has no effect on your Ego. Only you can build that through the achievement of your values. If the judgment is true, do not take offense at the one passing judgment, but rather, take offense with yourself. Do not deny the facts of reality. Wishing the judgment away will not make the characteristics you were judged upon disappear. Only you, your Ego, can do that. If the judgment is true and offensive, you obviously must possess a characteristic that you don't value. Analyze yourself and change that characteristic to match your values.


-L.C.

Spontaneity

Have you ever been driving down the freeway and wondered what it would be like to climb that "mountain in the distance?" I've done that. It only took four hours scaling cliffs, hacking through poison oak, and stealing a boat to get back. Dare to be spontaneous. Don't wait for life to pass you by while you plan out every little step. If you want to climb the mountain, climb it, don't wait for someone to make a trail.

- L. C.

Prometheus

Prometheus

Sing me in the glen,

A tale of great schism,

Of Men, of Women,

Who accepted no “ism.”

Of the One with the hemlock cup,

Not a value he would sacrifice;

Of the Man who refused to sup,

No enslavement would suffice

The Woman who inspired a nation,

And ended a century war;

A Man of great cultivation,

Was betrayed by a fiddler for;

These People of great Soul,

The ones who gave fire;

Died for a goal,

Because a man was a liar.

But they won long ago,

Those of self sincerity;

Whose noble footsteps echo,

In the halls of eternity.

- L.C.

What Matters Most?

What matters most? This question sent me into a period of introspection that can best be described as the inner ramblings of a madman. It’s so simple a question, yet it’s so hard to do its answer justice because we live in a society that “answers” it for us. I think a short story might best illustrate this. Imagine a teenager, let’s call him Dan. Dan is applying to college.  He’s trying to answer a prompt that has plagued students for years. “What matters most?” Dan’s stumped. He’s never before been asked this question in such broad terms. He starts to think. Nothing. He thinks really hard. “What does everyone else say is important?” They, he decides, will tell him what matters. “Who am I to decide? It’s much bigger than I.” Dan writes his paper. The conclusion of this story isn’t that he got accepted, but rather, it’s that twenty years later, Dan is confronted with the question again. This time, he’s voting for the next U.S. president. He had always been a member of his political party, without really understanding why. “My parents were,” he supposes. He votes for his party member. “What matters to him matters to me.” His vote helps secure a victory. Within a year, martial law is declared, and U.S. democracy is effectively dissolved.

This is an extreme example, but often, examples like this are the best way to illustrate a point. Dan never realized that what matters is the ability to individually decide what matters. He left his responsibility to determine personal values up to “society,” failing to realize that nobody could pinch hit for his reason. Ironically, the society that taught Dan “what matters,” paid the price. When we can’t define objective values, we leave ourselves open to a whimsical interpretation of value based on whatever we are “supposed” to believe. These values can never be upheld, because they’ve never been rationally justified. Around the world the results can be seen: Religious radicals who claim that killing is evil, yet are willing to take a life should someone disagree with them; Politicians who preach family value, yet cheat on their spouses; Rioters who demand "equality," but who are willing to violate the rights of others by burning private property, or, in Dan’s case, a vote for a president that would one day destroy freedom. It would be simple to believe in the virtue of honesty just because society tells me it’s good, but I would be doing what Dan did: accepting society’s standard as a given. It is not a given, and because I considered the alternatives, I can value honesty for what it truly means. By the end of my struggle, I’d come up with this conclusion: in the world today, we’re so tightly handcuffed by tradition that we’ve forgotten the thought process that defined it; as rational humans, we can’t let this happen. We need to remember that it is our ability to create our own values that matters most.

 - L.C.

Virtue - Bumped Thread

Simply put, ethics are the codes that guide our thoughts and actions; they determine the purpose of our life. This seems to be an easily understandable concept, and really, it should be. Why then, does it seem to be so often neglected? The trouble, I think, stems from the education we receive at early ages. For example, we're taught honesty is a virtue. Great, but when the only answer I can get out of my peers about why we should be honest is: "Because lying is bad," we have our problem. People focus so much on secondary causes (virtue) that they are unable to answer or forget about the fundamental issues determining virtue, values. A proper system of ethics cannot exist without first defining values that determine such a moral system.  Virtue presupposes value, because the purpose of virtue is to keep and achieve what we value.

Values: (Objective) Reason, Self Esteem, Purpose

Virtues: Rationality, Pride, Productivity, Integrity, Honesty, Independence, Justice.


Before I give examples and definitions of these principles, I need to first explain the importance of objective values. By objective, I mean based on facts. Our core values are absolute and uncompromisable. They are not whimsical, and are by no means utilitarian, in which concepts such as good and evil are subjective from day to day. In the simplest sense, A is A, never B, just as B is B, never A. This may seem extreme, but let me illustrate an example. How many people do you know, from politicians, to coworkers, to friends, that claim to like honesty, integrity, and justice? The majority of them. How many do you know that truly adhere to the virtues they want to live by? The number is probably much smaller. The reason for this is avoidance, conscious or unconscious. People try to live by virtue without ever bothering to understand the value systems that determine it. The results can be seen all over the world today: Religious radicals who claim that killing is evil, yet are willing to take a life on a whim should someone disagree with them. Politicians who preach family value, yet cheat on their spouses. Rioters who demand "equality" from the government, but are willing to violate the rights of others by burning private property. These are all extreme, but the results of non-objective values are ultimately all the same: irrationality and hypocrisy.

Reason: Living within the context of reality, ie, dealing with facts. Individuals often spend too much time debating decisions on what "could, would, or should, be." They make a tragic mistake by focusing on ideas that are disconnected from reality. As humans, reason is our means to survival. We have few other advantageous abilities.

Corresponding virtue, Rationality:
Rationality is achieved by living in accordance with honesty, justice, independence, and integrity.

Honesty: We are consistent with the facts of reality. People fail when they disconnect themselves from reality. Lying is ultimately self-destructive, because it forces one to be in constant conflict with reality in order to maintain the untruth.

Integrity: We will always act consistently with our principles, because our principles were determined through objective logic. Short term benefits are considered, but they are never able to justify acting inconsistently with our principles, because ultimately that will be a long-term detriment. We will not compromise our values under any circumstances.

Justice: We will not exchange a higher value for a lower one. We reward individuals based on their contributions to accomplishing our goals and their adherence to our values. Those who contribute the most will earn the most. Essentially we are a meritocracy in the purest sense, and our creed is "Judge and prepare to be judged yourself." (with reason)

Independence: The essence of this entire system of value and virtue is individualism. We push ourselves and others to achieve their maximum potential through individual thought and effort. Creativity is only possible for the individual. Teamwork is important, but only through voluntary agreement that acknowledges that our minds are separate. The collective mob is never the standard for value. Individuals are responsible for their own thoughts and actions, and will be evaluated accordingly.


Self- Esteem: A strong work ethic, self motivation, and an expectation to succeed. As you can see, this last part, confidence, could be easily misconstrued if we didn't first value Reason. While we have self esteem, we recognize areas in which we must improve. One should have strong personal goals and place their long term self interest on the highest pedestal.

Corresponding virtue, Pride: Pride was once said to be the highest of all virtues, because it presupposed all the rest. One can only truly be proud if they adhere to all of their values, objectively.  Pride comes from living honestly, independently, etc. Reason again, is key to this virtue, as pride can easily turn into arrogance if once doesn't maintain rationality.



Purpose: I once read a quote by Albert Camus that said:
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy."

The most important question one can answer is: "Why live?" It seems so simple but it's so often neglected. Ask yourself, what are you living for? Yourself? Others? Can you truly ever live for others? I've found the purpose of my life is the experience of living in whichever way I rationally see fit.

Corresponding virtue, Productivity:
Once we know purpose, we can commit ourselves to taking the necessarily actions to produce happiness.


The Six L's to Living:
Live Consciously: One remains ever-aware of the present moment. One of my favorite writers, Seneca, once wrote that one should remember the past, live in the present, and anticipate the future.

Live Purposefully: One seeks to reach ones highest potential. "No Goals, no Glory!"

Live with Integrity: One knows and understands his/her principles and lives by them consciously and consistently. "He sets his feet on a rock, not upon sinking sand." - Godly Man, one of my favorite songs.

Live with Self-Acceptance: One lives accepting who they are at the present moment, but acknowledges there are still things they desire to become.

Live with Self-Assertiveness: One must honor himself and his values with word and action.

Live with Self-Responsibility: One is responsible for their own destiny. Some events may be out of ones control, but in the grand spectrum of life, the individual must create the world they wish to live in. This comes from my favorite quote. "Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours." - Ayn Rand

The Overly Concious Romantic - A short story

I stare at the last text I sent her at 12:23. It's now 12:40. "I knew I shouldn't have said that!" I tell myself. "She probably thought that was weird. I screwed up." I sigh. "Oh well," and I turn the lights off. Darkness slowly creeps over the blur in my retinas left by the sudden change in light.
I relax into my pillow and toss my phone on the floor. "It's over."
I hear something. "What's that? It's a buzz! She's texted back!" I'm suddenly on the floor, frantically groping in the darkness for my phone, not realizing that if it did indeed buzz, the screen would be glowing. "I won't respond to her text." I decide. "That will make her think of me." I find my phone and click it on. No new text. "She hates me!" I scream in my head. Images of all the possible things she could be thinking fill my mind. They always end the same. "I messed up." Time seems to stop. I'm not sure how long I sit on the floor. "Wait! She could be asleep." My heart is overjoyed with this revelation. "She once said she wakes up around 5 am. I should receive a response then." I relax, drop my phone, and crawl back into bed. My eyes are almost closed. Suddenly, the voice in my head says, "wait! This is an opportunity to impress her. Wake up at 5 and respond to her text. She'll think it's interesting that you both wake up at the same time." New images pop into my head: images of all of the good times we're sure to have in the future. "This will make her like me! I'm a genius." I set my alarm to 5 am. "I'll be ready." I place my phone next to me in bed. "She obviously has feelings for me. That last winky face she sent was special. But what if she didn't like my remark? I thought it was clever, but will she? Ah! She must think it was weird. Clever remarks are never met with silence" I'm rolling in bed. "It's time for sleep...only morning will tell the truth." It's been five minutes and I'm almost asleep. I think I hear a buzz..."That's her! Where's my phone?"

- L.C.

Parody of Hamlet's "To Be or Not to Be" for viewer Clifton W.

To troll, or not to troll: That is the question.

Is it better to suffer the annoying thoughts and actions of outrageous people,

Or to, like a boss, speak my mind, and harangue and harass said people for amusements sake,

And, by making them feel inadequate, end their desire to be themselves.

And by end, I mean to destroy any confidence within them,

And to take great pleasure in doing this.

It’s something I greatly wish though,

That one day, nothing will annoy me.

No, that’s a lie. I live through cyniscm.

If nobody bothered me, what would I say? Who would I degrade?

This, I’ve already seen made manifest when I manufacture annoyance in a certain Campbell.

He does nothing that bothers me, and yet, that bothers me.

I must create an illusion of annoyance to justify my Sheenery,

Sheenery, of course, meaning my idol, recently released from Two and a Half Men.

Incidentally, I don’t know why my thoughts are coming out with such clarity,

My grammar is so stilted, my spelling so poor, as to shame my elementary school teachers.

This is not to say I’m not intelligent.

In fact, I’m probably too intelligent. To be overly conscious, they say, is a disease.

That’s it! That’s why I enjoy trolling. I simply love doing it.

No, that’s not it.

There is nothing more fun than Sheenery, surely, yet, there is method in every troll.

Maybe it’s my 32 ounce Mountain Dew that makes me so confrontational.

The sugar rush must surely not be healthy.

Perhaps it’s my addiction to Chick Fil-A; genetically modified chicken does affect the temper, right?

The answer is upon my conscious.

It’s my walk; that aggressive and lumbering gait

Two adjectives, a paradox to normal people, that nevertheless describe it so well.

The way I carry myself must have an effect on my thoughts.

None of this is true.

I should like to help everyone: Jew, Gentile, Black person and white person.

I don’t want to live of others misery.

My occasional sexist slurs could be avoided if I only had a girlfriend.

I want love. That’s it.

Why ask whether to troll? Let me ask, whether to love?

The answer is must simpler.

- L.C.

Wake Forest and Colgate Essays

Prompt 2 - This year our Wake Forest Student Union invited expert students to become teachers of non-credit classes in the Wake Forest Experimental college. Provide us with the title of a course that you could teach your peers. 250 characters


2) Modern History Through Firsthand Accounts. I’ve always found that history through text is limited. The barriers of language make it impossible to capture an event and we’re left with essentially a negative waiting to be developed. The class relies primarily on guest speakers and student interaction. We’ll learn about 9/11 from firefighters. We’ll hear perspectives on the economic collapse from John Allison. We’ll discuss Iraq with military officials. The class will be presented in a non-CNN/FOX/NBC manner, meaning it’s uncensored, meaning it’s real.

Prompt 3 - Make a rational argument for a position you do not personally support. For clarity, please state your true opinion first and then argue the opposite position. 1000 characters

3) F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that genius is marked by the ability to hold two opposing viewpoints. This is essentially what your prompt is asking me to do. This is wrong. Rational presupposes an evaluation of the facts of reality, separate from the judgment being made and the person making it. The subjectivism posed in your question implies something can never be true prior to being judged. This denial of objectivity prevents a rational argument from being made because it means that judgment has no independent existence separate from the mind. Thus the question stated in the prompt makes every argument arbitrary, and groundless. Instead of asking this of applicants, let’s ask another one. While you’re at it, you can even ask yourself. “Make a rational argument for a position you support.” I’ve found that very few people can do this once the question “Why” has been posed. Why is honesty good? Why is killing evil? You’ll learn more about a person from their ability to answer those questions and rationally support them than their ability to counterfeit reason with quasi-rationalism.


Colgate

At Colgate we value global awareness and the diverse perspectives of our students. Through travel, students are able to experience different cultures and take advantage of new opportunities that can make our community richer when they return to campus. If you had the opportunity to travel anywhere in the world during your time at Colgate, where would you go, and why? 250 Words


No country is more appealing to me than Russia. Reading the history and literature of a people described by perhaps it’s most famous author as having a “rudimentary spiritual need…for suffering…everywhere and in everything” lifts us to greater heights than do the tragedies of ancient Greece. They meet life with an unusual vitality of character, able to flux between absolute joy and despair in a matter of minutes. For an outsider, one who’s experienced the Russian sense of life only through literature, it’s fiction brought into the real world. It’s this world I want to immerse myself in, a world in which I hope to experience that heightened sense of emotion that is so uniquely Russian. I want to see life through the eyes of Ivan Karamazov, to think the thoughts of the Underground Man, if only to better understand the human psyche. One, I feel, can’t truly do this until they’ve walked the streets of St. Petersburg, until they’ve experimented in morality like Raskolnikov (naturally not to that extent), and until they’ve shared Vodka with a fellow intellectual over a wooden table in a cold Russian winter. I want to stand where Lenin stood when he called for the most evil political system the world has ever seen and to hear the thunderous applause that greeted it. I want to walk in the forests of Siberia and feel the souls of the millions sent there to die, so I can know what human irrationality is capable of. I want to experience the extreme highs and extreme lows that mark the barometer of Russian culture in order to truly understand the human capacity to feel.


-L.C.