A Selfish Economy

In my Senior Seminar class in high school, one of the philosophers whose teachings we discussed was the Dalai Lama, both a religious and political leader of Tibetan Buddhism. One of the many virtues he promotes is altruism, which a friend of mine, Estée Arts, compared and contrasted to the teachings of Ayn Rand, a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter, on selfishness.

Rand severely criticizes the tradition of so called “altruistic” morality, and the lack of liberty it permits. When the Dalai Lama states that the “Basic joys and comforts of life such as food, shelter, clothing, and companionship are all dependent upon other sentient beings,” He is wrong in the way he chooses to state this. Although other beings may provide food and shelter, etc. via their career choices, it is still up to the individual to attain these things for themselves. Altruism emphasizes that you are supposed to help everyone, but it does not say exactly what you are supposed to do. True altruism consists of complete focus on another being. If the Dalai Lama believed in true altruism, he wouldn’t have the eight verses of Training the Mind on how to change your own attitudes and perceptions because evidently it really wouldn’t be about you, but about everyone else. But if everyone were to ask: “What do you want me to do?” Whomever they ask will reply, “Well it’s not about me, it’s about you. What do you want me to do?” and nothing will ever be done for anybody. The individual is responsible to do what is good (and rational) for themselves and this is what Rand says will result in happiness. If the welfare is not focused on the individual, there is a collapse in morality because in reality not only would the individual not be able to achieve exactly what is best for everyone else, but they would be left with their own wishes unfulfilled—and there’s the catch. It’s not about their wishes anyway: “He may hope that others might occasionally sacrifice themselves for his benefit, as he grudgingly sacrifices himself for theirs, but he knows that the relationship will bring mutual resentment, not pleasure—and that, morally, their pursuit of values will be like an exchange of unwanted, unchosen Christmas presents, which neither is morally permitted to buy for himself. Apart from such times as he manages to perform some act of self-sacrifice, he possesses no moral significance: morality takes no cognizance of him and has nothing to say to him for guidance in the crucial issues of his life; it is only his own personal, private, “selfish” life and, as such, it is regarded either as evil or, at best, amoral” (Rand, 1964). Where is the morality in this? This lifestyle diminishes human dignity and rights. When the individual is forced to rely solely on others to provide for them, they lose purpose. Now you may say that their purpose is for the common good, but in fact it is not. It has already been established that the individual is not capable of providing the desires of another being and is therefore useless to others and ultimately to themselves. This is why Rand argues that true morality is where individuals strive for their own (rational) wants. Rand characterizes altruistic beings as one who "permits no concept of a self-respecting, self-supporting man-- a man who supports his life by his own effort and neither sacrifices himself nor others. It means that altruism permits no view of men except as sacrificial animals and profiteers-on-sacrifice, as victims and parasites-- that it permits no concept of justice" (Rand, 1964).

Many of these thoughts tie in very closely with Adam Smith's idea of the free market. It's because of self-interest that the economy functions the way it does. People often dream about utopia's where everyone is willing to give everything for the good of others. Would that work? Even if we take money out of the equation, like the "gift market" is beginning to do, there would still be capitalist motives driving the economy. Until the Millennium, it seems that the only way to make up for the natural human instinct is to, indeed, capitalize on it and let the "invisible hand" do its thing.

P.s. I would really like some feedback on this one. I'm still trying to sort out my thoughts. And if you can't see two chunks of the quote, let me know. I was having some formatting problems with this one.

Reflection

This is a personal evaluation of my first term of blogging for my Digital Civilization class at BYU. It doesn't contain any new research or profound insight, but if you like to simply hear me think out loud...

Experimenting with Google Docs

As the "Leviathan" of Google grows, more people are being are being introduced to the many applications of it. I've heard numerous times about the use of Google Docs for different purposes so I decided to try it out for myself. (I realize that my last Digital Literacy Lab was also on a function of Google, but being a long-time Gmail user I feel that it's long overdue to learn this).

Once again I began by using lynda.com to learn the basic layout. It's fairly straightforward, and when you begin creating or viewing a document, you will probably notice that it's very similar to Microsoft Word, just with fewer operations. Rather than spending my time with the common text documents, I decided to test a few of the less familiar areas of Google Docs.

I first started creating a Google Form. Using that I was able to make a more advance version of those infinitely long junior high email quizzes that ask all those random questions about how well you know the person. I had fun experimenting with the different formats for writing questions (text, multiple choice, check boxes, choose from a list, scales, etc.). You even get to choose from a number of themes. My final step with that was to send it to a few of my friends and view their results. One downside, however, was that there was know way of entering in the correct answers and having it automatically graded (at least as far as I could tell).

My final test was something Google probably didn't intend when they created Google Docs. Underneath the Create New Form tab, there's a tab for Drawing. A friend of mine was logged onto gmail at the time so the two of us began playing hangman online. It was neat being able to edit the drawing simultaneously and use all the random tools available. It's not something that has quite as many applications to Consuming, Creating, and Connecting as, say, working on a group paper together, but it does give a good idea of what Google Docs is capable of.

Video Games' Influence on Language

I've been searching for articles about the influence of video games on popular culture, primarily on language, but it seems like the topic hasn't been researched enough to provide the solid evidence that some people demand.  The closest thing I found was a blog written by a student at Stanford University but even that is still a work in progress.

Increasingly over the past few years there have been a number of words from gamer lingo that have managed to slip out into pop culture (although I haven't been around long enough to know the exact origin of each).

- Noob
- Woot
- 1337
- Fail (as an interjection)
- pwn
- epic (not poetic kind)

...and possibly more that I'm also not aware of.

Many people that have picked up these words have no idea they came from video games. They may have never even played one in their life. I'm anxious to study this phenomenon more in depth and figure out not only how these words go from the virtual world to reality, but also why some words make it and others don't.

What can you do with a Wii remote?

Many people don't realize how powerful some of the technology we own can be (myself included). Here's a fascinating demonstration on what one guy learned how to do with a simple Wii Remote, which is now one of the most common computer input devices in the world. My mom is actually the one who showed this to me. She wanted me to set it up for her so she could use it in her classes. I still haven't gotten around to it though. If you are short on time, I recommend at least watching the second video, it's probably the most applicable to everyday use (e.g. teaching a class, business presentations, etc.). And the best part about it? It's free! Johnny Lee teaches you everything you need to do to create something like this on your own, another great example of open educational resources and the free software movement.

http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/

The Glorious Revolution, Open Government, Free Software

In 1688 the unthinkable happened. A bloodless revolution in England, known today as the Glorious Revolution, led to the overthrowing of King James II and established Parliament as the primary power of government. Despite the fact that the United States of America had not even formed yet, this event is crucial in our country's history.

 

 Image taken from http://www.thegloriousrevolution.org/

For many years, England strove to perfect their laws. The Whig Party, England's first political party, which formed not long before the Glorious Revolution, had "a dark view of human nature" (39). They struggled with the prospect of a few corrupt men trying to manipulate Parliament. With the help of teachings from Aristotle, they noted that "if one mixed and balanced power among rival authorities in a constitutional system, chances were that no single one of them would accumulate enough power to do the others harm" (39).

The same principles are being applied in multiple ways today. First, there is the idea of Open Government, which focuses on eliminating government secrecy and allowing increased public input and participation. A recent website called Challenge.gov has been set up and funded by the government to find solutions to many of the country's challenges today. It's free to participate and prizes are given for the winners of each challenge.

Also, there is the Free Software movement which is pushing to make as much software open to the public, not necessarily free of price, but freedom to run it, freedom to study how it works and make changes if one wishes, freedom to redistribute, and freedom to distribute modified copies. Much like challenge.gov, this capitalizes on the fact that the more eyes there are on something, the more likely it is for an improvement to be found, and that person in turn can open it up to others for enhancement. See gnu.org for more information.

These three events and movements are only small victories in comparison to what the world would be like if we successfully managed to fuse the world's intellect together into one giant mastermind.

How to Calendar

For my Digital Civilization class at Brigham Young University we have what we call "Digital Literacy Labs" in which we choose or are assigned a certain lab (e.g. bookmarking or screencasting) and then go off on our own to not only learn the skill, but be able to apply it to our interactions with the digital world today.

My first lab is on Calendaring, of which I'm going to demonstrate as briefly as I can a few of the basics.

Journals

I had the great privilege to read a paper written by my Digital Civilizations teacher, Dr. Gideon Burton, titled Our Mormon Renaissance. By the time I had finished it, my mind was overflowing with my own thoughts and comments that I thought I should add my two cents to his. I mean neither to boast of my own accomplishments nor lessen the value of Dr. Burton's words with this rough draft, but simply to share my own experience with the "Mormon Renaissance".

Anyone who has ever asked me the cliche question "If your house was on fire and you could only save one thing on your way out, what would you take?" should know that, without any hesitation, I would save my journals. I have been fortunate enough to have at least one successful New Year's resolution which happened on January 1, 2003. I resolved to write every day in my journal, and although I occasionally have to catch up on a day or two, I've kept my goal.

For many years it remained a very basic day to day summary of what I did. In fact, it still feels like that occasionally, but that's part of being in the "Mormon Renaissance".

The one thing I am not afraid to do in my writing is scribble. One glance through the pages of my journals show "the thousand dying bodies of those false attempts, the skeletons of first or worst ideas".

President Spencer W. Kimball once said, "What could you do better for your children and your children's children than to record the story of your life, your triumphs over adversity, your recovery after a fall, your progress when all seemed black, your rejoicing when you had finally achieved?"

To sum up some of the benefits of writing in a journal, I will take from list in an article by Salli Hollenzer to which I can also attest to.

• Having a written family record of details that are a practical source of information.
• Having a clearer, richer memory of the past.
• Having a practical method of setting, tracking, and following through with goals.
• Having a therapeutic means to resolve emotional, social, and spiritual issues.
• Improving writing skills.
• Having a form of personal scripture.

Blogs are also becoming a very popular medium for keeping a journal. By the time I have kids and they're old enough to be keeping a journal, maybe handwriting it will be obsolete.

Experience

"So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the pith of a man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am currently taking a class on Digital Civilization which, in a nutshell, is looking at western civilization through the eyes of the digital revolution. One of the very first readings we were given was "The Painter" by Leonardo Da Vinci. What stood out to me the most in this essay were his comments on experience. People nowadays often get so caught up in memorizing facts and simply learning to regurgitate someone else's work, that, like Emerson said, there is "very little time to entertain a hope and an insight which becomes the light of our life."

As I still consider myself new to the whole college experience, this idea that I am now expected to create my own insights that can not only be shared with, but possibly be entirely new to my peers, my professors, and now even the rest of the web, is somewhat daunting. It wasn't more than a year ago when I was in high school was reading through and citing articles written by college students with roughly the same education I have now. 

I guess the time of preparation and routine is nearing its end.

A Brief Introduction

Aside from being fortunate enough to travel all over the world, I have lived in the same house in Provo, Utah my entire life. I graduated with the class of 2010 from an unusually small high school, where I got to experience every end of the spectrum: student government, drama, math contests, and four different sports (yes, it was a four-sided spectrum).

I'm still making up my mind as far as my major goes, but so far Computer Engineering seems to be the best for me. Now I'm just getting a few more credits in before I leave in January on my two year LDS mission to Maceió Brazil.