Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Political Powers?

Blog 3 - What Social / Moral Principles do you find compelling and why? How do these principles fit with the personal principles you identified in Blog 2? Do they conflict at all? Do you think you can live according to both? How will you go about doing so? i.e. Prioritize them? Adopt specific ones for specific contexts?


     I like the ideas of Libertarianism and Communism, but I don't feel that either could work in practice. Libertarianism (which would be great if people upheld a certain moral code) relies too much on the people involved not over stepping their bounds and by trying to punish them, we as a society would be limiting their own freedom which completely throws the idea of libertarianism out the window. 

     On the other side of the spectrum, I believe that communism sounds great in theory,  but could never be done on any sort of large scale community for a period of time. If we were not connected with new forms of travel and information sharing than it could possibly work in small, self sustained pockets, but past that, I don't believe that it is possible. I like the idea of everyone being equal and being on the same level, even those who currently don't fit into our society could find new hope and those who do not work would be made to.

     If we could figure out some form of compromise between the two, I believe that it would fit rather well into my own moral code. There wouldn't be much difference between my ideals of treating people well regardless of who they are and any form of  Libertarianism and Communism. 

     I think that I could live according to both of my "codes", but I would only uphold the law if I felt that it did not take away certain rights or go overboard in how it controlled everybody's' lives. As long as the demands were not totally unreasonable for the people to follow, than I could support either of the two ideas without too much complaint. My moral code and my spiritual beliefs however would come first. The Bible tells us to obey the law until it comes into conflict with God's Word, so that is what I would do. I would obey the law to a point, but I would not sacrifice my beliefs for it.






Also, this week I commented on Brittany's blog at http://brittbloom22.blogspot.com/.

Monday, February 27, 2012

How a Man Should Live.


Blog 2 - What personal principles did you adhere to before entering this course and where did they come from? Were they taught to you? Did you develop them on your own? How have our readings and discussions impacted those principles? Of the principles covered which are you drawn to the most and why?

            I have more or less lived my life by the “golden rule” that we hear so much about in elementary school— “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” I judge all of my actions based on how I would view the situation if I was a third party. If I would think that my actions were mean, rude, or simply careless, than I most likely will not do them. This changed slightly when I became a Christian in seventh grade, and my actions were soon filtered through a new lens, based on what I thought the Bible would say about a certain situation and how to act. This is not to say that being a Christian is defined by being a good person, if fact it is quite the opposite. You do good deeds because you are a Christian, not to become one. I will be the first to admit that I still make mistakes more often than I am proud of- Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.

 I learned to act like this from the people in my life: my sister, my pastor, and my parents. By following their examples and by judging their actions in the same way that I judge mine, I was able to develop my moral compass.  

As for which of our readings I have been drawn the most to, I would have to say our lesson on Aristotle. His beliefs that you must put the state of the public before your own self has strongly impacted my beliefs. Because of this, I strive to always consider what is best for the majority before worrying about myself. In my opinion, we need a political leader who can do this for us; one who stops giving the people what they want, and instead gives them what they need! Although this might not be a popular decision, in the long run, our nation would be better for it.




I'm commenting this week on  Luke DeMuro's blog at http://lukedemuro.blogspot.com/.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Is anyone out there?!!

So class starts tomorrow, and so far every blog which I looked at is empty and non have been customized, which begs the question: Has ANYONE in this class made a blog before??? Myspace, Tumblr, other social networking site...? Anything?

Welcome to my Blog!

Even though this is pretty new, I'll still try and update this every once in a while. Although mainly used for my Ethics class, I may or may not post some other stuff on here as well. If you want to get to know me a little better, look me up on Facebook, or (even better!) check my Tumblr at http://drowninginthebay.tumblr.com/. Talk to me, I'm a nice guy and would love to meet you. Enjoy.