Urgh

[piplover]

My new class started on Monday, History of Psychology. It's interesting, but some of the people - gah! I'm all up for debates and philosophy, but some of the other students just get on my nerves. Today we had a lecture on free will, on whether or not it exists, which was actually really fascinating and made me think. However, one of the examples used was about a soldier in Iraq who had jumped on a grenade to save the lives of two of his buddies, and from there the discussion went downhill. Some of the things people said - I just wanted to clobber them! I kept my mouth shut when I started to get angry, because I know that people were just playing devil's advocate and seeing both sides of the story. Still, it was difficult to hear people talking about soldiers being selfish for doing what they did, or for sacrificing their lives in order to be heroes. It just - I guess it just rubbed me the wrong way. Oh, well.

It was a long day today. My mom decided on Tuesday that she was sick of storing everybody's stuff in her storage shed and so had a massive cleaning. I hadn't realized I had so much stuff, and I spent most of the day going through boxes and trying to find room for it all. Why was my stuff still in storage? Well, long story short, before I joined the Army I lived with my dad to help him out after his stroke. When he was able to take care of himself and steady again, I joined the Army and then was stationed in Korea for a year. I could only bring 500 pounds of stuff with me to Korea, which actually isn't a whole lot, so I had to leave a lot of stuff behind.

Three months before I came home, my dad decided he absolutely could not stay here a moment longer and moved to Florida. Without telling me, or giving me a chance to do anything, he packed all my stuff up and my mom was pretty much forced to keep it for me, since I was living in the barracks and didn't have room. That was in 2003. Five years later, we were finally able to get to my stuff, since it was in the very back of a very large storage shed with three other people's stuff in front of it. 20 boxes!!! I went through 20 boxes yesterday and today. I had forgotten I had a lot of the stuff, such as my porcelain dolls and all my knick knacks, but, oh, Gods, it was tiring.  I had to go through my closet and dresser to get rid of a lot of clothes to make room for the ones I just re-found.  So, the good news is I finally have all my jewelry, knick knacks, clothes  and books (oh, Gods, three boxes of books alone!  Yay!)  in one place again and can, you know, actually get to it.  Yay!  On the other hand - 20 boxes! 

So, yeah, that was my day.  I think I'm going to bed now. 

*Thunk*

Comments

[shirebound]

One of the things that makes LOTR so beloved and cherished, generation after generation, is the theme of free will.

[katakanadian.livejournal.com]

Can't speak for people in combat situations (or any real like-and-death situation) but I imagine there are endless reasons why people sacrifice themselves or run away and you can't always know which until it happens. I have imagined many different dire scenarios and made free will decisions on how I want to act but I don't pretend that I might not change my mind under stress. I figure I am more likely to act the right way if I have set up my frame of mind in advance.

I think it's even more important that we look at our daily lives and make decisions about whether we will sacrifice for the greater good or run away. Too many people make decisions to (excessively) protect themselves from a risk which is actually very small and in so doing they create greater risk for everyone else. e.g. running away to 'safety' of an SUV which is more likely to kill any impact victim outside the SUV and which increases climate change risks and energy insecurity. Although I hope I will never be in a bad accident, I willing put myself at moderate risk every day by cycling because it stands for simplicity, sustainability, and self-reliance. By sacrificing a little time every day I decrease harm risk to other commuters, fight climate change, and increase energy security.

[piplover.livejournal.com]

I agree. It was a fascinating discussion, about whether we do the things we do because we actually choose to our if we are just programmed to do them because we feel rewarded. Can't say I have my head completely wrapped around it, but thinking in terms of LoTR helps, lol.

[piplover.livejournal.com]

I agree. I feel that free will does exist, though some of our choices are based off of biological reasons. It was a fascinating discussion and really got me thinking about why we do certain things. Like you said, personal responsibility and choice making are hard to quantify, but it makes for some interesting and heated discussions.