What Do You Think?

Yeah, Honestly, What Do I Think?

I'm never really given any thought-provoking questions at all and when I am, I'm always afraid that my beliefs are very strange. They're usually not the norm or they aren't for the same reasons as everyone else. I was given the chance in class to discuss fifteen thought-provoking statements and tell whether I agreed or disagreed with them within my group. Of course, none of them really did and there's a few in here that make you think, "Wow, this chick is cold-hearted." I don't care. Everyone has opinions, but whether they can back it up or not is different.  Today's post will give you a bit of elaboration and may be a bit long, but just know I had a really fun time typing this and it's been the first post I've made in a really long time and I hope to make more posts like this soon. Thank you.

*************************************************************

Life is Fair

Disagree:

I will never forget the ending to the theme song of Malcolm in the Middle. "Life is unfair." No doubt, it really is. I guess it's really just perspective though and I can tell why many people would agree with this statement, but then again this is why many people can disagree with the statement, too. It all really has to do with the type of life you are living. I wouldn't say my life is unfair, but of course there are times when I'd say, "Well, I don't think that's fair" but I don't do anything about it, because there's nothing I can do. Don't you think that sense of being unable to change things makes life so bittersweet. When I was looking at this statement I thought of all the people who never received justice for their bad actions or the people who aren't acknowledged for their talent or good deeds. Imagine being Claudette Colvin and having Rosa Parks do the exact same thing you did on purpose. Rosa Parks stole from Claudette Colvin. Why? Because she was a teen, so who would take her seriously. Does that seem fair? The person who deserves credit doesn't receive credit. That's not fair. Then look at the people who aren't arrested for committing a murder and the family who has to grieve over the death of their loved one without justice being served. Again, not fair. People who are born into past dysfunctional, but mentally traumatizing families and don't receive support. Not fair, at least perspective wise. I doubt this person would ever feel like their life is fair. It's a dirty feeling looking at people who have a great life, but are the worst people and seeing the most kind-hearted person have to live through some of the most horrible experiences. That will never be fair. It doesn't seem right. And that's why I say life isn't fair. Life is what it is and it'll always end in death for us all, but that doesn't mean it's fair.

Words Can Hurt

Disagree:

Do I look like an insensitive prick? Yeah, probably. At one point in my life, I thought words were the most horrible thing. That you should never tell anybody anything bad, because you don't know how that person will feel about it. I know that even now, words are pretty strong and the consequence of using the wrong words against someone can end in bad results. Yes, kids who are verbally abused by others at school can kill themselves or kill those in the school. So you can see that words do affect others, but I've basically made it to a point in my life where I see that if you let something like a word take control of your life that it's just going to hurt you more. You can't give so much power to something so little, especially if you are bullied, because you are just giving more power to the bully to hurt you more in such a subtle way. Sure, someone can physically hurt you, but verbally hurting you when you look at words from that perspective, it's insanity. Now, I see words as these beautiful things. If you take them as they are, mere words, you see how silly others are for trying to use them against you. It really depends on your mental state though. If anyone tries saying something mean to me, I usually laugh it up or make a joke of my own. I don't think anything of it. I think if more people looked at words from that perspective they wouldn't give them so much power, because that's all they are words. I do understand how bullied kids feel, I know people who have been bullied, but I tell them the same thing. After a while I started seeing that people trying to hurt you usually use bad words and little words, nothing with real power! When you look at it like that you think, "Wow, this person is pretty stupid and isn't even saying anything remotely true about me." In 7th grade, this teacher hated me and he called me a "slacker" and to this day that's the only time I ever let a word affect me. I hated the word "slacker." But then I look back at this teacher, he was a "wannabe musician who never fulfilled his dreams, so he became a teacher instead." That's what I always characterized him to be. How could him calling me a "slacker" hurt me so much, when he was probably living the life he never wanted. I use those words of hate to motivate me. They can't hurt me, they just make me stronger. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." That really should be installed in kids at a young age. If kids realize that words don't hurt, no one is really going to take anything seriously unless they have to and kids won't really use words as a form of humiliation, because they'll already know that words are just words. If you are going to let words have power though at least keep in mind that "haters are gonna hate." You have to use something positive to balance out the negative.

Police are your friends.

Agree:

Well, the teacher said we couldn't put sometimes agree/sometimes disagree. I've actually had to do something police related (and I really can't disclose why. Sorry. Maybe one day.), and I was really mad about it. I thought they were being so mean to me and that it was pointless for that to have ever happened. I thought it was a complete overreaction, but it wasn't. They were just doing what they had to do to protect more people. I'm just one person and they're trying to save many. You know sometimes they look pretty bad in the news for shooting someone unsuspectingly (of course, it always ends up being a race thing and I really do wish people would look past that). Someone I'm related to works for them (not as a cop though) and they've said that, "It's not a job everyone can really do. You have to be really grateful there are people who will risk their lives for you, because not everyone will. They have to think very rationally and have to think of all the possible scenarios." So it's tough for them. I'm sure they don't want to shoot anyone, but they may have to. Plus, there is a very fine line between someone having to make a serious decision and someone shooting just because they think they have the right to do so. In the end, the people who do the latter are just abusing their power, but that's not all of them so you can't say they aren't your friends based on what you think you know.

What goes around comes around.

Agree:

Karma basically. I mean if you're going to do something mean expect it to happen to you, too, eventually. You're probably thinking, "But what about people who get away with murder?" Well, from a religious view, in the end when you die, you'll be judged by god and going to hell will be your punishment for murder. Of course, looking at it from a non-religious view, wouldn't it be really ironic if a murderer was murdered? That kind of thing happens. I feel as if the guilt might eat you alive before that, though. This doesn't have to be all bad stuff, though. I think this is really just a universal message to be nicer to everyone around you. The world would be a better place if people realized that. Just a nice little thing to tell any of you who work in food, please don't ever do something to someone's food, that could be you. =) Just be nicer is all I'm saying.

How you act in a crisis shows who you really are.

Disagree:

"But Lovely, this is something you would totally agree with!" No, not really. I think during times of crisis everyone's just really scared and they panic in unknown ways. I have no idea how I would act in a crisis, but I feel as though I'd be sad and crying ALL the time. Is that the pent up tears I never cry, because I believe I'm inside of a fantasy happy world? Perhaps, that might be someone else's thoughts, but I feel as if I did act that way it's really just because I don't know what else to do. People get angry, people become needy, people become these heroic figures. They became total opposites. I think it must be an unbalance in chemicals. Something must go off in your brain like, "Hey, we're stuck in a bad situation that might not get resolved for a long time. What do we do?" I'm sure during WWII people got really greedy with their food rations. Do you think that's how they really are? I think it's just the psychological aspect of "Oh my gosh, what is going on? This is horrible! I can't do anything about this. I have to stay alive." How can you really decide how you act during a time like that? You can't. I mean can you ever really. You might be fake, but did you really decide, "Hey, I think I'm going to be fake!" No, you kind of just decide, "I should do what everyone else is doing." It has nothing to do with thinking about it, so you're just acting as the days go by. The same thing should apply in a time of crisis. It shouldn't change.

Love conquers all.

Disagree:

I feel like I'm so biased right here. I'm very romantic, but none of my romantic pursuits ever seem to work out. It kind of bums me out even though I'm just a teen. You're thinking, well you'll find someone. I really don't believe I will and I'm fine with that. All love ends in misery anyways. Even if you truly love someone and they love you back, if they die, don't you think that'd be miserable?! In any case, that's not the point right now. The point is love does not conquer all. Now if you're like me, totally done with love, then you'll see that you don't need it to be happy. My mom tells me right now that that will change, but I think real love comes from experience. I want to travel,try new things, learn, make new friends, do the things I like. I think that's real love. Things that have nothing to do with love can make you happy. You don't need love to make you happy. It's not the most important thing in the world. Happiness is. Of course, now I think I was totally taking that quote out of perspective and I think it has to do with love defeating everything (but still, I think my first point makes a lot of sense right!). Look, sure having love is great, but is love going to get rid of all your problems. Maybe for a brief moment you can remember the things you love, but I feel like it can't fully get rid of your problems. It'll always be lingering in your mind and just because you think you have love, doesn't mean the love can do anything. "My love has saved me from a bullet." No. Love did not conquer in that situation. Of course, now if the person you love saved me, perhaps, but wow, don't you think you'd be devastated, therefore, resulting in a broken heart.

An eye for an eye...

Disagree:

I'm sorry, but this will never be right. I get that someone may have done something wrong to you, but that doesn't mean that you get to do the same back to them. For example, if some girl steals your boyfriend, does that mean you have the right to steal her next boyfriend? NO! If you lend your friend a movie and they never give it back, does it mean you get to keep one of their movies, too? NO! If somebody texts and drives on the phone and kills your child, does that mean you get to kill their child? NO!!!!! Not everything requires you to do the same thing to someone. I don't know if it's just because I'm nice, but let's take a situation in my life. A friend of mine is sometimes really annoying and doesn't shut up about some things sometimes. Sure, a minimal situation. How bad could it be? It can be. I mean I'm used to it now, but you know it's not always the coolest thing to have to endure. Does that mean I'm going to purposely annoy her, because she does it? No. That's not right. You shouldn't do things with the purpose to do what someone else did just because it bothers you or was what you considered bad.

People learn from their mistakes

Disagree:

I actually wanted to put sometimes agree/sometimes disagree, because some people genuinely do learn from their mistakes and try to make themselves better because of it. When answering this question I thought of all the people who keep making the same mistake. If you can't learn from the first few times (because keep in mind, some people are forgetful), have you really learned anything? Are you even going to change your ways? If someone steals and goes to jail and after being in jail hates it, but decides to steal again, has that person learned? Not at all. It's stuff like that that makes you wonder, well, do you even consider what you did a mistake or was it just funny to you? That kind of thing annoys me. Now, if you stand behind doing something and know you aren't going to change your ways, that's different. Sure, stealing is bad, but if this person knows and is okay with suffering the consequences, then let them be I suppose. In fact, I have a very good anecdote that connects to this. At my school, we call home whenever we forget to do something the teacher asked us to do or if we are doing something the teacher has told us NOT to do. I remember I had to call home for the first time, because I didn't bring a binder for that specific class. Do you think I forgot to bring it to the next class? No. Of course I didn't. I learned. Then there were others who had forgotten materials as well, but did they bring their stuff the next class. No, they didn't. Even with the consequence of having to call home, they didn't bring their stuff and had to endure that horrible call. They obviously didn't learn. I'd say most people are like this, so yes, I definitely don't agree people learn from their mistakes or else they wouldn't continue to make them.

You can't depend on anyone else; you can only depend on yourself

Agree:

There are going to be times when you have NOBODY and I mean NOBODY at all. What are you going to do? Who can help you? Only yourself. Ultimately, you're the only person who can help yourself. You can't depend on others to help you out always. You can depend on others at times, but does that mean always? Definitely not. There are various decisions you and only you can make and there are situations no one is going to want to help you out of, so you really have to come to terms with yourself and try to understand who you really are inside to know what's best for you. No one else can do this for you.

If you smile long enough, you become happy

Disagree:

You know I wasn't really sure about this one. I don't smile a lot, well, I do, but when I'm alone, no not really. I feel like it connects to me and the fantasy world I live in. All I want is happiness and somehow everything seems right to me now. I've never felt more in touch with myself than ever before and for that I'm very happy. I don't try to be any other emotion. Things may make me sad or mad, but I don't let it take me to the point of extreme anger or depression. I just think about how I feel on the subject, again looking back to the statement above about depending on yourself. That's what I'm doing right now. I'm not looking for other people to guide me, I really just want to guide myself right now and get to know myself better. I'm sorry, this is very off topic, but that's why I feel like maybe I'm being hypocritical for saying smiling even when you don't feel like it, doesn't make you happier. I still stand behind it. No, smiling doesn't make you happy. Scientists did a study on it though, right? That if you do fake smile it can make you happier. It can't possibly have an affect on you forever though. It might last a little. I think maybe with the same, "I'm happy" mentality mixed with the fake smile it could possibly make you happier, but if your sad and pretending to smile so no one asks you why you're sad, then I don't think you become happier. It's still in your mind, you're just doing a good job of hiding it.

Miracles do happen

Agree:

Oh, of course I believe in miracles! =D I think they happen everyday and for everyone. I mean the fact that you might have such luck in something as little as forgetting to staple something at home and your friend, who never brings a stapler, somehow decided to bring a stapler today. THAT'S A MIRACLE. It doesn't matter how small and insignificant it can be, when something you didn't expect to happen happened and made you feel like the happiest person then you've enjoyed a nice little miracle. Isn't it a miracle, when people somehow live past the expected time they were supposed to die?! Of course it is! And that is why I believe in miracles.

There is one special person for everyone

Agree:

Haha, a bit cheesy, but yeah. I think that special person is out there for everyone. Everyone has a soul mate. Sure, you might think, "Wow people go through with the shittiest relationships," but doesn't that ever make you wonder that the person you're meant to be with is somewhere across the world and that you may never get the chance to meet them. It sucks, but I think that's the truth. There's someone out there who was made for you and I really don't care how unrealistically optimistic that is. I'm a romantic and that is why I put so much happiness into the thought of love...for others! Haha, I know I'm going off, but you know how I said that I'm done with love. Well, I am, but you know, if I ever did meet "the one" and I knew he was "the one" I would love them forever with all my heart and soul and make sure that we'd always be happy and have a great time. It's just what I'd love to do, but if you're wondering about those people who die alone, well you know what I think. I think the special person doesn't necessarily have to be a love interest at all. They can be your best friend or a family member you are close to or something like that. I think it's inevitable you'll meet someone who you make an instant and long-lasting connection with.

Money can't buy happiness.

Disagree:

I'm sorry, but it's true. Look, I mean just living is a cost. And if you're living, you'll want to do things that make you happy, so that's a cost. "But what about the things that don't cost money at all like going to the park?" Sure, you might not be paying money to go, but you are, I mean you aren't going to the park naked are you? You need clothes/shoes to go. That's a cost. You might have to drive to the park. Gas is a cost. Your car taking you to the park is a cost. So yes, you do have to pay to go to the park. But let's pretend that stuff didn't happen. For the city to make that park, they had to use money to give you that happiness. It may not have come from your pocket, but it still involved money. "Well, what about love!" I love the song "Can't Buy Me Love" by The Beatles, but sadly, I don't agree. No, dates cost money, presents cost money, I mean texting/calling your significant other costs money. So, yeah, love costs money, too. Anything that brings you happiness requires you to pay or someone else to pay. It doesn't matter. Money buys happiness. Sorry. =/

Killing is wrong.

Agree:

No, duh, it's wrong! OK, so another student in my group brought up the point that you could be killing in self-defense, but you know what, can you really consider that killing? I mean she said it herself, it's self-defense! I feel like that's just so different compared to just killing someone. I don't know. Even killing out of self-defense, I feel like I'd feel so bad about it afterwards. I'd feel so freaked out that I did that to someone else, so yeah, nothing will really change my mind about killing being wrong.

Doing what's right means obeying the law.

Disagree:

Not necessarily. Ratting someone out because they are doing something illegal is not always the right thing. What if they have good reason to do it? You just ruined someone's life. And then just because you break the law, doesn't mean you aren't doing the right thing. Bringing attention to something by infiltrating their headquarters or whatever you know like John Snowden did (omg, I feel like I'm not very educated about this. I remember when this happened, but lol, I feel like I'm saying something stupid) is not a bad thing. He may have done something illegal, but you know what it brought attention to what the NSA was doing and that's better than being unaware of it. So do you see my point? Sure, obeying the law is the right thing at times, but sometimes you can't because it can help out someone or bring awareness to something, therefore, that would be doing the right thing even if by law, it's considered the wrong thing.

*************************************************************

Thank you for reading. Leave comments below and tell me your thoughts. Thanks again and please come back!~ ^_^