Is There Life on Mars?

I found it quite interseting that many people seemed to agree that a person’s childhood or upbringing affects one more than anything else.  I do think that the way someone is brought up greatly affects their outcome later in life, however I would also like to talk about the “nature” part.  Last year, in Ms. Blumenthal’s class, we had a mock trial, and for my “testimony,” I had used examples from Sigmund Freud’s glacier chart.  The glacier chart is divided into three different sections from top to bottom: ego, superego, and id.  Superego basically restricts people on commiting certain actions, because their society has taught them that it is wrong.  The most important one I want to bring up is id.  It is by far the biggest part of the human psyche, and it is one’s primal desires.  Perhaps some people’s ids are stronger than others, and the superego could quite possibly be non-existent.                               

As I sit down, here in the theater wing, with Lula, I realize that I have more to add into the whole ,”church and state” situation from our discussion in class.  I was remembering my classes from last year, and realized that my French class had a discussion about the educational system in France.  I recalled that we once learned about this system called, “Laicite” in France.  Basically, this means that no one in any public school can wear any symbol of a religion, i.e. the star of david, crucifix, or turbans.  It is not allowed at all, in fact, I believe that is illegal.  It’s quite interesting that this isn’t as controversial a topic in France, then it is in the U.S.

As I was going through the blogs, I clicked on Lula’s blog on evil and noticed we both had similar ideas of evil.  Lula  said, It was securing their place in heaven with their God, Allah.  But to America and President Bush their deed was evil.  President Bush once stated that the committers of these acts were, “evildoers.”  

This quote is about the hijackers of 9/11.  To most of the citizens in the U.S., we saw this act as evil, but those part of the Al-Qaeda saw it as a moment of nobility, to prove their loyalty to their god.  This is an example of subjective evil, in which some people disagree with what evil actually is.  Also, what interests me is that people’s egos, or faith sometimes get in the way to creat evil.  For example, Lula also used an example of the Hutus killing, and slaughtering the Tutsi in Rwanda.  There really wasn’t a good reason for this to have occrued.  It is a bit bizarre though, because the Hutus were considered to be physically “inferior” to the Tutsis.  But I guess the Hutus were so eager to get their revenge, that they went to the farthest factor to get it.

Honestly, I don’t think I can give evil a good definition, or can think of one symbol or idea that can represent it.  After all, evil is subjective, meaning that there are different opinions on what evil is.  For example, I, like many others believe that Hitler was almost like an embodiment of evil, after all, he did kill millions of people, and targeted anyone who was not an aryan.  However, there are people, though very few, who think that Hitler’s actions only made Germany a bigger and stronger empire.  Personally, I totally think Hitler was awful, but there was still are, or perhaps were quite a few who looked up to him, and followed his every instruction.                                         

In literature, a good example of evil Iago, in the play “Othello” by Shakespeare in the book.  Though Othello’s right hand and most trusted man, Iago plots for Othello to step down from his position as the moor in the Venetian state.  Iago’s plan was to accuse Othello’s wife, Desdemona, of being unfaithful to him with Cassio.  Eventually, Iago’s plan turns out somewhat successful, when Othello affixiates his wife in a dramatic scene.  Iago, in my opinion is a great example of evil.  He befriends Othello, only to betray him, and to use everything to his advantage. 

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