School Life: Fighting

In this chapter of The Selfish Gene Dawkins explains the different temperaments of aggression. This definitely has been the best chapter I have read so far because I could make a direct and concrete connection between the chapter and my life at school. Dawkins explains the five strategies of aggression that can be seen in nature, each of them with its advantages and disadvantages. There are five different temperaments: 

1. "The Hawk" The ones that never give up and will always try to win no matter what.

2."The Dove" The wimps or smart ones who will run away so that they don't get hurt.

3. "The Retaliator" Their level of aggression depends on his opponents'.

4. "The Bully" Very tough until they receive the first hit.

5. " Prober-Retaliator" Tries different strategies depending on the response of his opponent.

I can say that I have seen every one of these behaviors in school, The Hawks are the tough guys that are always trying to fight and are very stubborn. They believe that everyone is going against him and are very aggressive. The Doves may be the smart ones that don't want to get into trouble or the wimps that won't stand up for themselves. The Retaliators are the ones that will fight back if fought with or will be pacific if their opponent is not threatening. The Bullies which are the most common are the ones who have their ego in the skies that think that they can beat up anyone but that in reality are a bunch of losers that will run away after they receive the first hit. The Prober-Retaliator are those who change their fighting strategies as they see their opponents strengths and weaknesses. All this behaviors have their advantages and disadvantages and people that can see what kind of aggressor is their opponent will have a head start. In the school life you must be aware of any threat and walk with your friends so that other aggressors wont find that easy to get on you.

Are We Ready?

In the fourth chapter of The Selfish Gene, Dawkins talks about something that has haunted me all my life. I have forever been scared of death and its mystery. We will never know in what conditions we are going to die so we will never be ready for it. Dawkins uses the analogy of a computer chess game as the "Gene Machine." The programmer installs the game and gives the computer bascic information but not the best move to any situation because there are infinite combinations of moves and it is impossible to have the best solution for each."the number of possible solutions in chess is so great that the world would come to an end before the list had been completed." (52) In this analogy Dawkins explains how the genes of survival machines have basic information that will make them prepare for any problem but they will not be 100% ready because there are so many different variables it is impossible to be ready for all. Again I came up to the conclusion that we will never be ready for our death and it is impossible to prevent death with a 100% confidence. Human life is so fragile and exposed to danger that it is up to us to take the necessary preventions because although our genes may be ready for some problems we are prone to many others.

Our Common Ancestors

In this chapter of The Selfish Gene I came back to something that I had studied in biology last semester, common ancestry. There are 6 kingdoms in taxonomy and each of this are very different from the others. The thing that makes us similar are our building blocks, the building blocks of nature DNA. Every organism on earth  started as the replication of DNA. We all have DNA from the simplest bacteria to humans we all have this building blocks in our systems. This idea of every organism in earth has DNA is a key to the idea of common ancestry. It is huge to think that since the origins of life, living organisms have had DNA, and we about 14 billion years later we are still made up of DNA molecules. This shows the relationship that every organism that has lived on the planet. It shows how the theory of common ancestry is true. If every organism now has DNA molecules in it so this means that once every organism on earth was the same and due to evolution and exposure to different habitats they diversified. Loosing some characteristics but keeping the most important feature, the key to life which is DNA. 

We Fall, And We Stand Up Again

One of the topics that really caught my attention in the second chapter of The Selfish Gene was when Dawkins explains that nothing is perfect. Sometimes thanks to religion people tend to think is that creation was perfect. That species are perfect the way they are and that every aspect of the creation happened because God meant it to be like that. What Dawkins explains is that most of the events that happened concerning the species in evolution was like a trial and error project. If there is something we learn in our school life is to learn from our mistakes, and that even the best project or work we do can be better. Every time we humans embark ourselves in journeys we tend to believe that everything we do is perfect but really nothing is perfect. It is important for us humans to believe that we are doing things the closest to perfect we can and part of this is due to competition. In evolution and every day live species compete to be the best and during this process some may cease to live and others will pass their genes to the next generation. Even the smallest choice an organism makes may affect totally its future. We must definitely learn from our mistakes and every time we fall stand back up always looking to our future and never backing down.

The Man Machine

The first chapter of The Selfish Gene I came up with a connection between this book and Slaughterhouse-five. I realized both books tend to say that humans, are machines. In this book, Dawkins says that we are machines ruled by our selfish genes.As for Slaughterhouse-five the Tralfamadorians say we are machines. This is a theme that makes me think about it, I cant imagine us humans being machines, we create machines and we use them but why do they say were are machines? I cannot think of us humans acting like machines, doing what we are programmed to because we are so different from one another. How do we know that what we are doing is meant to be? It is almost impossible to believe that the man machine is a possibility. Then if this is true, were is the concept of free will, the concept of nurture vs. nature? If we humans were machines how can you explain all the differences in cultures believes and ideas that move around our minds? I would say that we humans are not born with every aspect of our life decided, like machines are.  They are created for a reason, they are meant to work in someway and it is like that for the rest of their existence. As for humans, we have the option of forging our future, of deciding what is good and bad for us. Like Jean-Paul Sartre shows in his works humans are condemned to be free. We make our lives as we live them, every decision is a step into our destiny, we can take the correct choice or the wrong one and it is up to us. There is no instruction manual that tells us what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong we have the complete freedom of walking into life. It is our actions and our choices what makes us what we are. It is true that we are born with certain characteristics that will come up as important factors in our lives but the choices we make are far stronger in the forging of our future than the characteristics we are born with.

What Is Really Ours?

Reading the 10-15 aphorism of Epictetus' The Handbook the theme that I was more interested in was when he talks about loosing your most important "attachments" for ever. I have always heard old people say children are borrowed. They nurture us raise us and then see us go. This is what Epictetus wants to say. People when they loose someone should say, "I gave them back," instead of "I Lost them." People don't own their relatives they were put in their ways so that they could have a pleasant life with good people but they weren't supposed to be owned by whom they appeared for. This reminds me also about the saying, you ' know what you have until you loose it, I have always realized that people are so greedy, instead of giving thanks for having met someone that hanged their life in a good way they cry and question God for having taken them away. They don't realize that they should thank him for giving them the opportunity of meeting someone like the one that died. Instead of saying why did you took him away, people should say thanks for giving me the pleasure of meeting him. In reality nothing is really yours instead of your body and your mind. People now have lost total importance of feelings and morality and the only thing they care now, is about the materialistic goods.

Beautiful Flaws

In the second 5 aphorism of Epictetus' The Handbook the speaker tries to show how he doesn't agree with society. I see how he wants to express people's envy. Humans are always trying to be better than the other, and this is what has brought so many world conflicts. I t is normal to have competence but once someone just tries to get everything better than the other only for satisfaction instead of need they are doing bad. People always try to have more money, to control more land, to have more businesses than their enemies and even friends. It is norma to say I am good for example but when people gives importance to their material goods it is not good. Epictetus show how societies flaws are seen everywhere. I also connect this with Slaughterhouse-five were he shows the decadence of society. Now a days, humans have stopped caring about living live in a fair manner, having just what they need and giving away to the most needed, and now only care of having the best car the biggest house the new cell phone. It is all based on materialistic goods. These goods really give nothing to help the humans life and are replacing feelings and emotions.

Human's Free Will

After reading the first 5 aphorism from the Epictetus' The Handbook I realized what we humans believe we have free will to choose are not all true. I connected this with Jean-Paul Sartre's work on existentialism were he talks that men have the freedom to chose what they are going to be and how they would get to that place. I know that a human has the freedom of becoming who he wants but as Epictetus says, some things are not up to us. Most of the time society decides many factors of our lives. People living in the higher classes can choose to become a business man or a lawyer but as soon as they say they want to become bus drivers society will act on them. They know they wont be accepted and wont be seen as  the same person once they become bus drivers so they decide not to be. If i have learned something over my life is that society has almost every aspect of our lives controlled. If someone gets out of the status quo, somebody will try to stop them. The actual range of human free will is very short not many options are available for us to choose.

"Poo-tee-weet?"

"There was only one vehicle, an abandoned wagon drawn by two horses. The wagon was green and coffin-shaped. Birds were talking. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim,"Poo-tee-weet?"(215) Billy Pilgrim's story ended in an earthling way, his life will go on but we will not hear of him ever again. The story ended in some extent happy for Billy, the idea of the green coffin-shaped wagon represents his happiest moment and the bird taking to Billy is like a symbol for peace. Birds don't sing in wars, the image of the bird talking to Billy as the last phrase in the novel ends the book peacefully and calmly. It is like saying after all the time traveling all the adventures and the dangerous moments Billy finally came out safely from war. We knew he was going to survive war though but it gives us like the satisfaction you get when you finish a long race. This image also leaves us like with intrigue to know what happens after, if Billy meets Vonnegut and O'Hare.

 "I was there. O'Hare was there."(212) Again I get to the conclusion that Billy Pilgrim was just a character Vonnegut invented to show war as he saw it but also to incorporate fiction into the book. Billy Pilgrim lived many of the things Vonnegut lived in the war and so they had to be in some of the places Vonnegut passed through together. Vonnegut survived Dresden bombing, Billy survived Dresden Bombing, they are one of the few fortunate people that could do this. They are connected they are the same person one is the writer and the other one is "Dante the Pilgrim".

I liked the book its level of thinking is very complex it opened my mind to the 4th dimension. I liked the novel because it was like reading various stories at the same time that would connect at the end. I still had many questions like why Tralfamadorians, literally what does Kilgore Trout represent.  Why does Vonnegut include nonlinear time in the book?

Sad happy moments

"If this sort of selectivity had been possible for Billy, he might have chosen as his happiest moment his sun-drenched snooze in the back of the wagon." (195)  Billy's happiest moment in his life is so sad. I cant believe of all he has lived this moment as his happiest. It s kind of melancholic to think that Billy's life has been so miserable, with so little emption that his happiest moments are very simple. If anyone else heard this moment they would not even think it is the favorite moment in ones life. Billy Pilgrim has a very hard life because he knows everything that will happen, good or bad, and can't do anything to prevent it. He sees all evil and he cant do anything about it. His life is dull, it has no surprises because he always knows what is going to happen and he is not scared either because he will know what bad things will happen to him so he can have some time to be mentally prepared. In this chapter I found out that Billy's life is so hard nobody would understand him so his secret is kept and accumulated each time more deep inside him. He is lonely in this planet, he basically doesn't have anybody with whom he can talk to.

 Is Kurt Vonnegut also represented by Kilgore Trout. Billy goes to a book shop and one of the stories the books have are the story of two earthlings that would taken to the zoo in Tralfamadoria. He also talks about 4th dimension and life and death,"So it goes," Vonnegut represents himself in many characters in the book, maybe because he wants to show his life at war from different perspectives. These characters all represent the different stages Billy lived when he was in the war. Mabe all the characters that in some way, are simmilar to Vonnegut together are what he really was in  the war.

A memory you can't erase

"He had supposed for years that he had no secrets from himself. Here was proof that he had a great big secret somewhere inside, and he could not imagine what it was."(173) It was time at last for Billy to reveal he had a problem. Since the beginning of the book we can see that Billy is strongly affected by war but for the first time we see that deep inside him he is sad and he has a huge secret that he has not even revealed to himself. Billy cant talk to anyone not even his wife or his daughter because he knows that they won't believe him or think he is crazy. Billy's problems are far from the understanding of an earthling. I think he can sought peace by talking to a Tralfamadorian rather than a human because at least they can understand without him having to explain so much but by looking at his whole life at once. Billy's problem is so complicated that maybe his subconscious has hidden it inside himself so that he is not worried or preoccupied with it. His life has been so tough so many close people to him have died and he knew when they were gig to die but he couldn't do anything. Billy maybe thinks he has so much pressure and thinks that nobody has the power to help him has stored all his problems inside him and he couldn't do this more, he collapsed. This is the first time when I see Billy sad and worried it seems as if he doesn't know what will happen next or what he feels. Billy Pilgrim is not a machine.

Billy so mysterious

"He knew it was going to crash, but he didn't want to make a fool of himself by saying so."(154)  Billy now understands how things really are. He seems he is close to understanding everything tralfamadorians say. His time traveling makes him understand how he should ask and that even if he told the people in the airplane that the plane was going to crash they probably would stay in the plane and die or die afterwords because it was supposed to be like that. The people in that crash were supposed to die. "So it goes." Every time somebody dies in the book Billy says so it goes because he know that even-though at that moment they are dead they live in many other moments. I think that we humans should see death this way because although people cease to exist, they are saved in our memories by all those moments we lived together with them. What really intrigues me is why billy survives the multiple death experiences he faces and why he doesn't die. I know that according to the book he will die when he is supposed to but then why does he faces death so many times. It is as if he was so close to death but not close enough. If he is not supposed to die why does so many bad things happen to him. Billy is very strange and mysterious. It is as if he had fate against him, but at the same time by his side. In this book so many people die that are very close to Billy, living the same things he lives but he keeps on his journey while they die on his path. I feel bad for Billy war is not a pace for somebody like him. He seems so weak. His pink toga, his silver boots his long beard, all this makes me imagine billy as vulnerable poor guy. He seems so weak but I think he does this because he knows that he is not meant to die at war.He doesn't care if what he does is dangerous or not.

War is fought by brothers

"I, Billy Pilgrim, the tape begins, will die, have died,and always will die on February thirteenth , 1976."(141)This chapter made me think how Billy really sees his life. How can you feel if you knew when and how are you going to always die. Would it be worth it or would it be too depressing? I don't know how Billy really sees his life, he knows it all, so he is never surprised. How can you feel for example, the day before you know you are going to die. Not even a day, a year, how would you live the year of your death, would you do everything you didn't do before or would you spend your last days sitting on your bed regretting not doing all you wanted. I think this is a very hard question. Billy is emotionless his life must be all normal for him. All he does he has done it before so it must be boring. On the other side it is cool to know that even if you die you will keep on living in other moments. You will never actually be really dead and Billy knows this.

Another thing that came to my head after reading this chapter was the idea that wars are fought by brothers."There was nothing to be afraid of. Here were more crippled human beings, more fools like themselves."(150) When people see wars they see two or more sides fighting with each-other, defending a flag and honoring their uniforms. But they don't see further than this, beneath those camouflaged jackets and those cargo pants there are all humans trying to survive. In this chapter Billy and another 100 americans arrive at Dresden. Were they realize they are equal to the German soldiers that are supposed to watch them. In most wars the people that fight don't do it because they really love killing people but because they are forced to. We are all equal and by writing this antiwar book Vonnegut wants to show that wars are not good that they will not change the world into a better place, as many people think. Wars are fought by brothers, soldiers are only distinguished by their uniforms and the language they speak but aside from this they are not different.

Is Destiny Written?

"He always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way." (117) One of the main motifs in the book, I have seen, is destiny. The Tralfamadorians know when everything is going to happen they know exactly what will happen and they do nothing to change it. Humans' idea of free will actually says that you can write your own future that you decide what to do and what no to do. According to the tralfamadorians and the 4th dimension it is all written, everything that happens was supposed to happen you cant change or overwrite it. Your life since the moment you are born already takes a path and there is no way you can stray from it. Billy Pilgrim has the possibility of going to any part if his life and knowing what is going to happen and he does not try to change it because he knows anything he tries to do is what is supposed to do. This is a very complex level of thoughts, it is incredible to believe that anything you do is because was written that way. We wont discover if this is or isn't true but maybe it is and it means we are really machines as the tralfamadorians say.  They know how the Universe will end and when will this happen and they don't try to stop it as Billy asks because it is meant to end that time that way.

"That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book."(125) A question I thought I wouldn't be able to answer until the end of the book was if Kurt Vonnegut would ever appear in the book, was answered in this chapter.  I knew for sure that Billy Pilgrim was not Vonnegut but I knew in some point he was going to mention himself in the story. In this chapter Billy meet Vonnegut in the latrine were all americans were sick and had excreted in buckets all they ate that night. Vonnegut says to Billy he had excreted everything except his brains and then he said he did. Billy is a character Vonnegut invented that passes to many of the adventures Vonnegut passed in war and sees them much like he did and in this chapter Vonnegut wants to show that Billy lived some things he did, but that they are not the same person.