"The greatest crimes in the world are not
committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s
people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages”
Banksy
People
always have the right to challenge the rules. I believe that this quote gets at
social awareness. It tells people that they should be thinking critically about
the rules. Some rules help a society function, while others are destructive to
society.
For this reason I both agree and disagree that following the rules is the most destructive course of action. It is true that many terrible things happen when people blindly follow destructive rules. For example, during the Holocaust the SS officers were following orders when they killed millions of Jews. Following the rules was a justification for their actions. If they had refused to follow their orders, then maybe the Holocaust would have never happened.
However, if people never follow the rules, the world would eventually descend into anarchy. I believe that people need rules to provide helpful order and prevent them from hurting each other. For example, if nobody followed the rules of the road, then cars would always be crashing into each other and people would die or get hurt unnecessarily.
In conclusion, I think that this quote compels people to understand the importance of questioning the rules in a healthy society
For this reason I both agree and disagree that following the rules is the most destructive course of action. It is true that many terrible things happen when people blindly follow destructive rules. For example, during the Holocaust the SS officers were following orders when they killed millions of Jews. Following the rules was a justification for their actions. If they had refused to follow their orders, then maybe the Holocaust would have never happened.
However, if people never follow the rules, the world would eventually descend into anarchy. I believe that people need rules to provide helpful order and prevent them from hurting each other. For example, if nobody followed the rules of the road, then cars would always be crashing into each other and people would die or get hurt unnecessarily.
In conclusion, I think that this quote compels people to understand the importance of questioning the rules in a healthy society
Yesterday,
I took a walking field trip with the Cabrera/Schwartz team. We went to Writerz
Blok, a place where people can legally do graffiti. Writerz Blok was formed by
a Muralist from Chicano Park whose job it was to round up kids on the street
and bring them to a safe place where they could tag walls without the dangers
of the street. About 10 years later, Writerz Blok has partnered with the Tony
Hawk Foundation and received various grants to improve their space. I liked the
whole concept of a legal graffiti space and was really excited to go. When I
went to Writerz Blok, I was surprised that it was so small and at how much
expert graffiti there was. The first thing I saw when I entered the property
was walls completely covered in giant, expert graffiti. As I kept walking, the
walls ended into a small skate park also covered in graffiti. After that, there
were other walls covered in graffiti by other kids and amateurs. This is where
I graffitied my stencil. It was really fun to be in a space where I could
legally graffiti my stencil and try some freehand. I enjoyed myself a lot there.
I was a little surprised at how similar spray painting is to drawing. Although
there are some obvious differences, many of the skills are transferrable. However,
one main difference is that, in order to get lots of detail, the art on a wall
had to be a lot bigger than art on a piece of paper. I think Writerz Blok was
an all-around great experience. I learned about how to tag walls in an artistic
way as well as learning some of the history of their space. It was a great
field trip that I will never forget.
Today
in humanities class we watched the news of the night before the Superbowl. There
were 10 stories that we watched. I picked two of them that stood out to me the
most.
The first report I deemed most important was about heroin usage in the United States. The report brings to light the current crisis that is affecting many teens and adults in a harmful way. The heroin abuse crisis is a public health issue. The report said that heroin use has doubled since 2007. According to a hospital in Pittsburg, 22 people died as a result of overdosing on heroin in the past 2 weeks. The recent death of the famous actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, by heroin overdose has highlighted the importance of this issue. This is such a pressing issue that the governor of Pennsylvania dedicated his whole state of the union address to the heroin crisis. He talked about the importance of facing the issue head on and combatting heroin usage in his state. I found this article especially important because it raised an issue that I did not really know about and made it clear how pressing it was.
The second report that I deemed most interesting was about new discoveries regarding child obesity. This report addressed eating healthy and feeding children healthy foods. According to a new study children can become more prone to obesity and accompanying diseases like diabetes if they eat unhealthily throughout their early childhood. I found this report interesting because I have known about the importance of healthy eating for a while. It is interesting to see a mainstream media source sharing findings that will help people to live more healthy lives. This article is linked to the current debate on healthcare reform. The ACA wants to invest more in preventative healthcare because the United States is spending millions of dollars on fixing diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
The first report I deemed most important was about heroin usage in the United States. The report brings to light the current crisis that is affecting many teens and adults in a harmful way. The heroin abuse crisis is a public health issue. The report said that heroin use has doubled since 2007. According to a hospital in Pittsburg, 22 people died as a result of overdosing on heroin in the past 2 weeks. The recent death of the famous actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, by heroin overdose has highlighted the importance of this issue. This is such a pressing issue that the governor of Pennsylvania dedicated his whole state of the union address to the heroin crisis. He talked about the importance of facing the issue head on and combatting heroin usage in his state. I found this article especially important because it raised an issue that I did not really know about and made it clear how pressing it was.
The second report that I deemed most interesting was about new discoveries regarding child obesity. This report addressed eating healthy and feeding children healthy foods. According to a new study children can become more prone to obesity and accompanying diseases like diabetes if they eat unhealthily throughout their early childhood. I found this report interesting because I have known about the importance of healthy eating for a while. It is interesting to see a mainstream media source sharing findings that will help people to live more healthy lives. This article is linked to the current debate on healthcare reform. The ACA wants to invest more in preventative healthcare because the United States is spending millions of dollars on fixing diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
Yesterday, I went with various other students from High Tech High to the 50th National Academy of Engineers national meeting in Irvine Valley College. The purpose of this annual event is to get high school and college students interested in a science and engineering field. Several engineers presented new engineering ideas about energy issues. I was very interested to hear the engineers present new ideas for energy efficiency such as, electric cars, microbial mining, biofuels and preventing global warming with aerosol. I liked how they were all related to solving contemporary issues that increasingly affect the planet. This meeting opened my eyes to how much I need to know in order to have the opportunity to make the world a better place. As I listened to the engineers, I recognized many of the ideas that they were talking about. However, I did not understand it to the same level of depth and detail that they did. their level of understanding enabled them to apply their knowledge in order to address the unknown. I realized that it takes lots of hard, focused work to be able to actively create solutions or possible solutions for modern world scientific issues. One of the presentations I will always remember was by an engineer talking about using microbes to produce harmless biofuel. The knowledge required to be able to do that was immense. I now know that if I want a similar type of career I will need to function at this level. This conference has motivated me to go beyond initial understanding to more in depth understanding so I can use my knowledge to solve big issues.